At the end of his long days at city hall, David Chernushenko needed a way to unwind.

So the former Captial ward councillor decided that instead of zoning out in front of the television, he'd try his hand at writing fiction.

Now, he's about to head out on a cross-country tour to promote Burning Souls, a self-published "eco-thriller" that tells the story, over the course of two decades, of four friends dealing with a world in the midst of major climate disruption.

"I had been slowly working away on a book for the last couple of years," Chernushenko told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Monday.

"What I found was it was so different from what I was doing, and it was totally creative … I was going into my world that I was creating and I just got totally pulled in."

The work became so engrossing, Chernushenko said by the time last year's municipal election rolled around, he'd already polished off a first draft.

After election night didn't go the way he hoped, he decided to make the book his "main project."

'Pretty dystopian'

While Burning Souls is "pretty dystopian," Chernushenko — who prior to his pair of terms on Ottawa city council was the federal Green Party's deputy leader — said he hoped it would inspire readers to think about how their actions affect the planet.

"We're often faced with that question: why bother with fiction when reality is so stark? What we're finding and understanding is that you do not move people by loading them up with more and more facts," he said.

"You try to compel them through their heart, and through an emotional response. That's where fiction really came to me."

Former Ottawa city councillor David Chernushenko is about to embark on a road trip to promote his debut novel. (Carmen Klassen/CBC)

He's also going to be delivering that message in person, with some 30 stops planned on a national book tour — which he'll be making via an electric-powered Chevrolet Bolt.

His battery means he'll only be able to travel about 400 kilometres at a time before recharging, but Chernushenko said he still plans to take Burning Souls all he way across the country.

That will also include stops in his home province of Alberta, where Premier Jason Kenney is set to repeal the province's carbon tax.

"The thing to remember — just as Ontario is not Doug Ford, Alberta is not Jason Kenney," Chernushenko said.

"Even the Jason Kenney and Doug Ford voters don't want the world to go to hell in a hurry, either. So I actually look forward to those conversations."

Before embarking on that tour, Chernushenko will be launching Burning Souls in Ottawa tonight with a 7 p.m. reading at Southminster United Church on Aylmer Avenue, near the Rideau Canal.