Meet Marie

Welcome to the home of Marie Christiaon and my library of books. As you can see, this is a work in progress, but I hope that this can be a project that continues to grow. But for now, I think I will start with the basics.

So who is Marie Christiaon? I am a native Idahoan, and have lived my life in various parts of the state. Growing up, most of my best memories were about the time spent in the mountains, even though it seemed to be too short. I found a great love of the natural beauty that surrounded me and the wildlife that often crossed our path. It also gave me an odd sense of independence. Even as a child, I found myself heading up a trail or down the bank of a stream. Not that it always set well with my mother. Unfortunately, as times changed, so did the type of vacations.

Like most people, after high school I went off to college. Being that I was somewhat naive and awkward, I had some rather difficult transitions. I was also facing something I had loosely come in contact with before college, an attraction to women. It was fortunate that even at that time, there was a strong community. But after a few botched relationships, and a last major blow-up I was ready to leave the area. So after graduation, I had to decide where to go.

Being that I was still uncertain, I picked an area that I felt had a good community, was still close to family and kept me close to the mountains. From there I again found myself in relationships that didn't work well. But I had made some good friends along the way.

The next chapter of my life started when through a series of events, changed the direction of my life. After the last break-up, I was once more adrift. That was until I met someone who, for some reason, fell in love with me. Not that after all of the previous relationships, I could trust her. But as hard as I tried to resist, I just couldn't Whether it was the spark in her eye, or the love that she offered, I finally realized that she was here to stay. It also helped a great deal that she also had a love of the mountains, streams, and anything that allowed us to enjoy the natural beauty. Now if I fast forward from the beginning, I can say that this year we celebrated our 40th anniversary.

As for what brought me to start writing, that is another story. A long time ago, a friend of ours, who had been in a few relationships, jokingly said that if we could bottle what we had, we could make a fortune. Then something was said about writing about our lives. At that time, I guess I took it literally. But what could a couple of twenty-somethings have enough to write about. So for years, my desire to write just lay dormant. Not that is wasn't still there, but every time I tried to write, it never went anywhere. Besides, by that time, life seemed to be taken up by work, family and all the things that keep one constantly in motion. It wasn't until 2003 happened. Not to go into the crazy year, but let's just say that if things could go wrong, it didn't all have to come on that one year. I really can't tell you what sparked it, but this idea came into my head. Maybe I couldn't write about our lives, but I could write about these fictional people who lived the mountains, loved animals and had their own share of relationships. Of course, instead of a long relationship, I decided to make Eva a woman who lost the love of her life. And so it began. For the next several years, I could say I spent most of my time either writing or thinking about the story. It didn't matter what I was doing, the story just kept running through my mind. When I finally reached the ending, an ending I knew from the very beginning, I had written over 660,000 words. A bit long for a book. Since at that time I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, I set it aside and started on a different book. But for now, I will leave that for another section.