Freedom

Having a day off from work is glorious. It also brings me something of which I don't have nearly enough: time to write my novel.

Power

“If I told you everything I knew right away, it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable.” 

Excerpt from Within the Quiet  

(previously titled The Hiding King).   

Awkward Friendships

I have been doing some work in another medium that is a bunch of fun. Check out the web series that I write called Awkward Friendships. It will be one of my main writing focuses of the summer.

www.awkwardfriendships.com

Enjoy,

Christian

Jumping Frogs and The USSR

I spent this Memorial Day weekend with my beautiful future wife in the mountains of North Fork, California at her grandparent's secluded home. After days of boating, relaxation and (of course) watching a little Arrested Development Season 4, we decided to drive back home via Highway 49 instead of the usual 99. The twists and turns of the mountain road (plus a stomach full of bacon and coffee) left my belly very upset. We stopped in Sonora to satisfy my persistently irritated stomach. When that unnecessary detail was taken care of, we decided to visit Mark Twain's cabin in Tuttletown.

For those who don't know, Samuel Clemens lived in California during the Gold Rush.  In the winter of 1864-65, he stayed in Tuolumne County for a reason that is widely disputed between his biographers.  During his stay, he heard a story told by some locals, known as the Gillis brothers, about jumping frogs. He eventually retold this story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County," which changed his career forever.

After a few missed turns, we found the unevenly paved road that leads uphill to the Mark Twain cabin.  There stood the cabin with no one else there to see the piece of history.  The cabin itself is surrounded by a gate for preservation. A monument next to the building reads that it was built in 1922 as a memorial to Mark Twain's stay in the area. This was fairly disappointing because I was told that it was the actual cabin that he stayed in and wrote his first big story. We quickly became restless after looking at the cabin for a few moments and focused our attention to a mule across the way that looked very lonely behind his little fence. Sidenote: this historical site is located at the end of a road called Jackass Hill Road so it's only fitting to have a jackass keeping the cabin company.

We see a car drive up the hill and an older couple, probably in their late 70s, step out of the car and begin to make friends with us.  The wife went to look at the cabin while the husband stood next to me to make conversation.  He told us that he had been to that spot twenty years earlier and then began to express his love for Twain's life and writings.

"He was a true American," he told us.  "He was a wealthy man, lost it all, got it back."

He and his wife had come to the United States forty years ago after living in the USSR.  This man, on Memorial Day, expressed how happy he was that he has the freedom to move across the country in search for gold, or to write a story about frogs, and think the way he wants to think.  This is a real person that left his country in a time of oppression and came to America in search of freedom.  And he found it.  The optimism of this man and his wife inspired me so much.  It also lessened my disappointment in the fact that this monument was just a monument instead of the real cabin that Twain resided in.

I realized that this man was a real representation of American history.  My last conversation with him will stay with me.  Not only was it inspiring as an American, but as a human that struggles through adversity.  I wish I could have spoke with him more because I think he had a great heart and I'm sure he knew true Love and Grace.

I told him I was a writer.

"Are you published?" he asked.

"Not yet, but that is one of my goals."

"Then it will happen." he said with a smile.

Thank you to all of the people who served to make this country the way it is.  Thanks for helping this man start a new life here.  Thanks for allowing him to encourage me.  Thank you God for allowing this moment and blessing us.