Alumnus Brady Achterberg published his book, Gullet, at the end of the school year last Spring.

  His book was published by his parents through Amazon as his graduation present; he had spent the school year writing the novel in an independent study, advised by English teacher  Heath Hallman.  

  “I was his advisor during his independent study,” said Hallman, “which means I did not edit the book, instead I read it, made suggestions, and asked questions to help keep him focused.”

  The idea of the book is that Marzle Bashur, the main character, is an adventurer/mercenary who is faced with the sudden discovery that he is the father of a child. The mother is an old lover of his, named Tahira, who he has not seen in a long time, so when she shows up and demands he takes some responsibility for their daughter, he tries to retire. Suddenly, this is ruined when Tahira is kidnapped, leading him on a chase across all of Eurasia, the fantastical world of the novel.

  Overall, the book was modeled after the pulp fiction novels of the 1920’s. These novels were written in an episodic style, where each chapter is a small episode in the whole story, similar to some classical novels like Homer’s The Odyssey.

  Hallman observed Achterberg’s creative process.

  “He had the scenes in his mind and then connected them in the novel,” Hallman said.

  In his general opinion Achterberg had indeed met his goal of emulating a pulp fiction novel.

  The downfall of Achterberg’s book, however, is that it is written in a pulp fiction style. This style has never been overly popular or widely successful due to its broken nature, which can make it difficult to follow, but Achterberg is fine with that.

  “I don’t have any big hopes [for the book]. I’m satisfied if it only ever gets sold to friends and family,” said Achterberg.

  He sold the book in the high school before he graduated, and he continues to sell it on Amazon.

Interested in reading it? Check it out here