I played 3 rounds of the gold tees at Earl Brewer park this weekend for the 2025 River City Open. I have a long history with this layout; I played my first ever sanctioned event here in May of 2021. Trial by fire, this course forced me to learn how to throw far.

Fast forward to 2025 with 50 career events under my belt, I had high hopes for three rounds of golds. Putt was feeling very good and after carding a -2 in the flex-start on Monday, I was pretty confident that I was going to shoot right around par every round.

Round 1 started out a little slow. I found OB by inches on the second hole I played and then went double OB on the next hole, gaining 3 strokes to start the day. I kept my head in the game and followed up with a solid putt for birdie on a 420’ hole and then managed to scrape together another 4 birdies to get myself back closer to par. I got some bad breaks through the last few holes, finding OB by inches on 18 and then whiffing my C1 putts on holes 2, 3 and 4. I was tired and hungry by this point, so I wasn’t too hard on myself and planned to lock-in for round 2. 

Round 2 started with back to back 3 putts birdogies, followed by a birdie. I rode that rollercoaster for the rest of the round, gaining strokes and losing them left and right. I checked out mentally half-way through round 2. I was tired, I couldn’t drive to save my life, and my upshots always seemed to land just outside of my comfortable putting range. A dead-center spit back on one of my last holes was the nail in the coffin of the day; it was the best putt I have ever thrown that didn’t go in. 

I strongly considered skipping the final round, seeing as the course was a 45 minute drive and I was feeling pretty apathetic, but after some dinner and a good night's sleep, I figured I’d take another shot at it. I felt confident about my putt and figured I had nothing to lose; maybe I would heat up and shoot a new record.

First hole of round 3; I pump a great forehand that takes an unlucky bounce off the road and puts me OB. I miss the C2 putt for par and then bang a 25 footer for bogie that boosts my confidence. I’m left with C2 putts for birdie on holes 2 and 5 that I leave a little short; I don’t sweat it. I throw my best drive ever on hole 6, but my disc touches into OB by inches. Hole 7, another one of my best drives ever; finds OB again by inches. My card mates sympathize with me as I try my damndest to stay motivated, but I can’t help but give into hopelessness.

A few holes go by and I’m just out of it. Soaring shorts putts and then making long comebackers. Uninvested and apathetic. I missed a ridiculously short putt for birdie on 16 and then threw OB on 17, but then decided that I would pull myself out of it for the final hole. I cranked my drive a pure 430; another one of the best shots I've ever thrown on the hole. Sure enough, inches inside of OB; how else could it have ended? Threw my upshot, chained out for my par, and then tapped in what I can confidently say was the most unlucky I have ever been in disc golf. 

I don’t often blame “luck” and I also take full responsibility for my apathetic mental state being a major contributor in my tournament turning out the way it did, but I stand by my claim that I had terrible breaks every round. Of course, it’s my responsibility to tend to my mental state and not let myself become dejected mid round, as this often produces a self-fulfilling prophecy, but when I hear at least once around from my card mates “that’s one of the unluckiest things I’ve ever seen,” it’s hard not to feel like my efforts are futile.

I usually do writeups after events as a way to get some of my thoughts out and to sort of distill the negative emotions so that they don’t cast a cloud over the whole event. One of the most positive things I got out of this event was my putt, despite still having some issues with it. I reminded myself before almost every putt to throw it confidently, which has been one of the most reliable ways to get it in the basket. I also got a ton of birdies. If I can just get rid of the bogies, I’ll be killing it.

I also really loved my upshots over the weekend, and honestly had some really spectacular drives. The missed shorties for birdie on holes 16 and 3 probably stung more than anything in the event, but that’s just because those are hard holes and birdieing them feels really special.

So now we have to go forward. I’ve got a couple more tournaments yet this season that I want to play confidently, and I can’t say this weekend has made me any less hungry for success. I know I can shoot 1000 rated golf; these last couple events have just felt like bad representations of my skill. I’m still chasing that -10 in sanctioned play, but I think I’ve developed a tendency to be streaky. I get hot and I get cold, which is not how I used to play, but I think it’s a lot more fun to play aggressively. In my mind, disc golf is the most fun when you are gunning for birdie on every shot; when you are stringing together 3-4-5 of them and you’re starting to get nervous because you are playing so well. That’s what I want my rounds to be, whether they are casual or in a tournament. 

Of course, going low is the objective of the game, but keeping in mind that I’m playing to get birdies and throw great shots rather than just try to “survive and get par” is what I think having fun golfing is all about. Hopefully I can do that at my next tournament and play the great golf I know I’m capable of. 

Back in June, I flew out to Seattle Tacoma International Airport in Washington with a friend of mine. We took the shuttle north to Bellingham, where we met up with our group at the American Alpine Institute to finalize our gear for a five days on Mt. Baker; a part of the institutes Alpinism 1 course - Introduction to Mountaineering.  (this was the first time I'd hiked anywhere over 6000' feet, with the Logan Pass continental divide in Glacier National Park being my previous record.) 

