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"Jerrett could feel the warm sun on his back, while a steady breeze rustled the banners. Colors and voices swirled all around him as he wove through the crowd and past the booths. The sounds of the engines screaming down the track were a constant drone in the background. Dirt bikes perched precariously on stands, lining the lane through the pit area.
Jerrett felt a much-needed peace, like a breath of fresh air, and a break from the stress of the work week. Today he would enjoy the races with his family, cheer on his kids, visit with friends and forget about everything else.
At least he would try to.
As hard as he tried, the ominous dread as always there, shoved down and buried as best as he could manage, but it never vanished completely. It was an uncertain time they lived in and he never quite knew what to expect next. He’d gotten pretty good at faking being carefree and relaxed so his wife and kids wouldn’t worry. It was as if he was hovering above two completely different worlds. He wondered if anyone else felt the same as he did."
Excerpt from A SECOND REVOLUTION, Kelly Noll
In the beginning of my debut novel, the main character, Jerrett Nolan, tried to enjoy a day at the motocross track with his family. It’s something we all look forward to - a day of family fun - but for Jerrett, the peace was soon shattered. Something dreadful happened to change Jerrett’s world and it’s all too relevant to ours today.
A Second Revolution is a dystopian story I set up in the near future. I imagined an American family, who lead a “normal life”, when they suddenly find themselves thrust into a war on American soil. I drew heavily on references to the first American Revolutionary War and WW11 as I explored what it would be like to live in a war zone.
Here in the USA, conspiracy theories abound, and no one is certain of anything anymore. When I was working on this book, I thought, what if all these wild theories were really happening? The current political landscape is nothing like I have ever seen before in my lifetime. It raised a lot of questions. Each day there seems to be a new, more startling reveal of terrible, corrupt behavior that has been going on behind the scenes for decades. It feels as if it is boiling over and will explode at any minute. And we are left with the question of what that will look like when it does. Will there be riots, fighting, disruptions of supply lines?
Will we know who to trust and what to believe? Will the factions on either side be able to come together in peace or are the rifts too deep to overcome? Some of these worries
seem far-fetched and impossible, but many of them have come to fruition in the last few years as a result of elections, the political landscape and the Covid pandemic.
All these questions underly Jerret’s story as I imagined what it could be if a war, the most terrible of things, was to happen here. With this personal questioning I went on and studied the ideas of martial law, reeducation camps, censorship, militias, and a corrupt and lethal armed force.
What would that look like for a family just trying to get by and live their lives as normally as possible? As the idea took hold, I knew I had to write a story about it.
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” –Toni Morrison
My book is a mixture of adventure and drama. It’s a tale of what ifs. What if your rights and freedom were taken away? What if a group of armed, vicious soldiers patrolled your streets? What if you felt a visceral need to right the wrongs you saw but couldn’t, out of fear of repercussions on your family? What would you do?
That’s the dilemma Jerrett Nolan faces. He tries to put on a brave face and keep life as normal as possible for his children, but that soon comes to an end. When war breaks out, Jerrett is forced into action, whether he wants to fight or not.
I don’t know what I would do in his situation. Would I fight, flight or freeze? I guess you can’t know unless it happens to you. I hope none of us ever find ourselves where Jerrett is in A Second Revolution. But if we ever do, I hope all of us can do our best, survive, and strive to make our world a better one going forward.
At the end, Jerret’s adventure is about courage, bravery and fatherhood, a man who just wants to do his best. I believe Jerrett is like all of us in the face of unexpected danger. We do what we can, to the best of our abilities and try to protect the ones we love.
I hope this story will resonate with you, inspire you and take you on a journey into the unexpected. Enjoy!
“Every person is responsible for his or her own actions, and, to the best of your ability, to leave the world better than you found it.”
Bill Nye, Father of science
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