Gregory Ellis received his MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts where he began his first novel Ride the Buffalo’s Back. His life experience also includes a BA in music from Amherst College and a JD degree from UCLA School of Law. In addition to working on his third novel, he also continues to practice law, and sings and plays guitar in local venues. He and his wife live in Los Angeles, and they spend as much time as they can with their children and grandchildren in Southern California and Oregon.
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OTHER NOVELS
Greg has finished his second novel and is at work on his third.
JESUS' OTHER BROTHER
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​Greg's second novel is set in Jerusalem at the time of Pontius Pilate and tells the story of the blacksmith Isaiah — a fictional adopted brother of Jesus — who vows to avenge his brother’s crucifixion. It’s a gritty story of a winding journey that examines the battle between revenge and forgiveness, retribution and acceptance, colored by a complicated relationship between two brothers.
“I will get you down,” Isaiah yelled up to his brother and darted around the guards and put his shoulder against the bottom of the cross and strained to lift it out of the ground alone, which was not possible. “Help me,” he yelled out at several men standing behind the women. “He is my brother.” The guards moved to grab Isaiah but a third, the lead Centurion, held them back and nodded towards the ladder. They dragged it closer and leaned it against the stake for Isaiah to climb. When he reached Joshua’s face he whispered, “I’m here,” but, up close like this, he could see now that Joshua was no longer smiling, was not even moving, and that his head was drooped down to one side, chin against his chest.
He was gone.
He was wearing thorns on his head, which had caused him to bleed from his scalp. Isaiah gently removed the crown and threw it to the ground. He grabbed Joshua’s face in one hand and straightened it out, but each time he let go it collapsed again. Sobbing, Isaiah kissed his brother’s cheeks, then wrapped his right arm around his chest and behind the cross and just stayed there for a while, whispering in Joshua’s right ear that he loved him. Finally, he let go and climbed down the ladder. He could see that Joshua was bleeding from his side, as if stabbed in battle, and that he had other wounds and bruises over the rest of his body. When he reached the bottom Isaiah heard a man’s voice screaming – from one of the other crosses he thought at first, but then realized it was coming from his own throat, his own chest, his own belly, his own testicles, from the depths of the underworld beneath his feet. He reached up and stroked his brother’s bleeding feet and then kissed them and cried from a depth he had not visited since he’d lost his wife and baby.
(Jesus’ Other Brother, Manuscript, pp. 98-99.)