Hello!  My name is Brent Searle.  I live in Virginia now, but if you ask me where I’m from, I have no idea how to answer.  I was born in Europe and then lived in Africa and Asia through first grade.  My family then moved to the U.S., where we continued to move around a few times while I was growing up.  I guess I got the moving bug, because ever since college I’ve kept moving around a lot on my own.

In the different places I’ve lived, I have done all sorts of jobs, from construction to retail to working with kids.  Although I have really enjoyed all the jobs I’ve held, my biggest passion has always been writing.  Back in grade school, I used to write story after story, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  Most of my stories back then were crazy action stories involving epic food fights at school or alien invasions.

Through my high school and college years, I traded in most of my creative writing for school-related research papers or essays.  Within a few months of finishing college, though, I heard the call again.  Ever since, I’ve pretty much always had a story of some kind in the works.

In 2011, I self-published a novel called Stepping Northward.  It’s a fictionalization of my hike on the Appalachian Trail in 2000.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t sold many copies, because I didn’t know anything about marketing.

Earlier this year I finished writing another story, a children’s book this time.  This go-around, I’m going to do things differently as I try to get published the traditional way.  These days, you have to focus on marketing, and that’s where this blog comes in.  My hope is that, through it, I will be able to gain some exposure for my writing.  Along the way, if I can make people laugh, or offer them hope or encouragement, or engage in some good conversations, that would be wonderful.

Thank you very much for visiting, and I hope you will return.

All the best,
Brent