THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

 The worlds we create are often shaped by the lives we have lived.

David McCann began writing In the Depths of a Man’s Mind more than a decade ago—twelve chapters committed to the page before life, as it tends to do, intervened.

The manuscript sat quietly while David spent his days in emergency departments across Queensland, caring for people at their most vulnerable and, sometimes, their most raw. Without knowing it, he was gathering something no writing course could teach: an understanding of human nature under pressure and the emotional truths that would eventually breathe life into the characters of Neleuwen.

The seed of the story came from a deceptively simple question. The long-debated idea that humans use only ten percent of their brain had been scientifically disproved—but it lodged in David's imagination and refused to leave. If that were true, what might be possible in the other ninety?

That question became a title. That title became a world.

In 2020, David's own brain unexpectedly became part of the story. A series of unexplained symptoms eventually led to the discovery of a pituitary tumour. Treatment and recovery followed, but so did something he hadn't expected: the return of a creative fire he hadn't realised was missing.

The manuscript he had set aside found him again.

David now refers to the tumour as a friend—not without irony, but with genuine gratitude for the lesson it carried. Life is short. Time answers to no one. He went back to the page.

In the Depths of a Man’s Mind, Book One of The Truant Series, was released in 2024. What began as a single story has since grown into something much larger: worlds, histories and stories connected through Resonance.

David writes from Brisbane, Queensland, with the conviction that the best stories are the ones that refuse to stay quiet.