The course began with some rock climbing practice on Mt. Eerie (I learned I don't like rock climbing 😅) before we made camp for the night. Then we drove with our guides to the Mt. Baker trailhead and put on our backpacks that were loaded with 50-60lbs of gear. Over the next grueling 6 hours, we hiked through virgin forest with spectacular vistas, gaining approximately 1,500 feet of elevation over the course of 5 miles. After hiking up an outflow of snow with our mountaineering boots, we finally reached the top of a rocky ridge and made camp at the foot of the Coleman glacier (5600 feet).   

The next day, we practiced self arrest techniques, glacier travel and snow skills. The nearest water-source was a quarter-mile hike, so we melted now for most of our water. All of our team members chose to snow camp as well, so everyone dug out platform and utilized snow stakes.

Wednesday was deemed to be the best weather for a summit day, and so at 1:00AM, I woke up to the most surreal experience of being in the mountains at night. After some hot coffee and strapping on all my gear and crampons, I began the 6 hour roped-up climb to the summit. There was nothing quite like the shadowed mountains peaks against the clear night sky. It was both spiritually and physically one of the most mystifying places I have ever been. 

My fascination with the mountains began with Into Thin Air and blossomed into a whole library of books and cinematography of movies. Some of my favorites so far include Nanga Parbat (2010), The North Face, Annapurna by Maurice Herzog, K2 and No Easy Ways to the Top by Ed Visteurs, Touching the Void and Broad Peak.

Spring has been packed with tons of events and so much time outside in the lovely weather. I ran my first even disc golf tournament, The Lighthouse Classic, along with an unsanctioned doubles event the day after. We raised over $1700 for Lighthouse Christian Ministries and gave a lot of new disc golfers their very first tournament.  Me and Colin Troccko #302860 ended up taking down first place in the Sunday Doubles event with a -19, giving our winnings to the church as well. We got a ton of positive feedback and players asking for more events in the future, and so I'm planning to make this an annual event. All in all, it was great success.

The weekend following the Lighthouse Classic, I ran the Wildy Whitehall Open, which ended turning out 72 players. This was the first sanctioned tournament at Whitehall DGC since 2011, and though I made some mistakes running my first big events, I learned a ton ,and am hoping bring this event back next year as well. I'm currently scheduled to run two more sanctioned disc golf tournaments this season, one at Holton DGC on July 19, and a fall event with Great Lakes Disc at Lakeshore Discgolf Complex in Spring Lake.

As for my personal competitive season, I've logged 7 sanctioned disc golf tournaments with two more to go in May, and though I've been a little disappointed with my performance, I've been shooting consistent 915 rated golf. My putting and short game has been super strong and I know it's only a matter of time until I shoot a hot 1000 rated round. My biggest goals of the season in order are: 

1. Shoot a -10 or better in a sanctioned singles event

2. Shoot a 1000 rated round

3. Win a tournament in AM1

4. Cash in MPO

Disc golf aside, our homestead farm has been taking up a ton of time as well, which has been an absolute joy to work on, but this has put writing in the backseat...kind of. I've got an Amateur Feature article schedule for the 2025 Summer Issue of Disc Golfer, along with steady progress on my next book (yes, another one.) I'm just over 40,000 words into this fantasy, magical adventure book, and though it is taking a LONG time and it's probably still too early to get too excited about, I am excited. It's super atmospheric with a twisty plot and lot's of spells, castles and quests, and so if that sounds fun to you, rest assured, I will deliver a fun story (as soon as I can)

Speaking of books, I am also very happy to report that Jeff's Long Weekend is now my best selling book! With just under 50 copies sold and 3500+ pages read on KDP, I am over the moon about the amount of people reading the story! Seeing people's feedback and love for the book has given a ton of motivation to keep writing. The sequel is definitely a ways out, but absolutely still on the table. Writing books takes so much mental energy, creativity, time, revision and sacrifice (and self doubt), but I love when I hear that people are enjoying my stories. It makes all invested time and work worth it. It should go without saying, but I'm going keep grinding and producing the highest quality stories that I can.

I reached out to the xBackroom Youtube channel back in January with a query about advertising my backrooms book--Jeffs Long Weekend--on their channel. They replied quickly and offered to animate a full length video promoting the book. They asked me for the plot and the kinds of scenes I would like. The cost for this was $500 (250 upfront and 250 at the time of publication). I was likely to never recuperate this expense with book sales, but it still sounded like a great way to promote the work, so I drafted up a contract on paid the first half through PayPal.

They were initially very communicative and we talked for a bit discord. I gave them a plot breakdown and and some ideas for the video. The time frame was ~1 month, which is the most important promotional time for newly published books. 

