C.S. Elston

Worshipper, Husband, Author, Screenwriter, Home Cook, Fan

The Inspiration Behind “The Four Corners” Trilogy

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C.S. Elston

Admittedly, I’ve told this story before. But it answers a question I get asked a lot and, with the recent release of “The Four Corners of Darkness,” I thought it would be appropriate to, once again, share the inspiration behind the series.

I was driving down the 101 freeway just north of Los Angeles, California, somewhere between Studio City and Sherman Oaks about fifteen or sixteen years ago. Looking out the side window of my Jeep Wrangler as I passed by a sea of houses and apartment complexes, I don’t know why I was thinking about this but, all of the unhappy home environments that exist all around us entered my mind. I thought about the fact that a lot of people who feel unloved, really are in fact loved. They are just in an environment where the people who love them either don’t know how to say it or show it, or they’re too wrapped up in their own problems to recognize the ones they’re causing in the lives of the people they love by simply not expressing the love they really do have deep down. Sometimes, we just overcrowd that love with so much self-created, negative clutter, that no one can see it because it’s like a wonderful gift hidden in the back of the closet where no one will ever have the opportunity to enjoy it.

That got me thinking about how quickly someone’s attitude could change if they were faced with losing the person or people they love. Somehow, that translated into this fantasy world called Kadosh, which is a Hebrew word that means “set apart for a Holy purpose.” In the books, people are being yanked out of the real world and separated onto islands, presumably, for eternity. So, while God intends for these people to love one another, the fact that they are not doing that in the real world gives the demon ruler of this fantasy world the ability to pull them into his realm where he can keep them apart from one another.

Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. And, in an extreme situation like that, the aforementioned gift is going to find itself through the clutter in a hurry. Then what do you do? When love and regret overwhelm you like that, you can’t keep it inside. You must let the people you have those feelings for know about it. In the case of the Snyder family in “The Four Corners,” that means an incredible journey lies ahead. Ultimately, the risk is worth the potential reward.

The sequel, “The Four Corners of Darkness” is inspired, at least in part, by a one-act play I acted in while attending college at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. I think it was called “Doors” but, I can’t remember for sure and, I have no idea who wrote it. But the play was about a bunch of people who seemed permanently trapped in a house. The doors were locked and couldn’t be opened, and the windows had bars on them. It was an allegory about sin and salvation. Ultimately, someone from the outside, who had been there before and been shown the way out, had to go back inside and pay it forward. In the same way, while the Snyders and a bunch of others find their way back home at the end of the first book, their youngest child, Kinsey, recognized the responsibility that came with that accomplishment. He knew they would have to go back and show those who didn’t take the journey with them the first time, that there is, indeed, a way to get out and go back home. Now that the second book is out, I guess I’d better get to work wrapping this story up with the final installment of “The Four Corners” trilogy. . .

Common Design?

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I thought, this week, instead of a typical blog post, I would post a small excerpt from the first novel I wrote and had published, “The Four Corners.” I’m currently writing the sequel, “The Four Corners of Darkness,” so my head is in that space right now. The following is approximately the first page of a chapter entitled “A World Aware” and it occurs almost half way through the book. My hope with this post is that it can spark some conversation. I’ll paste, below the excerpt, links to where you can find me on various social media platforms. I’d love to know what kind of thoughts this excerpt generates about both the scientific and spiritual implications.

Without further adieux:

Like a plant, every person begins as a seed. Each seed contains the genetic make-up, passed on through the generations of family members in the lineage of the father who produced that seed.

It is then placed in the mother’s womb where it adds the genetic make-up from her lineage. The mother of all plants is the earth itself and, therefore, that womb is the soil the earth provides. For people, the womb is inside the mother’s abdomen.

Both wombs provide protection from the outside environment so that the seed can grow and start the process of becoming what it was created to be. Inside both wombs, the seed is provided with the nourishment required to mature into the plant or person it needs to become before it is ready to enter the outside world.

However, once the plant or person has entered that world, it is not meant to be detached from its mother just yet. The plant still has its roots embedded in the womb it came from and the person, while not physically, still does as well.

Both continue receiving nourishment from their mother. The plant still gets it directly from its mother’s womb. The person, however, can then be fed by either parent. Or, even another person.

In the outside world, the protection of the mother’s womb has significantly decreased. Both plants and people are still growing into what they were created to be but that growth is determined by additional factors. Not the least of which, physically for the plant and spiritually for the person, is how much exposure they have to both the light and the dark.

 

 

Excerpt from “The Four Corners” used with permission from Electric Quill Press, LLC.

 

Find C.S. Elston on: Twitter – @cselston; Facebook – facebook.com/cselston; LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/cselston

Summer Sabbath — Update

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Technically, autumn (fall) doesn’t start for almost three weeks. But, at least around here, school is starting back up this week and my wife and I are nearly over our “Where did it go?” shock and are starting to settle back into our normal routine that applies to all of the months outside of summer and the Thanksgiving through New Year’s stretch. So, I thought I would post an update to my June 9th “Summer Sabbath” plan.

The idea was to treat this summer as a sabbath season. My thought was that both the Sabbath and summer are already similar in the way that they are meant for rest in the sense of relaxation, connection and renewal. So, I wanted to spend this summer intentionally slowing things down and making it a season of connecting with family and friends, growing closer to the Lord, and recharging my proverbial batteries. I was encouraging others to do the same in the hopes that, by the time autumn rolled around, we would feel more prepared to tackle the rest of life than we had in years and, perhaps, we would decide that a reasonable amount of Sabbath should be part of our lives seven days a week and three hundred sixty-five days a year.

