In 2010, Keely attended the publishing program at the Denver Publishing Institute and then relocated to New York, where she lived for nearly five years. While there, she worked at Bloomsbury Publishing, Russell & Volkening Literary Agency, and Oxford University Press.
Kelly currently serves as as associate agent for WordServe Literary Group (www.wordserveliterary.com). She also works as a freelance editor and copyeditor for a variety of clients, publishers and agents. Visit her at: www.keelyboeving.com.
STRANGE JOURNEY
David Eutychus Walker, a recently
orphaned autistic thirteen-year-old and a chess savant living with his
clinically reticent uncle, only plays chess online where there is no personal
contact with his opponents. His favorite
adversary is a mysterious stranger who goes by the chess handle gringo666. At first, both players are in it only for the
game, not to make friends, but as their competition sharpens, they begin to
exchange text messages against the wishes of David's uncle.
Gringo666's fascination with David
heightens when he learns that David and his uncle plan to travel to Bolivia to
visit a scenic lake—Lake Titicaca—which the boy first sees in a photo from a
Bolivian girl and her mother, whom his late parents sponsored through a
charitable organization. David is not so
much interested in the girl, but is drawn by the beautiful, clear-blue lake. When they arrive in Bolivia, however, David
and his uncle find that they must not only deal with altitude sickness and
treacherous terrain, but also a hostile population and a sinister plot that may
explain why gringo666 has suddenly taken such a keen interest in the young
boy.
When David and his uncle are
mistakenly kidnapped, it becomes clear that their very survival depends on
aiding the Bolivian government in tracking down a political enemy who has taken
refuge in the United States. Pushed to the limits of their endurance, and their
lives, can David's knowledge of chess ultimately save him and his uncle from a
deadly fate and in the process force gringo666 to finally reveal his true
identity?
