RUSH by J Friesen: Special Ed

Monday, September 20, 2010

Jonathan Friesen Shares His Inspiration for RUSH*

*Originally published on the Knight Agency Blog

There was this guy in my church during my high school years. He was a nut. Not really, but he seemed to tilt toward crazy. A jittery man with jittery hands. He took a bunch of us teens rock-climbing trip. (Looking back, a huge lapse in parental responsibility.) The cliffs weren’t insane high, maybe one hundred feet, which only meant a shorter fall to our deaths.

Which, of course, was impossible. We had harnesses and straps and ropes and carabineers connecting us to this world—shoot, we couldn’t have fallen if we tried.

After a day of climbing, it was our guide’s turn (pay attention, ‘cause this is where the nut assessment comes into my memory of this man). Jittery walked to the edge of the cliff, the straight-down cliff, the smooth-no-finger-hold cliff, and vanished over the edge.

Spiderman. That’s what he was. He free climbed up and down and across. His fingertips found fissures and rough spots and he stuck like glue, scampered across that rock face.

I could barely force myself to edge. But I had to watch this spectacle. Finally, he crawled back over the lip into the land of the living. He didn’t fall on the ground and kiss it. He smiled and pushed us back from the edge. “You’re all too close.” All he said. His hand jitter was gone. He sounded at peace.

This most terrifying experience changed him, cleared him, and from the looks of things, he felt normal.

So I sit behind a computer dreaming up stories and I remember how death chased the jitters from a crazy man, and the idea for RUSH comes. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy. Maybe it’s me, whose idea of extreme sport is chasing my neighbor’s milk cows. Maybe I’m the nutty one.

Writing RUSH was my own trip into the world of the crazed. Into a place where safe feels like death and death feels like life.

And hey, I lived to tell about it!

*From http://knightagency.blogspot.com/2010/06/guest-blogger-jonathan-friesen-shares.html

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

SUMMER/FALL 2010 APPEARANCE SCHEDULE

Get your copy of "Rush" signed by the author. Jonathan Friesen will be signing books and/or speaking at the following venues this summer and fall. Drop by and say hello!
http://www.jonathanfriesen.com/

July 24, 2010

Scout & Morgan Book Store

Cambridge, Minnesota

11:00 a.m. Book Signing ALL WELCOME

August 12, 2010
Minnesota Reading Association, Annual Conference
Break-Out Presentation
Come by my booth and say hello!

August 28, 2010
Borders Book Store
Maple Grove, Minnesota
2:00 p.m. Book Signing ALL WELCOME

September 13, 2010
MN Christian Writers Guild
Speaker
Christ Presbyterian, Edina, MN 7:00 p.m. ALL WELCOME!

October 6, 2010
Borders Book Store
Book Signing, Meet & Greet
Rosedale, MN 7:00 p.m. ALL WELCOME!

October 9, 2010
Barnes & Noble, Teacher Appreciation Event
Guest Speaker, Educator Reception, Book Signing
Maple Grove, Minnesota 9 a.m. ALL WELCOME!

October 30, 2010
MCWG
Full-Day writer's workshop
Christ Presbyterian, Edina, MN ALL WELCOME!

November 11-12, 2010
Keynote, Crossroads Conference
Grand Junction, Colorado ALL WELCOME!

Welcome to the World of RUSH...

...a world of dare devil rock climbing, extreme biking, smoke jumping and the riskiest adventure of all---young love.

Equal parts romance and heart-pounding action, this novel will leave you absolutely breathless. Join teen Jake King, an adrenaline junkie turned hotshot firefighter, as he struggles with the one risk he cannot take: losing his best friend and secret love, the beautiful Salome Lee. But to Jake, firefighting is like breathing pure adrenaline. And if he doesn't stop soon, they could all get burned. . . .

Coming on the heels of his successful debut novel Jerk, California, Jonathan Friesen presents RUSH.

We'd like to invite you to take a ride on the wild side and visit the World of Rush.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I had the perfect life.
I was the grade-school star and the teacher’s pet. The world revolved around me and I suspected it always would. If you ask most people about their life, they don’t begin with fifth grade. But that was a good year.
Illness changed that. I retreated into a shell and escaped into words. Writing a story sucked the pain out of me, at least for a while. That’s when I learned to “feel” on paper. I didn’t think I’d be an author, I didn’t think I’d be much of anything, I was simply writing to survive.
Life changed in college. Health returned, the cloud lifted, and I got my teaching license.
Being a teacher, and being with those kids healed me. Surrounded by them, I relived periods of time stolen by childhood sickness. I was in my glory. But I couldn’t escape storytelling. All those years expressing myself on paper left their mark.
While my students worked, I wrote at my desk. JERK, CALIFORNIA, my first book, flowed out of my own “lost years,” but hope fills the pages. Writing it was a beautiful thing to experience.
I now live on a horse farm with my wife, three children, and a growing number of animals.
Our home is on a hill that overlooks a river that snakes through a beautiful valley. We tear along the stream on the 4-wheeler. My three kids race through the pasture and scale the sides of the sand pit; they search for agates and chase wild turkeys that trespass on the gravel road that connects our hill to the rest of the world. I have promised them chickens and horses, but for now they settle for bald eagle and bear. It’s a good place to play and write.
At night, I walk out and listen to the wind rattle paper-thin bark on our birch trees. I stare at stars nobody else has seen and start a bonfire so bright it chases all the stars away. Then, my clothes full of smoke and my mind filled with ideas, I come inside and write until my fingers get heavy on the keyboard.
I love it here.

RUSH by J Friesen

Pages

RUSH, The Video

Monday, September 20, 2010

Jonathan Friesen Shares His Inspiration for RUSH*

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

SUMMER/FALL 2010 APPEARANCE SCHEDULE