The Story
The Long Way Around.
How a strategist became a writer. The thirty-year arc,
the August 2024 fall, and what came back up.
A Bio · In Two Registers
Geno Church
writes in two registers.
The Sasquatch's Roar, his memoir currently with agents, is the story of an encounter in the South Carolina woods at fourteen, fifty years pretending he hadn't heard what he heard, and the August 2024 morning his legs stopped working in a hospital bed where the encounter caught up with him. The Saluda saga (Saluda Awakens, Vinum Immortale, WolfGator) is his Southern Gothic fiction series, rooted in Appalachian folklore, traveling-show culture, and a vine that nobody finished growing.
Before he wrote books on himself,
he wrote books on movements.
He co-authored Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable Word of Mouth Movements (Wiley, 2008) and The Passion Conversation: Understanding, Sparking, and Sustaining Word of Mouth Marketing (Wiley, 2013) during his twenty-three years as Discovery and Strategy Director at Brains on Fire. The work walked him into rooms with Fiskars, the National Center for Families Learning, the National Council of Teachers of English, BFGoodrich, Michelin, The Environmental Defense Fund, the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, and the Australian Childhood Foundation.
That field included building youth-led prevention movements, sparking wonder and curiosity in the nation's classrooms, growing a creative community around scissors, empowering people to take care of their public parks, developing a beacon of hope for those affected by addiction, and birthing a community for cheese lovers. He has been a member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Hall of Fame since 2015 and a sought-after speaker at PRSA, BBCON, WOMM Japan, EXMA Bogotá, and The Good Business Summit.
In 2016 a diabetes prognosis cracked something open. A question wouldn't go away. Was the work actually good for the world, or just good for me and the agency? The mutiny had begun, even if it took years to notice. In December 2018 the owner of Brains on Fire told him over coffee that the agency had been sold to others. By August 2019, he was gone. We'll call it mutual. He was scared, and he was right to leave.
Today he serves as Creative Director at the National Council of Teachers of English. He lives in Greenville, South Carolina, where he writes in the early hours, walks more carefully than he used to, picks up his Music Man StingRay more nights than not, and waits for the woods to talk back.
Field Notes · Chronology
The Trail, in Specimens.
Ten figures from a fifty-year walk. Each one a marker, none of them the destination.
The Encounter.
Fig 1 1974 · UPPER GREENVILLE COUNTY, SC
Two boys met something in the woods that wasn't supposed to exist. We ran.
The book that came fifty years later is the conversation we were too young to have with what we found.
Fig 2 1996 · Greenville, SC
The Couch.
Hauled across South Carolina so teenagers in small towns had somewhere to sit and talk about their lives.
The first time the work taught me what it really was: paying attention.
Fig 3 2008 · Wiley
Brains on Fire (book one).
Igniting Powerful, Sustainable Word of Mouth Movements. The book that launched a movement about movements. Written with the team that taught me how.
Fig 4 2013 · Wiley
The Passion Conversation.
Understanding, Sparking, and Sustaining Word of Mouth Marketing. Why people talk about what they love, and what happens to them when they do.
Fig 5 2015 · WOMMA Hall of Fame
The Recognition.
Inducted into the Word of Mouth Marketing Hall of Fame. The honor belongs to the campfire. To the people who built the work, not the byline.
Fig 6 2016 · The Diagnosis
The Mutiny Begins.
A diabetes prognosis cracked something open. The question wouldn't go away. Was the work actually good for the world, or just good for me and the agency? I didn't know it yet, but the mutiny had started.
Fig 7 December 2018 · A coffee
The News.
A morning coffee with the owner of Brains on Fire. She told me she'd sold the agency to others. After twenty-plus years, the news landed like a ton of bricks. I knew before I left the table that my time there was limited.
Fig 8 August 2019 · The leaving
The Flag, Raised.
Walked out of Brains on Fire after twenty-three years. We'll call it mutual. I was scared, and I was right to leave. The mutiny only knows itself when you finally raise the flag.
Fig 9 August 2024 · A hospital floor
The Fall.
Guillain-Barré syndrome stripped the insulation from my nerves. I hit the concrete and the person who got back up was not the person who fell. The trail ended. The open country began.
Fig 102026 · Greenville, SC
The Two Registers.
The Sasquatch's Roar in agent review. Saluda Awakens currently querying. Creative Director at the National Council of Teachers of English. Writing in the early hours. Walking more carefully than I used to.
Field Notes · A Hand of Five
Five cards in my hand.
A naturalist's plate of five rituals, narrowed from many to the ones I'm holding right now.
Each one a specimen. Each one part of the listening.