The best thing that ever happened to author Jason F. Wright was losing the Republican nomination for Congress to Chris Cannon in 2000.
One would think such a loss would be devastating to the aspiring Utah County politician, but for Wright and his family, it was the start of something much bigger.
"I cannot even imagine how my life would be different if I had come out ahead in that race," Wright said in a phone interview from his office in Woodstock, Va.
Following the failed election, the BYU graduate was offered a job writing with a think tank in Washington, D.C. For someone who was involved with a bunch of small-businesses, the idea of a real job with security was too hard to pass up, and Wright moved his family to Virginia.
There were other added benefits to Wright's move. His job required daily writing, and over the course of a couple of years, that began to rekindle his third-grade dream of becoming a writer.
In 2004, Wright made the move from political writing to fiction, and he's never looked back. Among his success has been making the New York Times bestseller list with his book "The Wednesday Letters" and his work as co-author of Glenn Beck's best-seller "The Christmas Sweater."
But it's not just selling books that makes Wright feel successful. "Of the 30 some-odd jobs I've held in my life, this is finally the one that feels right," he said.
It's a feeling that Wright translates to his work, including his latest book, "The Cross Gardener," which hit stores this past week.
"The Cross Gardener" is the story of a John Bevan, an apple farmer who loses the love of his life in a freak accident. The tragedy leaves him fractured and somewhat unable to care for his surviving daughter. It's only when a quiet stranger walks into his life that he rediscovers what life and family are truly about.
The inspiration for "The Cross Gardener" came from numerous roadside memorials sprinkled around the Shenandoah Valley where Wright lives. One such memorial of five little crosses is within sight of the author's home.
Maybe more than any of his other books, Wright said he wrote "The Cross Gardener" for himself and his own spiritual well-being. It was also the hardest thing he's ever written.
"It's the first book that made me cry as I wrote it, which is a little too pathetic to admit," Wright said. "But when I wrote Chapter 9 … I sobbed as I was typing, which I have never done even remotely. I had a really hard time keeping it together."
Wright admits he didn't deal well with his own father's death, and because of that, he said, his feelings were easier to get to.
"The feelings were just much, much, much closer to the surface than I thought," he said. "Frankly, the book, the process of writing and editing the book, might have done more for my healing process than anything over the past 20 years."
Wright hopes that his book will bring comfort to others as well. Particularly when it comes to the idea that no one dies alone. "I cannot believe that a loving god would send us into the world with someone — because even if you're born into a tough home life, no one comes into the world alone — and then make us leave the world alone."
While Wright didn't set out to write an inspirational or religious book, it felt natural to include those elements. And it's a genre he doesn't mind being associated with, saying that he's in good company with Mitch Albom and Richard Paul Evans, to name a few.
Though Wright will always consider himself a political junkie, he feels writing books that appeal to a broad range of Christians is more important. Doing this, he said, allows him to cross all boundaries with universal and bipartisan books.
And Wright is already hard at work at the next one of those "inspirational" reads. "Seventeen Second Miracle" — a fictional story about the lessons learned from the smallest of acts — is scheduled for release this October.
If you go...
Who: Jason F. Wright
When: March 11, 7-9 p.m.
Where: Borders, 132 E. Winchester, Murray
Also …
When: March 12, noon
12 p.m.
Where: Sam's Club, 1055 W. Hillfield, Layton
Also …
When: March 12, 7-9 p.m. Friday, March 12
Where: Deseret Book, 1076 South 750 E., Orem
Web: www.jasonfwright.com
e-mail: jharrison@desnews.com