A Chemical Fire

A Novel by Brian Martinez

Welcome to the first novel for paid subscribers of Telegrams from Bloodstream City. It also happens to the very first book I published, my debut novel from all the way back in 2010.

It’s hard to believe this book came out so long ago, and yet it still holds such a special place in my heart. I had struggled for years to finish a full-length novel, filing away countless false starts in a folder of shame. As it turned out, I just needed a story I cared about enough to finish. While it may not be perfect, it crackles with the energy of a young writer not exactly knowing what he was doing, but enjoying the ride all the same. Hopefully the same is true for you.

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His world ended. Then everyone else’s ended, too.

Meet John Cotard, science teacher and devoted husband. After a car accident turns him onto prescription painkillers, John drugs his life away. First his job, then his marriage crumbles as he does nothing to stop it, lost in a haze of chemicals. Then one night a mysterious fire sweeps through the land, wiping out human-kind and leaving behind zombie-like burn victims. John is left seemingly alone in the world, and he carries on by breaking into houses and stealing what he needs. For him the end of the world actually makes sense- it’s the next step in his self-destruction.

But one-by-one he meets the few remaining survivors, including a woman starving herself thin, a combat-obsessed survivalist and a dangerous face from his past. As they travel across the country they face not only the dangers of the world around them but of each other, discovering the fateful connection they share along the way.

A Chemical Fire is a minimalist, noir vision of the apocalypse, with twists and turns that can’t be missed.

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