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Speaker 1: Hello, Hi, is this Roger?

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Speaker 2: This is Roger.

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Speaker 1: How are you doing today, sir Doe?

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Speaker 2: Fine.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited to share a conversation with you because

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I love the way that you are bringing this story forward,

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because these are the kind of stories that we don't

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have in the headlines anymore. In other words, it'll it'll

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appear somewhere and then all of a sudden it's gone.

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And I love it. The way that you're bringing it

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forward is this is a conversation starter.

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Speaker 2: Good. Great?

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Speaker 1: Where did it come from? Because it had to enter

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your heart, go through your fingers and now it's in

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our eyes. Where did this story come from? And where

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where was the inspiration coming from?

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Speaker 2: Well? I had always been concerned, as everyone is, about

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these school shootings and for years and after Parkland, there

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was a big community meeting and you know, the politicians

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were their congressman, senators, and there was a Q and

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a at the end, and a teacher stood up and

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she said, what militia was this young man? Part of

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how is he well regulated? And that's certainly planted a

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thought in my mind. And so what this book is about,

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it's about what happens when the parents actually fight back

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and you know, the unthinkable has happened to them, and

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they do something unthinkable to try to get remediation. And

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you know, so the school shooting happens in this town

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of Brushy Ridge, Ohio, a fictional town. The parents get

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that devastating phone call. Right to everyone else, it's thoughts

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and prayers, but to them, it's a wound that they

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have forever. And after they go through all the stages

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of grief, they decide to lobby Washington for better, more

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restrictive gun legislation so someone a mentally disturbed eighteen year

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old can't get a gun, and they go to Washington.

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They meet with some legislators. The most important is the

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Speaker of the House, Fred Grantham, who controls what gets

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onto the floor of the House for a vote. And

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he won't meet with them, and they get very angry,

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and they stand outside his office with posters of their

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children that they lost, and he walks right by them,

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and when they heckle him, he repeats those twenty seven

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words that we've all heard for the Second Amendment, and

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so they decide to take action.

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Speaker 1: It's so every day, and to hear you speak of it,

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it's more than just words on a page. And this

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is the reason why I created View from the writing instrument,

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is because it's time for the authors to have a

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voice as well. And I mean you speak with so

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much emotion.

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Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean it's an emotional issue. It's not

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easy to write about, you know. As I said, the

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parents are parents end up doing something unthinkable because the

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unthinkable has happened to them. So they get together. One

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of the parents, Hank Patrick, is a lawyer, and he

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sort of knows his constitutional law, and he says, you know,

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the reason the Second Amendment, those twenty seven words were

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worded the way they were was so that people back

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then in the seventeen eighties could form militias to protect

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their community, to fight tyranny. There was a you know,

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there was a thought at the time that this new

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federal government might evolve into a monarchy. So we have

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to have the right to fight back. So the parents,

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Hank Patrick convinces the parents that what happened to them

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was tyrannical because the Speaker of the House would not

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give them the time of day, but he would give

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the time of day to a deep pocketed lobbyist. So

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they decide to form their own militia, and they take

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the speaker of the house hostage, and they make him

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watch the video of the shooting and the morg shots

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of the children until he agrees to bring legislation, safer

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gun legislation to the floor of the house.

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Speaker 1: Are you shocked that this hasn't already happened?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's well, no, it could happen. Yeah, yeah, And

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you know, what do you do? You know, you're caught

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between the intersection of grief and helplessness, you know, and

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what actions can you take? And you know, those twenty

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seven words that form the Second Amendment, they're you know,

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they they've been sort of modified by court cases over

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the last two hundred plus years, but do they really

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you know, a well regulated militia being necessary to the

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security of a free state. The right of the people

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to keep in their arms shall not be infringed. Okay,

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what does that mean? If you heard that for the

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first time ever without you know, just without context, what

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do you think that would.

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Speaker 1: Mean in today's terms? People say, is that a Taylor swiftson.

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Speaker 2: There? You go? No, But it's it's a set of

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words that at very best is ambiguous, Okay, and matter

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of fact in a big court case Heller versus DC

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Justice Scalia basically said the first phrase doesn't count the

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well regulated militia part, which you know just left it

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with Basically, anyone can have a gun over a certain age.

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So this is the parent's plea for justice for even

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though they can't bring their children back, they can do

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something about help other parents in the future or prevent

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other parents in the future from having to take that

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devastating phone.

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Speaker 1: Call please do not move. There's more with Roger Kyoki

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coming up next. The name of the book Brushy Ridge Militia.