Well, here’s the update. I did spend a lot of time with family and friends this summer and it was wonderful. I also feel like I continued to grow closer to the Lord over the season. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I failed miserably on the “slow down” portion of my goal. In fact, summer is always a season when my wife and I get a lot of exercise and we barely had time for that. This summer was so packed, so full . . . I guess that’s why we feel like we practically blinked and missed it. It’s nice that it was full of so many lovely things but, I do regret not slowing things down a bit more. Quite a bit more.

Looking back on it, I think one of the main things that crowded the calendar, is that my wife and I both have trouble saying no to things. We need to give ourselves permission to say no even if we don’t have a good excuse. We don’t lie, which makes saying no a little more difficult than it is for some people. If they don’t have an excuse, they just make one up. We won’t do that. But, we need to learn to say no just because it’s the healthy thing to do for us. That’s okay. That’s actually all the excuse we should need.

Maybe next year. In the meantime, practice makes perfect. We’ll try our hand at saying no a little more often. And, as far as the general Sabbath idea, we still have Sundays . . .

Summer Sabbath

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I know the first official day of summer is still a couple of weeks away but, my niece (who’s in college) has been on summer break for weeks, my nephews are experiencing their first day of their break while I’m writing this and, my wife (a first-grade teacher) starts her break in just one week. Technically, I don’t get a summer break in the way that everyone I’ve mentioned does but, summer has been on my mind a lot lately.

A thought that I had never had until recently, and now suddenly can’t let go of, is the idea of summer as a Sabbath season. The two are already similar in the sense that they are meant for rest. Not necessarily rest in the sense of lying down and taking a nap but, rest in the sense of relaxation, connection and renewal.

This was true when we were kids and we finished a grade level and then took about three months off before starting the next one. As adults, we already tend to fill our summers with trips, family barbecues and sticking our hands in the dirt to do some gardening or landscaping. So, why not embrace what is already right there in front of us?

When I think about the Sabbath, which I celebrate on Sundays, I think about church and spending time with family. God rested on the seventh day and so should we. But, what if we took this summer and treated it like an extended Sabbath? Obviously, most of us can’t get out of going to work. That’s out of the question. But, we can intentionally slow down. We can strive to make it a season of connecting with family and friends, growing closer to the Lord, and recharging our proverbial batteries.

When autumn rolls around, we may feel more prepared to tackle the rest of life than we have in years. Or, we could decide that a reasonable amount of Sabbath should be part of our lives seven days a week and three hundred sixty-five days a year. Either way, I, for one, am going to give it a shot.

The Inspiration Behind “The Four Corners” Books

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C.S. Elston

 

For my first entry in this new blog, I thought it would be appropriate to share the inspiration for my first book and its upcoming sequel. So, without further adieux, the inspiration behind “The Four Corners” books…

I was driving down the 101 freeway just North of Los Angeles, California, somewhere between Studio City and Sherman Oaks about twelve or fifteen years ago. I was looking out the side window of my Jeep Wrangler and, as I passed by a sea of houses and apartment complexes, I don’t know why I was thinking about this but, I was thinking about all of the unhappy home environments that exist all around us. I thought about the fact that a lot of people who feel unloved really are in fact loved. They are just in an environment where the people who love them either don’t know how to say it or show it, or they’re too wrapped up in their own problems to recognize the problems they’re causing in the lives of the people they love by simply not expressing the love they really do have deep down. Sometimes, we just overcrowd that love with so much self-created, negative clutter, that no one can see it because it’s like a wonderful gift hidden in the back of the closet where no one can enjoy it.

That got me thinking about how quickly someone’s attitude could change if they were faced with losing the person or people they love. Somehow, that translated into this fantasy world called Kadosh, which is a Hebrew word that means “set apart for a Holy purpose.” In the books, people are being yanked out of the real world and separated onto islands, presumably, for eternity. So, while God intends for these people to love one another, the fact that they are not doing that in the real world gives the demon ruler of this fantasy world the ability to pull them into his realm where he can keep them apart from one another.

Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. And, in an extreme situation like that the aforementioned gift is going to find itself through the clutter in a hurry. Then what do you do? When love and regret overwhelm you like that, you can’t keep it inside. You must let the people you have those feelings for know about it. In the case of the Snyder family in “The Four Corners,” that means an incredible journey lies ahead. Ultimately, the risk is worth the potential reward.

The sequel, “The Four Corners of Darkness” is inspired, at least in part, by a one-act play I acted in while attending college at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. I think it was called “Doors” but I can’t remember for sure and I have no idea who wrote it. But, the play was about a bunch of people trapped in a house and they couldn’t get out. The doors were locked and couldn’t be opened, the windows had bars on them… It was an allegory about sin and salvation. Ultimately, someone from the outside had to come in and show them the way out.  In the same way, while the Snyders and a bunch of others find their way back home at the end of the first book, the youngest child, Kinsey recognizes the responsibility that comes with that accomplishment. He knows they must go back and show those who didn’t take the journey with them the first time that there is, indeed, a way to get back home. And, that’s the book I’m working on right now…