Longtime Barrie resident Richard Bullis is used to telling stories through his songwriting, but putting pen to paper for a book was a completely different experience.
The 60-year-old recently celebrated the release of his first novel, A Blood Moon Between Friends, telling BarrieToday the story first came to him about 13 years ago.
“I never had a dream to write a book, but the story came to me and I just kept pecking away at it,” said Bullis.
The fictional novel takes you on a journey through the life of John Bradley, a young man whose life is guided by a code that sees him both prosper in friendships, family and love, but also make a decision that changes everything.
Bullis described his book as a “Canadian story” about a man who grows up living by code instilled in him by an uncle and aimed at helping him get through life following the tragic death of his father.
“He eventually comes to a point where he has a decision to make and goes against the code. It’s a huge mistake and sends his life on a whole different pathway that he would have never seen coming,” he said.
By the end of the book, Bullis said readers will be able to decide if the main character should be forgiven or find redemption.
“I leave that up to the reader,” he said, adding the book also includes a love story, a bit of violence and even an anti-bullying message that runs throughout the story.
While writing a novel may have been a new endeavour for him, writing stories is not — having been a songwriter for many years.
“Songwriting is where you get four versus … to get the point across in the song and pack everything into those little parts of the song. When you’re writing a novel, you get so much more room to expand on scenarios and grow the characters,” he said.
“We all can recite the lyrics to our favourite songs. They get embedded in our heads … people may read a book two or three times.”
Bullis says he hopes to release another book “some time in the future,” which will be a compilation of four different short stories. Until then, he will enjoy knowing that his first endeavour into the world of a published author has resulted in copies of his book on shelves from coast to coast.
“I am not really a writer. I just happened to write one book,” he quipped.
Bullis will be heading out in September to do some guest-speaking gigs, which he hopes will inspire others to reach outside their own comfort zones.
“I hope to use this book to inspire people to take up the arts, whether it's painting, writing, sculpting. I want to say to people that if I can do this you can do anything you want to do if you open yourself up to the opportunity," he said.
Anyone interested in purchasing a copy can reach out to Bullis directly here.
