A QUINNS Rocks resident will launch his first novel in Hillarys this weekend.
PJ Kelly first had the idea for the fictional moral thriller, The Good Teacher, which he published with eText Press Publishing.
He said it started with a realisation how much responsibility teachers had outside the classroom and explored what might happen if “a teacher decided to step outside the law to protect two children”.
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READ NOWKelly said changing from full-time work to working two days a week enabled him to research the theme by watching custody cases in the courts and speaking to government agencies such as Centrelink.
“It has been a lot of research,” he said.
“My wife let me go down to part-time; I’ve been doing this three days a week – that was the secret to getting it done.”
With a background in television commercials and children’s shows, Kelly said he had played with writing scripts before deciding to do the book.
“It appealed to me telling a story in that form,” he said.
Kelly said he was exploring options to put part of the book into a stage production or as a film.
The book launch will be on October 15 and Kelly will have a book signing at Dymocks in Joondalup on Saturday, November 25 from 11am-1pm.
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