Fast forward a week or so and I get a message that they don't like the cover and want something different. They pressured me to do a new cover and kept demanding responses while I was at work, which should had been a red flag, but I ignored it and just chalked up to artistic preference. They quoted me $135 for a new cover, which isn't bad in the world of graphic design, so I sent over half of that payment. 

About 2 weeks after I sent the initial payment, I got a message about how their animator had been involved in an accident and so there was a delay. My bullshit meter started tingling at this. Their story was that their animator, who lives in Africa, fell down the stairs and was completely paralyzed, and so now I had to pay them more ($700) for the animation. I'm already in for almost $400 with the cover and initial down payment and I don't have any proof that either has been worked on. So I got in touch with Paypal and opened a case. 

Suddenly they became very communicative because Paypal took all the money that I already paid them and put it in escrow. I told xBackroom that I had opened the case because they kept asking for money and that the story about their animator had made me lose faith. They were quite upset with me and still insisted that I pay more for the work, but I told them I would have no problem paying them the full amount at the video's publication and that I was most comfortable with the money staying in escrow because neither of us have access to it.

I had put myself in a position of power because now they no longer had my money. So, despite asking me over and over for more money, they did actually start working on the animation. I got my first glimpse of the video something like a month after paying them the first half. It was a brief, ~3 second blurry animation of my book cover on a pedestal. I was told that this was a first draft and what my thoughts were. I told them I liked it and that it looked cool and that I was eager to see the full video.

Fast forward to 5 weeks after our initial bid and they are back at it again, demanding money before publication. I told them I would pay the full amount once the video was like and have paypal release the funds (at this point, I had already won my case with paypal and the money was in my account. xBackroom never answered as to why they didn’t make me a cover, and Paypal ruled in my favor because they had produced no proof of the services I paid for.)

Conveniently, their paypal “stopped working” right around this time; they wanted me to send money through another means. I told them I use paypal for my business, but that I could use venmo for goods and services. Sure enough, that wasn’t good enough for them either; they wanted the money sent as friends and family. No way in hell was I going to do that, but I still had every intention of paying them (our contract had specified that the video needed to be live for 1 year, or I would due reimbursement for each missed month, thus having it as a business transaction offered me recourse)

So they drop the video without having me preview it and well, that blurry 3 seconds of exposure for my cover is the only reference to the book. Nothing in the video is even remotely close to my book's premise, and to top it off, they didn’t even honor the portion of the contract that specifies a call to action in the video.

I tell them this is unacceptable and that no part of the video directs viewers to the description where the link to the book is. They start listing off excuses. “We can’t redo the video or it will kill the channel. You didn’t say the whole video had to be about the book. We need the money, the least you can do is half, etc, etc.”

So I tell them they didn’t honor the contract and that the video had absolutely nothing to do with the book; I’m not paying $500 for 3 seconds of blurry cover exposure. They still “desperately” need the money to pay their animator (which, if you look at the video, the animation style is identical to their past videos, so I’m calling bs that they hired a new one). They offer to post on their TikTok for me, which I agree to if the terms of our prior contract are honored (a call to action and the video being reposted as a short on Youtube.)

 I don’t know why I’m still working with them at this point. It’s like the 7th time they asked for me to venmo them money as friends and family. I finally tell them I’m not paying anything until the contract is honored, and so they ghost me and pull the link to my book from the video.

The craziest part is that once I saw the video, I said “you wouldn’t even know it was about my book if they pulled the link. There’s nothing in the video about it.”

And sure enough, it’s now just another video on their channel that cost them nothing more than a blurry 3 second animation of my cover

I've spent the last month transitioning my disc bag over to full Millennium and Innova discs, which has so far only improved my performance on the course. Some of my favorite recent additions include my new putter: a Lunar DT Omega 4, along with the best fairway driver I have ever thrown: The Quantum Vela, a 7, 4, -1.5, 2. 

I've been searching for the perfect fairway since I started playing in 2020, trying Lat64's Explorer, Innova's Teebird, Leopard 3, and Eagle, and MVP's crave, but none of them have ever flown as clean and true as the Vela. Absolutely stoked about the disc and plan on picking up a dozen or so from the proshop. I've learned at this point that you must buy as many copies of runs of a disc you like as possible. 

In all honesty, was expecting a bit more trouble moving my bag over to full Millennium and Innova, but I'm feeling extremely confident in my current lineup. Here's some of the discs that I depended on from other brands that I've found high-performing alternatives to :

1. Lat64 Explorer to Millennium's Quantum Vela

2. Discraft's Z-Force to Millennium's Helio Scorpius

3. Discraft's Z-Raptor to Millennium's Quantum Draco

4. Discraft's CT Luna to Millennium's DT Lunar Omega 4

5. Discraft's Ringer Top Zone to a Innova's Pro-Pig

6. Discmania C-Line PD to Innova Thunderbird (Thundy has been in the bag longer than almost any other disc though)

7. Discmania's MD3 to Innova's Champ Roc3

Aside from these replacements, some of the other stuff I've been really liking throwing and has been in the bag for a long time

1. Innova DX Roc

2. Innova Star and DX Invader

3. Millennium Sirius Aurora

I'm also trying out a prototype ES-1 (11, 5, -2, 2) from Millennium for hyzer flips. Otherwise that's pretty much my bag. Straight forward, no frills, workhorse discs. Staying true to Millennium's mantra "Keep it simple, throw Millennium"

With my sights set high for the 2025 disc golf season, I am very happy to share that I will be joining the Millennium Disc Golf Silver Team! They are my first ever disc manufacturing sponsor and will be the only brand in my bag for this upcoming season. 

