Growing up, I loved stories like "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and anything Sci-fi. Ironically, in high school, I failed English class and had to go to summer school. Not exactly a promising start.

Fast-forward 40 years, I started writing these stories. They are not born from trend-chasing or fantasy for its own sake. They came from a life spent around pressure, responsibility, consequence, and the hard truth that some battles are seen while others are not. Countdown to Armageddon lives in that space, where war, faith, sacrifice, and the unseen collide.

Because when you breathe air from a mask that is so hot it burns your face, eyes, throat, and lungs - you close your eyes and keep breathing. When the sweat pooling in your heavy boots turns to steam and burns your feet. And your neck and ears are getting burned through your hood, earflaps, and upturned coat collar. The fillings in your teeth are being rattled loose by your facemask rattling, telling you that there is less than five minutes of air left. Then, you know shit is real and deadly.

You can't stop wondering if this is going to be your LAST CALL. If someone you know will be handing your family a tightly-folded American flag at your closed-casket funeral. Then you know what fear is. You know what pain is. You know what exhaustion is. You know what feeling weakness is.

But you keep going anyway.

Rough hands swap out your spent air cylinder. You dump bottled water on your head to soothe the burns on your face, neck, and ears. But you go back into hell again, despite your feelings and reservations because your team needs you. And maybe, just maybe, you can pull someone alive out of the jaws of death without getting bit yourself. That's real courage. That is real bravery.

THAT is what I write about.

The action and the cost.

These are the stories I wish I could have read growing up.

Learn more about my reason for Why I Write C2A.