When Samantha Hawkins developed life-threatening brain hemorrhages, husband Austin was crushed as his life turned upside down.
That was three years ago when the couple was living in an RV and working at Grand Teton National Park. For years, they had enjoyed a nomadic life, working from Alaska to Hawaii and traveling wherever the winds carried them.
As Samatha battled the brain hemorrhages, the couple realized that they needed some more permanency for her medical care.
They moved from their jobs under the Tetons to Lander, Wyoming, where Hawkins found a job in tourism with Herrmann Global.
As they settled into their new roles, Hawkins was faced with the reality of just how fragile life really is.
It was a wakeup call for the aspiring writer, who had been toying with the idea of writing a book for nearly a decade.
The sudden onset of Samantha’s condition sparked an urgency in Austin to get busy writing.
“All of a sudden, it was if I had a timer and realized that I have to do this now if I'm going to do it,” he said. “When she got sick, I wrote the first draft. Then she got pregnant, and I wrote the second draft.”
His resulting work of fiction, “Going Nowhere Slow,” was picked up by Amaranth Publishing in Laramie and published this year.
It has been both a labor of love and one of therapy as his wife had a long and arduous road to recovery.
The illness that had prompted Hawkins to finally write his book had begun as a malformation in Samatha’s brainstem that caused hemorrhages.
She lost some feeling in her hand and other physical sensations because the malformation was pressing on her nerves, Hawkins said.
Last summer, she started having a series of hemorrhages and ended up having surgery.
“She’s amazing for having such an invasive and scary surgery,” Hawkins said. “She's just always so positive and was back to work in two months making jewelry.”
This go-getter attitude of his spouse helped Hawkins while he pushed himself to write his first novel and prepare for fatherhood with the birth of their son, Arthur.
Author of “Going Nowhere Slow,” Austin Hawkins of Lander, Wyoming, is inspired creatively by his outdoor lifestyle for his writing. He is raising his toddler son as an adventurous spirit and teaching him the value of reaching for the stars. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Austin Hawkins was inspired to finally the book he had been thinking of for nearly a decade when his wife, Samatha, became ill with a life-threatening brain hemorrhage. His book "Going Nowhere Slow" is described as "a razor-sharp, darkly comic coming-of-age novel about dead-end ambition, failed relationships, and the long, strange road to figuring yourself out.” (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Austin Hawkins, author of “Going Nowhere Slow,” finds his creative writing spark by the Wyoming wilderness and his new book will be based in Lander, Wyoming. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
New author Austin Hawkins enjoys the outdoors of Wyoming and uses his exploration of the Cowboy State as the creative inspiration behind his writing. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Austin Hawkins, author of “Going Nowhere Slow,” enjoys exploring Wyoming however he can which, in this case, is from horseback. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Austin Hawkins, author of “Going Nowhere Slow,” was also featured in several anthologies including "We are the West: A Colorado Anthology.” He is pictured here during an author reading. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
The key to his writing, according to Austin Hawkins, author of “Going Nowhere Slow,” is getting outside to experience the outdoors. After his wife became ill, he started writing the book he was inspired to write after years of working in outdoor tourism. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
The main character of Austin Hawkins’s new book, “Going Nowhere Slow,” was inspired by all the Peter Pan type co-workers he met at every national park he worked at, whether it was in Alaska or Hawaii. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Whether exploring ice caves or on another adventure, Austin Hawkin’s finds creative inspiration for his writing in the outdoors. He recently wrote “Going Nowhere Slow” based on his work in national parks across America and his latest piece of writing will be based in Lander, Wyoming, where he now makes his home. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins) 
Austin Hawkins believes in doing research for his books by living life as big as possible. He is pictured here with his 20-month-old son, Arthur, who is his tagalong on all his outdoor adventures. (Courtesy Austin Hawkins)
The Creative Inspiration
Hawkins describes the novel as “a razor-sharp, darkly comic coming-of-age novel about dead-end ambition, failed relationships, and the long, strange road to figuring yourself out.”
The idea for his main character, Thurston Ford, and the story itself first emerged when he was a teenager working at Estes Park, Colorado, at a couple of lodges.
“I kept working seasonal jobs,” he said. “I ended up in Alaska, where I met my wife, and we worked in Maui and then Jackson Hole. I kept noticing that the same Peter Pan-type guys were at all these places.”
Intrigued by the similarities, Hawkins wanted to bring the character to life in his novel.
He said that at each location he worked, he would meet a carbon copy of the same guy.
“They all loved Jack Kerouac,” he said. “They all loved his books and never really wanted to grow up. I just kept running into (people like) that guy who was in ‘Arrested Development’ that works in all these tourist towns.”
Kerouac wrote his wildly popular “On the Road” in 1957 based on his travels with friends across the United States.
It highlighted the postwar beatnik and counterculture movement featured against a backdrop of jazz, poetry and drug use.
As Hawkins got to know these seasonal workers striving to be like their idol Kerouac, he saw the dark humor behind their stated purpose in life to be footloose and free without any obligations.
“I just wanted to write a satire of ‘On the Road,’” he said.
Inspired By Wyoming
As Hawkins wrote away in Lander, his new job was also an inspiration as he continued to meet the people involved in tourism.
“The book stayed fresh, even though it took 10 years to write, because I could talk to people and find out if these are the type of people still working as seasonal workers and if the other issues I wanted to feature were still current,” he said.
Now that his first book is finished, Hawkins said he’s not waiting another decade to get started on a second.
He’s already working on another novel, this set in Lander.
“It's kind of inspired by the conservation efforts and the conflicts that I see here,” Hawkins said. “I'm trying to write a horror, but we'll see if it ends up being scary.”
As for his family, Samantha had her surgery in November and then a long recovery.
Hawkins said that she is doing much better now and both are kept busy with their now 20-month-old son.
After living all over the United States, Hawkins said Wyoming stands out as a place where people seem to come together and celebrate each other the most. He especially enjoys the encouragement he has received to keep on writing.
“I really enjoy the tourism aspect and just Wyoming in general,” he said. “A lot of my coworkers have roots in Wyoming, and we all want to share the best parts of Wyoming with each other.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