I will also be representing Team Great Lakes Disc for this upcoming season; my home disc golf shop and one of the biggest influences on my career as a disc golfer. GLD has been my home store since 2020 and has been absolutely instrumental in building my love for the game; I couldn't be more proud to represent them! 

I've partnered with Great Lakes Disc to run some PDGA sanctioned tournaments as well this season, starting off with the 2025 Wildy Whitehall Open

After a ton of behind-the-scenes work in the 2024, I am happy to finally kick off the new year with the release of Jeff's Long Weekend! I was done waiting for a publisher to pick it up, and after over 2 years of work, I am so excited to finally have the book out and to see what readers think.

The 78k word science-fiction novel about the Back Rooms will be available for free on Kindle and also available for purchase as an eBook on Amazon. I also will be releasing a link to purchase a paper back copy of the work in the next week or so once my distributor approves the files. 

Grand Rapids Disc Golfers United (GRDGU) is a community of local disc golfers that ultimately got me into playing disc golf events. After moving out to Muskegon in 2023, I realized just how much I lost without GRDGU supporting my local courses and players. I went from having leagues available every day of the week and sanctioned tournaments every weekend, to few, if any, local leagues and tournaments. 

This was extremely disheartening, to say the least. Muskegon has excellent courses and plenty of disc golfers, but after talking with the administrators of GRDGU about the situation out here, I learned that the community is simply split up. There are leagues and tournaments run by different groups, such as the Whitehall Harvest Moon Classic, and the Henderson Lake Open but ultimately Muskegon lacks a consolidated community group, like GRDGU. 

My objective is to unify the local players and simply get more disc golf events happening in the area, and with that goal, I am excited to introduce the 2025 Wildy Series. This series will be running sanctioned events over the 2025 disc golf season at courses along the lakeshore, including Whitehall, Lake Shore DG Complex, Holton, and more. These events will be run by Wildy Discs, which is the club I plan to use to unite the local player base. I also plan to get local leagues sanctioned to attract more players, and work with Great Lakes Disc at the retail sponsor for tournaments will bolster confidence and participation in these events. 

At this point, I'm a little sick of posting updates about Jeff's Long Weekend, but this will be the final blog post before the book is taken by a publisher (or I cave and self-publish; more on that later). I started this work in January of 2023 and finished the first draft in May of 2024. 5 months of revisions, edits, readthroughs, rewrites, and submissions have finally got me to the point where I can say that the book is completed! Endless revising is a trap that many writers can fall into, and thus finally getting this book done is both gratifying and liberating because it means I can move on to new writing. 

The difficult, not-so-creative part of this process, however, is the publishing side. I've been attempting to get the book published for roughly the last 6 months, with over 30+ submissions to publishers and agents. Each submissions is it's own 2-5 thousand word essay that often yields little more than a short, two-sentence long rejection email. If it sounds a little dejecting, that's because it is. Of course, getting denied is tough, but my years of freelance experience have gotten me very used to it; rejection is just a part of the industry. 

The hardest part is the lack of feedback I get for the time I've invested into submissions. Each one takes an average of 1-2 hours, which is time I could have otherwise spent writing fun stories (if this is sounding a lot like my gripes about self-publishing, that's because it's almost the same; time invested into things that aren't writing stories). Again, part of the job description; you don't really get the luxury of just making music, painting, or writing books until you have an established audience and someone willing to market your talents. Even if you're a really gifted artist, you still need to convince someone that you're worth their time and money.

Thankfully, I'm not deluded about the publishing process. I am well aware that it takes a ton of time and effort and absolutely nothing is guaranteed. The reality is that most artists will never see their craft alone earn them a living. That said, taking joy in creating art and sharing it is more impactful than any paycheck, and so perhaps this is whole blog post is just one big round-about way of me saying that I'm going to keep writing stories and blog posts, regardless of if it never makes me a penny. 

With traditional publishing, it's submissions that take away time from writing. With self-publishing, it's marketing, and regardless of which one I pursue, deciding how much time to allocate to the non-writing portion is where I tend to get a little conflicted; I like to focus on one thing at a time and really give it my all. With that in mind, my plan is to continue trying to get an agent that can help me get Jeff's Long Weekend on the shelves with a traditional publisher.

