Now, I've had blogs before. Some are still out there, but I've long forgotten about them, or don't remember the passwords or even the emails I used to sign up with. But I'll try to make this one last, mainly because I want to use this to promote my work as a writer, and I hope people will come here to see what I'm up to, and to read sample chapters of my novels and other work.
I will update this frequently.
My novels are out now on Smashwords. Here is my profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/davidthyssen
PAINTING BY NUMBERS
Years of humiliation in school and at home have finally caused fourteen year old Seth Mason to snap. High school didn't bring any change he had hoped for, the terrors of middle school years never stopped. His family is a joke, a beautiful facade of wealth and righteousness hiding a cesspool of dysfunction. His only ally, his grandmother, has died, and everyone else betrayed him. Not even the Nomans, the voices in his head, were ever really on his side. Sex couldn't satisfy him either because, as always, people only used him, which drained him emotionally. But it's all over now. He warned them after all. For more than a year he warned everyone in his blog, but no one listened. He knew one day he wouldn't take any of it anymore, and not even Alex, his psychiatrist who always made his hormones run wild, could have changed his mind. The hypnotherapy she insisted Seth should try only made things worse. It made him realize he didn't lose his innocence at age six like he always believed, when he found his mother in bed with a strange man while looking for his lost rabbit, but that all his life he had been living a lie. Now, besieged by police in his high school after killing numerous teachers and students, he reflects on the months leading up to his revenge, and prepares himself for the inevitable.
Rampant high school shootings still make headlines. But what drives a seemingly ordinary kid to walk into a school and shoot at other kids? Narrated by fourteen year old Seth Mason, PAINTING BY NUMBERS is the dark tale of the months leading up to his desperate act. Set in modern day America, this story takes the reader deep into the dark mind of a very disturbed teen.
ALL THAT YOU CAN LEAVE BEHIND
Imagine being stranded on a deserted island, with the birds and the trees as your only companion. To thirteen year old Sage, the Caribbean island he just moved to might as well be deserted. At the brink of adolescence, and away from the turmoil of his old life in southern California, he is now left to deal with a history of abuse. Invisible to his young mother, who seems to be more interested in partying and smoking weed with her boyfriend than in her teenage son, and devoid of any friends, his lonely world seems without escape.
After a failed suicide attempt he starts writing about his world in a blog, embarking on a courageous quest to find a meaning of life. On his path of self-discovery he is helped by an adult couple who show him a more stable, family life, and even offer him a home when things get bad. A passionate relationship with a girl he meets finally allows him to overcome some of the emotional scars of abuse, and propel him forward towards maturity. As he learns that he carries his own key to happiness inside, he slowly gains confidence in himself and in the world around him. Just as he believes to have finally found the love of his mother, she betrays him when she unfolds her plans to move to Colombia instead of going back to California, like she promised. When her boyfriend suddenly dies, Sage is once again left with a a life-deciding choice; stay on the island with the people he now considers his family, or go back home with his own mother. Ultimately, he discovers only he can turn his hate into love and that, in order to survive, he will have to leave his past behind.
More than a story of redemption, ALL THAT YOU CAN LEAVE BEHIND tells of the innate human drive for life and love, a quest for happiness on which all of us embark. This is an adult / YA crossover novel, that I first published as a 'reality blog' on Xanga.com in 2005, and which attracted 350.000+ views from visitors of all ages over a 7 month period.
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