In Paper Airplanes, Kelley Wear takes an unflinching dive through the looking glass of her own life, and tells a compelling story of endurance and triumph.
Jeff Arch
– Author of Attachments, Screenwriter for Sleepless in Seattle
Paper Airplanes is an unforgettable, riveting account of survival against all odds. Despite an emotionally impoverished childhood that leaves her initially with no will to live, Kelley Wear is buoyed by her connection with the compassion of the natural world. After many twists and turns that keep her readers thirsting for more, Wear recognizes the profound wisdom at the heart of her painful experiences. She is able to harness the vastness of her own life, ultimately becoming a compassionate community leader and surgeon.
Amy Ferris
– Author of Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis, Screenwriter, Editor and Playright
Synopsis of the book
Born to two wounded parents in Birmingham, Alabama at the height of the civil rights movement, Kelley is forced to navigate her childhood largely alone, deeply connecting with the natural world in order to survive. For the first half of her life, she wants to die. After surviving an overdose in a bathtub in 1986, she slowly develops her will to live.
The life of her younger brother, Maury, parallels her own misery as his homosexuality triggers ostracization by his peers and unresolved conflicts in her father, Bob. Despite overwhelming odds, Kelley realizes the indestructibility of her own heart once she learns to trust her life, leading to immeasurable joy. She becomes a surgeon and successful entrepreneur by navigating many of the same dynamics that previously almost destroyed her. Bob is riddled with guilt about Maury’s ultimate demise from AIDS when a letter appears from him ten years after his death offering forgiveness.
Paper Airplanes illustrates how vast compassion underlies appearances that are seemingly to the contrary. It demonstrates how we can take our deepest traumas and, like alchemists, transform them into unassailable spiritual power.
Paper Airplanes, A Memoir has been submitted for publication. I will keep you updated on the availability as more information is forthcoming.