However, the whole "you might never get an agent" thing is, well, not going to cut it for my writing ambitions. I've invested far too much time, love, energy, and creativity into this book to let it remain forever unpublished. I'm not to that point yet, but rest assured, if the book isn't picked up by a publishing house within the next year, I'll be self-publishing.

This "news" aside, the really good news is that I'm finally back into new writing with a fresh mind because my last project feels done. Two full fiction books are currently on my upcoming works; one atmospheric, medieval, magical fantasy, and another modern drug and crime book set in the early 2000s. I'm super excited for both and already have a fair bit of each written, but I will be doing more articles and maybe even some short stories on here in the mean time.

NOW to finally get to the photo. This is a greenhouse my wife and I have been working on building for the last month with reclaimed building materials. We will be using it to extend our 2025 growing season and hopefully strengthen our farms production of food, herbs, and seeds. Long term, our objective is to establish both online and in-person store fronts. Psychonaut Eden is the name the farm was founded under, however we have BIG plans for 2025 that will include a rebrand and more product offerings.

I spent last week exploring the Great Smoky Mountains before getting caught in the wake of hurricane Helene. Nobody anticipated the scale destruction of Helene would cause. My prayers are with the families down there dealing with the immediate aftermath of the event. Thankfully, my party was able to evacuate the area swiftly, and while we did not have the capacity to offer assistance to others, I believe that we made the best decision in the midst of the fast-moving disaster. We were overly cautious, which kept us out of an emergency situation that would have taken valuable resources away from first responders. I'm doing this write-up to tell the story, as both a cautionary tale and to give great praise to the staff at the park for their handling of the situation.

We arrived at Balsam Mountain campground on September 21st with a reservation until the 27th. Our plan was to hike and explore the park, and while the campsite was wonderfully remote and scenic, it was quite literally on top of a mountain. The road leading up to it was a winding 35mph and was a flat 40 minute drive from Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee, NC. Our round trip time each day was usually minimum of 2 hours, ending with a night-drive up the winding Blue Ridge Parkway to camp.

Fast forward to 25th; we were taking highway 441 across state lines into Tennessee and had plans to climb Chimney Tops Trail. A last minute decision put us at Alum Cave Bluffs instead; 4.6 miles with 1400 or so feet of elevation gain. It rained for the first half of our hike, making the rocky paths slick, but once we had hiked a mile or so in, we got above the clouds and rain. The views from up top were spectacular, with clouds rolling through the mountains that made the vistas ever-changing. There were some sheer cliffs higher up on trail that turned my stomach while I was tiptoeing on the wet rock, but overall the hike was safe and very well defined. It was a good thing we turned back now.

The rain started up again in roughly the same place as we headed back. It was much heavier now, and was starting to flood some of the trails; I was glad were heading back to the car. We passed a few hikers that were still determined to get up mountain, but the thought of being high up on those cliffs with the worsening rain made me wary of their decision. That said, rain is frequent and very normal in the Smokys, and so while we were all soaked by the time we made it back to the car, I wasn't too concerned about the weather conditions. 

We drove through the rain to Gatlinburg for lunch, and after sitting down, we overheard some disgruntled guests talking about how their ticket to the SkyLift had been refunded. Apparently the weather was too bad to bring them up. My mom ended up asking them about it, and then the waiter chimed in. 

"The roads around here are closing from rock slides and downed trees. I'd be careful on those mountain roads, especially with the hurricane coming in."

This was not the first we had heard of Helene, and while we anticipated some heavy rain, we figured we were far enough inland to be out of the way of danger. Besides, we still had two more days paid at the campsite, and the forecast was looking like the bulk of the storm would hit Friday afternoon. Our plan was to get get up early Friday morning and head north out ahead of it.

Our plan changed when we mapped back to our campground and discovered that the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center had been closed. Instead of leaving Friday, now we planned to do one more night at Balsam Mountain and leave Thursday before things got hairy. However, now our only way back up to camp (where our tents, sleeping pads, and gear were) was to take the southern road 19 through the Cherokee reservation, past Soco Falls to the other end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

It was pouring and the sun was gone, but we had to get to camp. The weather conditions were only going to get worse in the coming days, and it was only a matter of time before more roads got closed. Fear and doubt started to creep in when we finally made it to the other end of Blue Ridge. We had never driven these roads before; they were winding, slick, and illuminated only by the dim lights on houses. We could see sheer mountain faces disappearing into darkness on either sides of the road, and visions of falling rocks tormented my mind. 

I had a lot of thoughts running through my head; what if we get stuck up here? What if our phone service dropped and we were now trapped up on a mountain in a hurricane? It was truly terrifying; I white knuckled the entire way up. Then another road closed sign popped up; 3 miles ahead it said. What now? Was there even a way up to the campsite? We looked at a map and saw that the road was closed at the junction to Balsam Mountain Road, so we weren't sure if we could even get up there.

We called the park dispatch to see if we could get an answer, and after talking for just a minute with the operator, she put us on hold as another emergency call came in.

