Centennial Trilogy

Bob and Rudi never set out to a book, let alone a trilogy. Their task as hand was much simpler: A 30-minute campfire talk to a dozen or two campers at a remote swamp campground. | Before Phones Movement | Our supporters | Our adversaries | Main campfire

Intro - The original campfire

And How it Spawned a Campfire Talk, then a Trilogy

By Campfire Park

Writing a book is hard enough ...

But not as hard as trying to co-author a trilogy.

It all started with a half-hour talk

Especially when all you set out to do was a half-hour campfire talk. The occasion: It was the run-up to the 100th birthday of America's National Parks. The venue: a remote campground in the heart of south Florida's Big Cypress Swamp. The result: About a dozen people showed up. That didn't stop up from doing the talk about a dozen times, and eventually writing a book, then a trilogy and now this website. Did I say we? Sometimes (actually most of the time) I wondered where Rudi was.

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Last Stand at Boulder Ridge
A campfire book review

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In this campfire talk …

The Cowboy at the Campfire provides a thought-provoking review of Book 2 of the Centennial Campfire Trilogy.

Buy the full trilogy of books, in kindle or paperback

Among his observations:

  • You’ll need a good book mark,
  • The book is part sequel and part prequel to the first book,
  • It’s a story of growth and idealism giving way to reality.

And spoiler report:

  • It sets the stage for the stunning cascade of conclusions Book 3.

The Centennial Campfire Trilogy by Robert V. Sobczak and Rudi Heinrich consists of three books: (1) The Legend of Campfire Charlie, (2) Last Stand at Boulder Ridge and (3) Final Campfire.

Why do I like most about the book?

To me, it’s a “rereadable” through a through. It’s the type of book you can pick up off your bookshelf and read front to back, or one chapter at a time, or even a few sentences. It is also what I call an immersive read. It takes you across the globe and deep back into time, to the point you can really get lost (in a good way).

As for my favorite scene?

It’s probably the campfire banter between Rusty and Kenny while in the desert overseas. Or maybe it’s Rusty’s airboat ride with his father? Or maybe his boyhood encounter with Edward Abbey? Or maybe it’s the journals of Col. Stanley Powell. Or maybe it’s the Bone Wars era archaeological dinosaur dig. Or maybe it’s even the prologue to the book.

What I can say for sure is this:

My mom loved it so it must be a great book!

Trilogy Trailer

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As he raised the American flag …

At the crack of dawn:

Ranger Rusty thought it was just another day of being on duty at the visitor center in the liquid heart of an ancient cypress forest. And later that night, by truck, heading to a nearby campground to give a half-hour campfire talk. Or so he thought. Or was Ranger Rusty in for the journey of his life.

So begins the “movie style” trailer for the Centennial Campfire Trilogy of three books co-written by Robert V Sobczak and Rudi Heinrich. The books include: The Legend of Campfire Charlie (Book 1), Last Stand at Boulder Ridge (Book 2) and Final Campfire (Book 3).

Buy the books at our store or find out more about the trilogy and how the story came to life.

Trilogy Sneak Peak
How one simple campfire spawned 3 books

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Hey there,

Thanks for stopping by. Today, I wanted to write a short piece on the three books that I co-authored. If the books were ever featured as a movie, the Hollywood-style trailer would probably go something along the lines as written below (and shown in the video.)

So without further ado …

As Ranger Rusty raised the flag at the crack of dawn, he thought it was “just another day. Little did he know his day would turn into a 3-book odyssey. Or am I talking about myself?

Little did I know (or imagine at the time) that the endeavor of writing those three books would take six years of my life. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, and not that I did it all the time, all day long. It was usually in the evening and early morning hours – before embarking into work at the nearby National Park/Preserve – that I did most of my writing. The caveat is that I did it every day. Rarely did I let a day go by without working on some aspect of the sprawling work. The other caveat is that I had a co-author, as elaborated in the video above. But even he would say when it came to the grindstone of writing it the book was primarily me. The other caveat, and there are lots – is that the three books chime in at just under 500,000 words. That’s quite a bit by any metric. A short book, like the Great Gatsby, is around 60,000 words. Could we have used an editor to help us shorten it up? Maybe so, but I stand by every word.

The three books

My Point:

The trilogy didn’t start as a trilogy. It started as a single book. And that single book didn’t start as a book. It started as a 30-minute campfire talk. The rest, shall we say, is campfire history. At the start of a journey usually you have no idea where it will lead. You can check out the books here: Visit the Trilogy’s website

Or, breaking news, check out the abridged version of all three here:

Buy the book: Kindle and paperback formats

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