Brush Fire and How I Finished My First Novella

Brush Fire is the first of many stories that I hope to write.

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Some years ago, in 2015 I attended the NJ Comic Expo. I was covering it for this site, to gain experience and get my feet wet covering events since it was something I knew I wanted to do for my freelance work. Writing is something I never thought I would get into, but I fell into it through my love for martial arts, reading, and film. It's why I made this site, so I can write about the things I love.

By looking for things to write about, I found that my love for reading balances out with my love of writing. Usually, I do one, then the other but a lot of the writing I do is inspired by the work I do for combat sports. I don't want to be a one-trick pony. I want to evolve my writing and I'm always looking for ways to get better. 

Some of my favorite stories in various mediums come from Stephen King. So, when I went looking for instruction on how he writes, I found his book "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" and learned that you can turn your own life, and the things around you into fiction. 

Reading about how he came up with "Carrie", while he worked in a high school as a teacher and janitor before he hit it big, let me start looking at my own experiences and how I could turn them into something entertaining. Then, when I went to the Comic Expo, Todd Dezago lit a fire under me about writing what I wanted, regardless of who would publish or read it. "Fuck em'" he told the audience on his panel, "fuck em if they don't want to read or publish your stuff. Just do it yourself!" His panel was on self-publishing your work and what it can do for you as a writer.

His advice stuck with me, and I started writing Brush Fire. Two characters started growing in my mind to the point that I was like, "I want to do more of these" before I finished the first one. Max Flecha and Boudreaux Campeon started to take up a life of their own as I was writing Brush Fire. It took me forever to finish it because I spent so much time writing about combat sports, that I needed to find a way to put work in on writing fiction. Then came Kindle Vella and I started posting what I had written there. It got to the point I found myself writing the story again and finally getting to the end.

If you don't know what Kindle Vella is, it's episodic storytelling. I was able to publish the pieces I had written and when I got caught up I kept writing. If you are a writer that is struggling to finish something I can tell you that doing an episodic story might help you get there. It did for me, then brought me to realize I can finally publish this thing. 

Using the Vella platform requires you to wait 30 days before turning your episodic story into a book. So I waited, forgot about it then remembered when there was a lull in the fight business to focus on my story again. So, here it is:

If you have Amazon Prime you likely have Kindle Unlimited and you can read it for free. Check it out here. Please review it, feedback only helps me grow and I have already begun the second book of what I hope becomes a series. 

I hope you like it.