"I'm sorry, we're very busy right now. There's a lot of accidents out there. Can you please hold?"

We were put on hold at least four more times before a ranger got on the line and explained what was going on. Balsam Mountain campground was closing; there was a mandatory evacuation the following morning at 9am.

"But is the road to the camp open?" I asked.

He said it was, and that we could try to make up there if we wanted. . .but, we had to get our gear out by 9am tomorrow morning; otherwise we would have to wait until after the hurricane. Most of the campers had already evacuated from the campsite that night, and while he had cleared debris from the road an hour ago, he wasn't going back up to the camp tonight and was aware of more fallen trees. There were too many other people in the park that needed help at this point.

We had pulled off at Jonathan Creek overlook while speaking with the ranger, and with the news that our stuff might be stuck up there for 3-5 more days, we had to try to get it. It was that, or get a hotel for however long it took for the camp to reopen. Park staff was not taking possession of people items at this point either, so if we opted against the hotel and went home, our only other option was to fly down from Michigan once the hurricane passed in a week. 

So, we started crawling up the road in our 2018 Ford Edge; we still had 10 miles to Balsam Mountain campground. Our GPS put us 30 minutes away, which would more than likely turn into an hour with how slowly we were moving. We were no more than a few hundred feet from Jonathan Creek overlook when something white in the road caught everybody's eyes.

"Is that snow?" I said in disbelief.

A resounding yes in the car put as all in agreement it was time to turnaround. The only problem was that the next turnout was more than 3 miles up the road, so we made a horrifying, mountain-side U-Turn in the pitch black night while rain battered the car. One of the scariest turn arounds I have ever done, but now we were headed down instead of up; thank goodness. Our gear was abandoned, but as we saw tiny balls of hail bouncing off the road, we were all certain that the decision to turn around was undoubtedly the right one. 

In about 20 minutes, we had gotten safely down the mountain and were now headed into Cherokee to stay at the hotel at Harrah’s Casino. I waited in the car while my wife and mom went to the front desk, and it was here that I felt a change in the atmosphere. As I looked out in the dark night beneath the bright lights of the hotel drive in, the quiet made the gravity of the situation begin to sink in. We just left all our stuff on top of a mountain because a storm shutdown the roads. The first responders for the park are overwhelmed, and a crisis is unfolding in the Smoky's.

I was too tired to really digest everything that was going on; things were happening too fast. We had woken up on a mountain that morning, immersed in nature, and now we were in a place almost completely devoid of plant life, surrounded by flashing neon lights and formally dressed folk. I felt out of place; we had come here to camp. You know, sleep in a tent, make breakfast on a fire, and spend all day hiking. But, we didn't have a whole lot of control over what happened, so instead of fighting it, we just went along with it.

It was about 11:30pm when my wife and mom split a bottle of Blackberry Wine in the hotel room and then we all headed out to the casino. Neither me nor my wife had ever been to one, and so, in a daze, we all wandered about in the sea of flashing arcade games and entranced gamblers. It was one of the strangest places I had ever been. Our group of three brought a total of $25, but no one had delusions about the night; we were here by fate to participate in whatever curveball had been thrown at us, not to go win money.

By 1:30am, we had turned that $25 into two coupons: one for $0.34 and another for $0.56. Money well spent to see what the strange inside world of a casino was like. 

We all slept in past 9; no one thought it wise to try and get up early and get back to the top of the mountain while the storm continued to rage outside. We talked a lot about our choice to leave over our morning coffee, but our consensus had not changed; even if we had made it to the top, the risk of a tree falling and blocking the road down and trapping us up there wasn't worth it. We had mostly given up hope of getting our stuff back, but figured we would go to the visitor center and see if, by some miracle, a ranger had bought it down.

We added up the value of all the gear; $2,200. That was more than anyone was expecting, not to mention the sentimental stuff. There were also more than a few items from deceased relatives up there too. We had to make another run at it before getting on the road for the 11 hour drive back home. 

We got to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center around 11am. The vibe was tense. A large sign posted in front of the main desk had information posted about the "historic flooding" that would be coming to the Smoky's from hurricane Helene. Park employees wore wide-eyed, stern expressions, from what I guessed was a long night of nerve-wracking work, and now the parking lot that had been packed with people over the last few days was almost entirely empty.  

We were quickly helped by a man behind the desk who gave our information to a park ranger. After a half hour of anxious waiting, the ranger called and had us meet him at Soco Falls overlook; he was going to escort us up the mountain through 4 or 5 locked gates so that we could retrieve our gear; a dream come true. 

Ashville 13 news caught us at the falls with the ranger and wanted a story. I gave them a quick description of what happened, but I didn't want to take up the rangers time. Plus, we were all anxious to get our stuff and get on the road before the hurricane hit; this wasn't the time to be telling stories.

