Jackson author's first short story focuses on friends

Brad Friese of Jackson will debut his first short story, "Power Squad : Water" after Valentine's day.

Friese is an avid anime watcher and enjoys creative writing. Writing the short story, based loosely off of the show "Avatar: the Last AirBender", combined those interests.

Friese's short story is about two kingdoms at war with each other -- the water kingdom and the ice kingdom. The water users are the rulers of the planet Pluto, which both kingdoms live on. The story shows friendship in how the elements can work together and be friends.

Nixie, the princess of the water kingdom, has her life turned upside down during this conflict with Neve, an ice user. Nixie meets two ground users and a fire user, who she asks to help her win the fight against the ice users. While working together on the ground, fire and water users become friends and learn to trust each other.

"Marvel has the 'Avengers' and D.C. has the 'Justice League'. Superhero friends who save the world together. Friese said. "That is what the Power Squad is, just a group of friends, with separate stories."

Friese said he wants to make the short story into a series where more characters are introduced with their elemental powers. He would like the series to end up with the characters coming to Earth and coming to Missouri, making it a full circle from pen and paper to his characters being able to visit where he is from.

This series has been with Friese for a year now, and he has plans for his next short story to be published next year.

The short story will be published by Dorrance Publishing out of Pittsburgh.

"Power Squad: Water" will be available on Amazon and the Dorrance Publishing website.