Meet Fritz Nugent of San Diego

My name is Fritz Nugent. I have been interested in art and sports for my entire life. When I was five years old, my parents signed me up for soccer. The other kids had been playing for years, and since it was my first year and I had no idea what was going on, the coach stuck me in the goal. Our team was good, and our competitors never came close to shots on goal, so I got bored quickly. That’s when I began to pass the time by molding little salamanders out of the rich Midwestern soil.

My parents noticed this affinity for art and began stoking my creative fire. Throughout my life, I have drawn, painted, sculpted, thrown pots, and created works in silver and bronze. Writing was always part of my life, but I didn’t consider it part of my art. It was just a way to get my homework done. I didn’t think that I’d be a writer one day. That was too big of a goal, and it was for professionals—or so I thought.

By day, I’m a group class coach and co-manager at Invictus Fitness in downtown San Diego. By night, I have been writing and producing my book. Finally, after a couple of years, I have published my first book.

I have lived in San Diego for seven years with my wife. We currently have a one-year-old, which has made things more interesting on every level. I dedicated the book to her. While writing, I did not consider all the business details like my “target audience” and whether my title would trigger the algorithms. Instead, I simply wrote. And rewrote. And rewrote some more. At long last, my story—although it still feels like I could continue to pick at the minute details—is done.

My book is a slow-burning inspirational comeback tale taking you, the reader, into my world as I prepare three amazing women to conquer a monumental goal—to become smokejumpers. Each woman’s story is different and ripe with physical, mental, and emotional challenges which they must overcome in their own way. What is a smokejumper, you ask? A specialized type of wildland firefighter that parachutes into forest fires to stop them from spreading. People do that? Yup, they do. Not many, though. There are about 400 smokejumpers in the United States, and fewer than 20 are women.

Years after coaching these women, I happened to be at a strength and conditioning conference featuring my coaching idol, a man whose books I have been reading for over two decades. It was a programming “improv” seminar, and beforehand, they asked attendees to submit their own athlete’s data. They planned to discuss various athlete goals and how they would solve each unique challenge. I submitted the data of one of my female wildland firefighting trainees who wished to become a smokejumper, hoping that my coaching idol would discuss her case.

On the last day of the seminar, he began speaking about a female smokejumper. My athlete! I was ecstatic! Then something unexpected happened. He furrowed his brow and suggested that this young woman’s goals were improbable given the time constraint. I couldn’t help myself and raised my hand, stating that I had trained three female smokejumpers. He then invited me up on the stage to discuss with him and the group how we did it. My book is the tale of that journey.

Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ahh, struggles. There were many. The first struggle was a rewrite. After spending a few months drafting an initial 50,000 words, about half of my completed book’s length, I found an editor I trusted (Nadia Geagea-Pupa from Pique Publishing, based in San Diego), and she gave my manuscript a read-through. Her conclusion? I had written a textbook—dry and boring. However, she said that I had a gem of a story hidden in there! Deep down, I had known it was true all along, that my first attempt at a book was too dense with training details and void of emotion. I didn’t know how to turn my textbook into a story. Would my book ever be completed? Nadia was very helpful and provided me with some tips. That night, I began fervently rewriting.

After many months working through draft after draft with Nadia and her team, a story began to emerge. The textbook was gone, and in its place, a story. I was on my way to completing my first book!

The second major struggle was near the end of the writing process. My book is about my experiences preparing three wonderful women for the rigors of smokejumper rookie training. The third woman, Cam, was having cold feet about allowing me to feature her chapter in the book. Even if I de-identified her, she could easily be figured out because she is currently the only Bureau of Land Management female smokejumper in the United States, and the only female to rookie out of Alaska in the past decade. Nowhere to hide. I didn’t know what to do. I might have to scrap my entire third chapter!