Our escort back up Balsam Mountain was safe and problem free. We hastily packed all of our soaked tents and sleeping bags into the car and then got on the road. The ranger handled the situation well and acted with a high degree professionalism. We were taken aback by how well the GSMNP staff took care of us and I truly do not have enough good things to say about the folks over there. They helped us safely through a difficult situation and accommodated our needs.

As the saying goes, we "weren't out of the woods yet." By 11:50am Thursday the 26th, we drove through pouring rain from Cherokee to Maggie Valley and then to I40. It rained the entire drive. Roads had already starting flooding out in Tennessee and my wife was keeping an eye on the worsening storm conditions in the news. Our mission was simple; outrun the hurricane. It was getting worse with ever hour, and I had no idea how far north we had to go to get safe, so we just kept on driving. 

By the end of the day, we had all been in the car for well over 12 hours, starting at Harrah's Casino and ending in Cincinnati, OH. One of our more memorable stops during that 12 hour grind was at a Buc-ee's in Kentucky; the biggest, most well run gas station I have ever been to.

We followed the storms progress the whole time we were driving, which kept us on the road; we had to put absolutely as much space between us and the hurricane as possible. Media coverage of the devastation the following days was no less haunting; so many of the areas now in crisis were places we had been in hours earlier. We had quite literally gotten out in just the nick of time.

Once again, my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people affected by Helene.  

I participated in 12 PDGA sanctioned disc golf events this past season with good bit of up's and downs, but ultimately finished strong playing two A Tiers where I averaged above my rating. This was my first time competing in the Discraft Michigan Amateur State Championships and the 42nd Discraft Great Lakes Open. I'm excited to play in them next season and hope to make it a yearly tradition. 

Now onto the writing portion of things. . .in short, I've been doing a ton of work on queries and editing. I am currently on my 3rd pass through the entire 80k words of Jeff's Long Weekend and am certain this is my FINAL edit cycle. Not going through the self-publishing process has been admittedly a bit dejecting, as the book has now been "done" for nearly 4 months but is still not in paperback format. This perhaps the hardest part of self-publishing; I've invested hundreds of hours into this book and still have nothing to show for it. It is quite unsatisfying because it feels incomplete, and so I've been having some trouble moving onto other writing works. That said, this final pass through of the story is making me fall back in love with it and get that much more excited about getting the book into readers hands.

Aside from the liminal novel, I do have a polished piece of work that I have re-written nearly a dozen times now that is purely fantasy and atmosphere. It is one of those works where 20k words is cut down to only 2500. It just be like that sometimes, though, and I'm in love with the work, despite it being nowhere close to novel length. This, along with the sequel to Jeff's Long Weekend, are the two books I am currently working on writing. I plan to make a ton of progress on them over the winter.

Finally, there is something that has been on my mind for the last few months and after lot's of consideration, I believe it is the right choice. . .The Patterns of Existence: Definitive Edition.

Okay, I have no idea if it's actually going to be called that, but it will be a full revision and republication of the work. The two books will be combined into a single book of roughly 115-120k words. The stories in them were always meant to go together, and now with much more writing and editing experience under my belt, I'd love the opportunity to re-polish everything and give the stories another chance. I plan to pursue traditional publishing for the work, but have every intention of doing the republication, even if a publishing house won't take it. 

Four massive projects; Jeff's Long Weekend, it's sequel, Atmospheric fantasy, and the Definitive Edition of my memoir. A lot to chew and certainly not the extent of my writing ambitions, these are all things my readers can look forward too. Of course, magazine work and other side projects will inevitably come up, but these are the dreams I will be pursuing in the coming months!

The last three months have been extremely busy, but the fruits of the work were well worth the time. Jeff's Long Weekend, the liminal book I have been working on for the last ~2 years now is finally complete at ~80k words. I am in the process of making final edits, but plot and structure wise, the book is finished. I am officially moving into the publishing process, which is an undertaking in and of itself, but I am very hopeful for the prospects of the work. I'm already working on a plotline for the sequel, along with more ideas for liminal horror. Once I have confirmed a publishing date, I will be sure to write another blog post.

As for the half-awkward picture of me on the left, I had the very fortunate opportunity to cover the 2024 PDGA Champion's Cup Major in Morton, IL. My work at the event included some conversations with players, which should see publication in this years summer issue of Disc Golfer Magazine. There is potentially another article on top of this in the upcoming issue regarding Amateur Worlds, so be sure to grab a copy of the magazine. Otherwise, stay tuned on here for an update to the publications page and a link to the digital version once some time has passed since the hard-copy issue.

With disc golf season now in full swing, I will be competing at tournaments over the summer and (hopefully) taking down some victories to share on here. Summer also means growing season and crops, which as I have mentioned in prior blog posts, it is a goal of mine to eventually offer botanical products through both this site and my other store fronts. 

"But Christian, this is an author site. Why are you trying to sell me plants?"