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Let's get back to that talk with Roger Kyoki to

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put this book together. First of all, I want to

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know how did you build the characters, because each person

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that you identify in this book has their own personality.

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I can't imagine what you went through in developing the

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individuality in this book.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, you have to go much as an author,

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you have to go much deeper into the people's lives

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than what's on the pages, right, and so.

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Speaker 2: I create a little story for each of them. You know,

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one's a well air Hank Patrick, the others a local electrician,

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one is a receptionist, at a doctor's office. Another one

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is an ex Iraq war vet who has PTSD, And

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they each have their own story and they're each devastated

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in their own way, and they what happens is this

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whole situation, you know, the taking of the speaker brings

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closure to each character in his or her own special way.

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Speaker 1: How did you deal with the way of this book?

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In other words, for you to go through these emotional

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changes with each storyline and to build it up and

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to really bring in the drama and the conflict. I

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mean you had to as a writer have gone through

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so many different emotional things.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean I believe that when you write,

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it has to be authentic. Yes, So writing the shooting

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scene is only in the book. It's about a young

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man who was bullied unmercifully, and writing that was tough,

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and it was a fine line between overkill and not

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making it realistic enough. So I tried to find that balance,

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and most people think I did so. But it is

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a tough scene to read. There are well, that's probably

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the toughest part of the book to read. But the

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rest is how do these parents, this disparate group of parents,

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figure out how to kidnap in effect, the speaker of

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the house. So one of the one of the parents,

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the one who was an ex army that with the PTSD.

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Unfortunately he was really good at undercover work. So he

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finds out that the speaker has a special person he

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visits twice a week without bodyguard protection. And from there

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they put together a plot that that has a lot

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of a lot of things have to go right in

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succession for everything to work.

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Speaker 1: Wow, what was your writing discipline? Did did you write

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in the morning? I mean, because with something so heavy

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you also had to do some researches, So so how

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did you bring it all together? Was it ours?

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Speaker 2: Was?

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Speaker 1: What was the actual plan?

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Speaker 2: I probably write a couple hours a day and it's

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probably later in the day for me. And yeah, I

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had to do tons of research. I had to do,

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you know, research different cases for the Supreme Court. I

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worked with an attorney for the because there is a

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obviously the parents get apprehended at a certain point and

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there's a trial, and I worked with an attorney on that,

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and you know, had to research a lot about different

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types of guns. I looked at footage of Parkland, I

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read a lot about Columbine I live a half hour

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from Sandy Hook, oh boy, And I remember what I

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was working from home that day, and I remember the

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Bolton coming up TV. And I remember Obama almost crying

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when he talked that day. And so that happened, I

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think on December fourteenth in twenty twelve. And on Christmas Day,

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my daughter and I went to the site. You couldn't

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get to the school, but there was a memorial site

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downtown and we put some flowers there. So this is

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something that's been on my mind for a long time.

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And writing is my favorite pastime, so it's not that

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hard for me to do it. But you know, it

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comes in bits, and you know, let's say that it's

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four hundred pages, I probably wrote two thousand. You know.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that editing process, oh my goodness sakes, because I mean,

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if you took out six hundred pages, holy crap, dude.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'll never get an accurate count because the

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way you know, word processing works today, I just exit out.

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But but now it's probably about that. And I've worked

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I work with developmental editors, and you know, sometimes they

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send me back to the drawing board, but I think

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I'm really happy with the final product. Which came out

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of all this work and research and back and forth.

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So yeah, it's you have to love to write. You know,

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you can't write a book because you want to make

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a million dollars, which hardly anyone does unless you're a celebrity.

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You write a book because you love to tell stories

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and I love to tell stories.

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Speaker 1: So wow, is it going to be a binge watch?

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Or do you think you want it? You want to

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turn it into a movie? Which one? What would you

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turn it into?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'd love to turn it into a movie, or

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it could be a binge watch too. But from your

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lips to God's ears.

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Speaker 1: You know, where can people go to find out more

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about you, Roger, to really dive into your hard work

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and dedication.

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Speaker 2: Well, the book has a website, Brushiridge Militia dot com

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and it's also on Amazon. So just search Amazon, Brushy Ridge,

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Militia and my last name Kyoki Chiocchi and you'll find it.

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And it has a lot of really really good reviews

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which you as matter of fact, as of today it's

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all five stars, so very proud of that, and hopefully,

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so hopefully you're right and somebody in Hollywood gets some

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idea about it.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Please come back to this show anytime in the future.

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The door is always going to be open for you.

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Speaker 2: Roger, Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?

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Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you doo