Part of Series
“His life is not a vacuum. The things he says and does, decisions he makes, reverberate in ways he can’t begin to fathom.” In the year since his tenure as Governor of Montana came to an end, Carson Wirth’s life has been little more than a victory lap with time spent back in his hometown of Helena, free to make the perfunctory rounds as something of a minor celebrity. Someone to give the occasional guest lecture at the local college or to offer a sound bite on the evening news. His existence isn’t without its benefits, but when an opportunity presents itself to insert himself into a newly vacated United States Representative seat, Wirth jumps at it, envisioning an entirely new act for his career. An act that many others aren’t nearly as excited to see come to pass. Hours after stepping off the stage to receive his endorsement from the outgoing representative, Wirth wakes up alone in an old farm outbuilding. Handcuffed to a steel chair bolted to the floor, he embarks on a night painstakingly put together by his captors, each moment meant to impart the full repercussions of every decision he made overseeing the state. Some with consequences reaching far beyond anything he ever intended…or even imagined.
Author
I originally hail from the midwest, growing up in the heart of farm country, and still consider it, along with West Tennessee, my co-home. Between the two, I have a firm belief that football is the greatest of all past-times, sweet tea is really the only acceptable beverage for any occasion, there is not an event on earth that either gym shorts or boots can't be worn to, and that Dairy Queen is the best restaurant on the planet. Further, southern accents are a highly likeable feature on most everybody, English bulldogs sit atop the critter hierarchy, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a Saturday night spent catfishing at the lake. Since leaving the midwest I've been to college in New England, grad school in the Rockies, and lived in over a dozen different cities ranging from DC to Honolulu along the way. Each and every one of these experiences has shaped who I am at this point, a fact I hope is expressed in my writing. I have developed enormous affinity for locales and people of every size and shape, and even if I never figure out a way to properly convey them on paper, I am very much grateful for their presence in my life. To sum it up, I asked a very good friend recently how they would describe me for something like this. Their response: "Plagued by realism and trained by experiences/education to be a pessimist, you somehow remain above all else an active dreamer." While I can't say those are the exact words I would choose, I can't say they're wrong. I travel, live in different places, try new foods, meet all kinds of different people, and above all else stay curious to a fault. Here's hoping it continues to provide us all with some pretty good stories...