To put it bluntly; I seek to expand my avenues to connect with people. The beauty of writing is that it can be used as a tool for all sorts of topics, and with agricultural being a fundamental part of my life, I figure it's a way to give me more to write about. Disc golf, liminal horror, and the metaphysical are certainly subjects I've taken a liking to, but as the saying goes: Why limit yourself?

Aside from these things, I also wanted share a tiny bit of a teaser from the Meteor archives. Pure, medieval fantasy; a swamp tower off the coast. Dark wizards and kings; no, these are not just fun words. A while back, I started book in this realm, and while it got brushed to wayside a bit while I worked on Jeff's Long Weekend, I have every intention of completing it. 

As with many of my past undertakings, the blog went cold for a bit while I was working on some different writings, but I'm happy to touch back here and share an update. January was an exciting month with to work with Disc Golfer magazine, as they made their 2024 winter issue available online, and gave me the opportunity to write an article for the Spring issue. The article is done at the time of writing this, and those magazines should get into circulation in late March. As with all of my articles, I will be sure to share a link to it on here once it's available.

Psychedelic Scene also published one of my articles a few weeks back on the Stoned Ape Theory, which suggests that human development could have been impacted by hallucinogens. It's definitely worth a read if you haven't heard of the theory or want a new angle on it, and if you're interested in more stuff in that realm, checkout another piece of mine they published on The Psychedelic Properties of Marijuana. It's been a ton of fun writing for this magazine, and though I often get wrapped up in other works and my book, coming back to write about the broad subject of psychedelics always flexes my creativity. I'll never run out things to write about on that topic, so you can count on steady supply of trippy articles from me.

I also have a few other small updates before I get to the book. I am currently waiting on a response from Backwoods Home Magazine on a multi-part article discussing an independently contracted home build. In short, my wife and I served as the general contractors for our home build, and in the piece I talk about what that process was like. It's written partially as a guide for anybody interested in building a home themselves, and what it takes to go from an empty plot of dirt to the home of your dreams. Backwoods decided to pass on my woodcutting article, which lays out the process of harvesting firewood, all the way from felling a tree to loading into the fireplace. I'm currently searching for a magazine to take the work, and will update the blog when I've done so. If you have a publication you'd like to see it in, feel free to reach out here.

Disc golf, psychedelics, bush-craft, and construction; I know, a colorful, seemingly unrelated set of topics. Even more unrelated is liminal horror, but casting a broad net keeps me interested in the writing. At the time of writing, my book is currently at 50,000 words, which feels like a huge milestone for the work. It will absolutely be a part of a series, and though I'm not decided on a final word count yet, I am beginning the process of finding a publisher. That will hopefully narrow in my word count, and keep us on track for a summer 2024 publish date. I've still got a lot of work to do on the book, but it is starting to feel very real, and I'm so excited to get it the hands of a curious audience. 

In the meantime, keep an eye on the blog for some of those upcoming publications and any other good reads. I'm hoping to get some more gigs with magazines, but in the event that I don't, the book will get done sooner and I'll publish more personal works on here.

Cheers!

December is shaping up to be a busy month for writing. The 2024 winter issue of Disc Golfer Magazine is set to release later this month with an interview piece I wrote for them on a young disc golf champion. Additionally, I've been working closely with the owner of Psychedelic Scene on three new articles, which should see publication throughout December and January. Backwoods home has also given the green light to some of my pitches on homesteading, including Hand Tools and Firewood Harvesting, Independently Contracted Homebuilding -Step by Step, and A Brief History and Guide for Crosscut Saws. These won't see publication until Summer of 2024, but I'm hoping to line up another article with Disc Golfer magazine for their Spring issue.

Aside from the freelance side of things, I am most excited to officially announce my new book in this post: Jeff's Long Weekend. The story follows Jeff, an HVAC employee who gets lost in the back rooms. From wandering endless liminal spaces to getting chased by abominations, this story will keep the pages turning. The genre is horror, as I do my best to capture the unnerving nature of liminal environments by putting myself in Jeff's place. The eeriness of the novel will sometimes keep me up at night, so if you're curious about getting lost in strange, un-settling spaces, this one is right up your alley.

I've still got a lot of work to do on the book, so the publish date is still TBD, but It's planned to release in mid 2024. This will be the first book that I will pursue traditional publishing route on, so I'm very excited to offer it to a larger audience. As with most of my books, I find it incredibly tempting to post samples of the work early, as keeping something like this locked up for so long is trying, but holding off makes the final publication that much more exciting.

On that note (and to wrap up this lengthy self-sharing post), I've decided to incorporate short-story posts on here. Stories that are fun and impromptu; a quick read. Maybe even a rant, or a thought stream on why lawns are dumb. You know, little stuff that get's some ideas going. Perhaps that's just blogging; a brief moment of dialogue with people who care to listen. I love it; can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

So yes, this post is the formal declaration of christianmeteor.com becoming a blog, for better or worse. A place to create and share what I love to do with no rules or guidelines. Ah yes, a blog.