Hockey, mental illness combine in first book

Date: 12/23/2010

Dec. 27, 2010

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Managing Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW -- Mike Maloni knew he wanted to be a writer by the time he was in fourth grade.

"It was the reading program at Talmadge School [in Spring-field]," he explained when asked what piqued his interest in the written word. "I signed up and started reading Matt Christopher [sports] novels."

But like so many writers, life took him on some twists and turns before he finally got to put his own thoughts on paper.

Unlike others, however, his twists and turns took him through the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.

Yet in the end, it was that detour that provided Maloni with the inspir-ation for his first novel, "Defense-man."

"It's a novel about college hockey at Boston University, where I graduated from," Maloni said. "The fun part, where players agonize over winning and losing."

It's also the story of two brothers, Steve Tomassini a gifted hockey player who almost made All-American and his older brother, Tony, a writer with a business degree who's been in and out of mental institutions since he was 22.

The book explores the themes of brotherhood, friendship, commitment, courage and fighting to put one's life back together, filtered through the lens of the game of hockey.

"I patterned [Tony] after myself, the ups and downs," said Maloni, who was diagnosed with mental illness the summer after he graduated from BU. Like his protagonist, he, too, was in his early 20s.

"[I was] living in Boston, working two jobs . how could I possibly be mentally ill?" Maloni said. "But after a period of time it dawned on me that the doctors were right, I wasn't following the treatment the way I was supposed to."

Part of his desire to write the book was to help destigmatize the way people who are suffering with mental illness look at themselves.

"You have to be kind-of responsible talking about it," Maloni said of the subject of mental illness. "People get scared [of the side effects] and won't take their meds."

"The medications have advanced so far since I was diagnosed [in 1994], unless I'm having a bad day, people don't know," he continued. "If a friend has a problem, or a son or a daughter [I want them to know] it's OK to seek treatment."

As for the hockey games that frame the story, Maloni, who had captained the town hockey team in East Longmeadow before knee surgery sidelined his sports career, said writing that part was easy.

"I had loads of fun watching college hockey," he said. "I told my parents some day [that] part of college would be useful, and it came out in the novel."

Maloni said it took him two and a half years to complete the 389-page novel, which he self-published. He just finished a second novel called "Shortstop," which is due out in the spring.

"'Shortstop' is a little over 1,400 pages. It took me about four and a half years," he said.

"Defenseman' is available for purchase online at sites such as: www.amazon.com; www.Amazon.UK.com; wwww.barnesandnoble.com;wwww.bamm.com; www.bol.com, www.lybrary.com, www.pagesebooks.com and www.cyberread.com.

"Defenseman" is also available for the Kindle.