Local Shares Experiences in Authorship

Jeff Campbell, a well-known marketing and business development professional in Carlsbad, first developed an interest in writing in grade school at Holy Trinity Catholic School in El Paso, TX.

His published work presently includes an autobiography and two parts of a four-part series in the Science Fiction/Medical Action genre. His books are currently available on his website, https://peopleswriter.com, and on Amazon in both paperback and electronic formats.

The most recent release is the second book of The Cure Series. “I’m also working on a couple of other projects that aren’t quite ready for publication yet, so I’m staying busy,” said Campbell.

With the four parts mapped out and partially written for each of the upcoming books for the series, Campbell said, “I’m going to let them be out there for a little bit, then I will probably release it as a whole—one collection, all bound together. That way, someone could buy the whole thing.”

The Cure Series starts in Carlsbad, with Ethan Cole as the main character. “There is a lot of me in the series,” said Campbell, noting that it came about from dealing with things personally. As a double amputee, he said, “Of course, I always dream of that coming back, but that will never happen. That’s where the whole inspiration for that guy comes from. I also have a family that is exactly like his.”

The story was mostly born out of fighting some health issues, said Campbell. When sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room last year, he said he looked around at the people and felt empathy. “Every one of us is having some kind of problem that we need help with. I remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was one cure for every anomaly that people had.’”

From there, Campbell said his mind started going kind of out of control with the whole story, thinking about how he could turn it into an entertaining story and make it something people would want to read.

He said he finds writing fun, creative, and relaxing. “I learned by writing about The Cure that it is actually really therapeutic, and it heals you in a way.”

In one of the upcoming books, Campbell said he will be writing a whole scene that is reflective of the death of one of his closest sisters that happened last year. “When I wrote about that, I actually cried. It hit hard, but it also made me feel better,” he said.

Campbell’s first book is titled “Catholic Grade School Tales: the Good, the Bad, and the OMG!” He said it is an autobiography about his life from kindergarten through eighth grade. He said, “I was always kind of the funny guy that was trying to make people laugh.”

Interest in writing began back then, when he wrote funny essays using spelling words while incorporating his classmates into little stories. “We would have to stand up and read our work,” said Campbell. “Everybody waited for mine; they were really looking forward to what I was going to say because they always liked to laugh.”

Knowing that his classmates all loved the autobiography and appreciated him recounting things, as a follow-up, Campbell said he is writing a Science Fiction/Fantasy book that is totally fiction, titled “Catholic Grade School Tales: The Reunion.”

He said it has superheroes and weird stuff, and introduces the character “Freako the Wonder Clown,” the title of his next planned book. “It made me feel like I was in grade school again, writing one of those funny essays and getting all my friends into it,” he said.

The whole “Freako” story, Campbell said, was pitched to Nickelodeon a long time ago when he was in college. “They were looking for like their next great show.”

For the pitch, he said he drew storyboards and sent the whole thing in and never heard back from them. “I looked at some of the things they were putting on, and I was like, ‘Mine was better than that.’” Keeping things upbeat and positive, Campbell said, “Oh well, one day maybe, we’ll see.”