Meanwhile, I was interviewing various experts in the smokejumping world to gain a better understanding of the process to become a jumper, and I came across Matt Bowers. He happened to know all three of the women I had trained, and he thought that telling their story could bring more people (and women) into the world of wildland firefighting and smokejumping. A few years before, he also happened to complete his very last jump with Cam, on the same plane! He said, “Cam was super strong, hardworking, and had a great attitude. She’s an excellent smokejumper.”

Once I relayed all of this to Cam, she was in. If her story could help increase interest in wildland firefighting, then she was okay with her story being published. I was ecstatic!

The third struggle was the self-publishing process. Nadia thought that my book could be picked up by a big box publisher, but I decided to self-publish so that I could learn the process.

It took longer to finish the book’s editing and design than it took for me to write the book! The writing process was straightforward. Tell the story and work with Nadia to get the pieces of to fit together in an interesting, cohesive, and coherent way. After I finished the writing process, there was copyediting, proofreading, and searching for beta readers. At the same time, I was working on the cover design and inner book design, developing the book website, taking author photos, and making an eBook. All these later-stage publishing tasks were completed while learning the ins and outs of fatherhood.

I thought once the book was written, it would be a few months until I could publish. Here we are, over one year later, and finally, all the pieces are in place! After encountering roadblocks, cliff edges, and numerous stoplights, the book is complete. I’m very happy with the finished product.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
This childhood memory has nothing to do with my book or business. It’s simply a short story. I hope you enjoy it.

A crystal blue sky reached as far as I could see as I sat atop a red sandstone cliff. I was slowly turning brown in the hot late July morning sun, wet and shivering, overlooking a freezing cold blue-green stream twenty feet below the ledge where I sat. The dry breeze brushed my skin and rustled the leaves of the cottonwood trees across the bank. I could smell the creek as it rolled over the large stones below. A grey lizard with a magnificent blue belly performed push-ups on the flat rock to my left. He was enjoying the sun as well.

I spent almost every day this summer here, at Grasshopper Point, with my friends. I had gotten my driver’s license, bought a Jeep, took the top down, and removed the doors. It was the perfect vehicle to explore the hidden nooks of Sedona, Arizona, my hometown.

It was my last summer in high school. I was headed into my senior year. In the mornings, I worked at the lumber yard. On the weekends, I waited tables up in the canyon at the Junipine Restaurant. This upcoming year, final projects, my senior sports seasons, and choosing a college loomed ahead, but out here, on top of the rocks, none of that mattered. My mind was light, my heart full. Sharing the sun and the breeze with my friends were all that mattered.

I was almost dry from my last jump, so it was time to jump again. Plus, my friend, Jon, had just hopped off the cliff. My favorite way to jump was a slow backflip. I walked to the edge and checked to make sure the last person was out of the way, turned around, my back to the creek, shuffled my heels off the edge of the cliff, reached both arms out to the sides for balance, and leaned back, initiating a fall. I had done this hundreds of times, and each time, it was still a rush. At the last second, I gave a gentle push into the rock through the balls of my feet and slowly floated down towards the water, my body making one full revolution. At the last second, I quickly tucked in my arms and legs and held my breath before impact. Ker-plunk! I felt my bare feet strike the water’s surface, then slowly descended to the bottom of the rock pool and pushed off back towards the surface. The 56-degree water was always a refreshing shock, even after jumping all day. After surfacing and catching my breath, I slowly treaded water and floated along, allowing the creek’s slow current to carry me.

The water nudged me to the climbing spot to make my way back up the cliffside. I gave a couple of strokes to swim over to the ledge. I pulled myself out of the water and smoothly climbed back up to my seat on the sandstone cliff, free as a bird, awaiting my next jump.

Pricing:

• Embers of Confidence: How I Trained Three Female Smokejumpers. Hardcover, $28.99

Contact info:

• Book: http://www.fritznugent.com/embers
• Website: http://www.fritznugent.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fritz.program/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Fritz.program/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210279176-embers-of-confidence