Former instructor discusses new book

An hour north of Minneapolis, in a small house overlooking the Snake River, lives an author with a painful past.
Jonathan Friesen , a former University writing instructor, has struggled with Tourette Syndrome — a hereditary disorder that causes involuntary ticks or twitches, which can be physical or vocal — since he was 6 years old. Over the last two and a half years he’s used his battle with the disorder to write “Jerk, California “, a fictional story about a young man who is diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome and goes on a life-changing adventure.
The novel hit bookstores last week, and Friesen is coming to the Coffman Union bookstore Tuesday at 4 p.m. to talk about writing the book.
But Friesen’s real life story is as compelling as the one he invented.
Friesen developed Tourette Syndrome when he was 6, but he wasn’t actually diagnosed until he was 19. For the majority of his childhood, Friesen wrestled with a disorder that nobody understood.
“[Tourette Syndrome] wasn’t labeled yet,” Friesen said. “Everyone thought I was just screwing around.”
Friesen’s childhood was also riddled by asthma and epilepsy — a disorder that affects the nervous system and can cause severe convulsions and loss of consciousness.
Because of his disorders, Friesen said he stayed away from sports and didn’t have many friends.
“In school I was either passing out and flopping around on the floor, or looking like I was about to,” Friesen said. “People were like, ‘What’s going on with this kid?’ ”
Friesen fainted and twitched his way through school and went on to study at Bethel University , where he was kicked out after his second year. Friesen chose to not comment on why he was kicked out.
He enrolled at St. Cloud State University before finally returning to Bethel to get his degree.
During his time in college, Friesen attempted to major in guitar performance, secondary education, English, psychology and business.
He eventually settled on a degree in elementary education and landed a job teaching fifth graders in the Anoka-Hennepin school district. The job turned out to be a saving grace, Friesen said.
Through teaching, Friesen was able to get back the childhood experiences he had missed out on as a kid.
“Teaching gave me back the years I had lost,” Friesen said. “I just wanted to go out and throw a football around during recess.”
Friesen said his students didn’t care that he had Tourette Syndrome.
“Everybody is weird in elementary school,” Friesen said. “To them I was just Mr. Friesen.”
After a few years of teaching, Friesen said he finally became comfortable with his disorder and no longer feared what people thought of him.
But Friesen eventually decided to quit his teaching job and write a book about Tourette Syndrome.
Although Jonathan Friesen has written for most of his life, he didn’t get off to an easy start with “Jerk, California.” It took two years to write the first six chapters, he said.
Author Cecil Murphey has published more than 110 books and took Jonathan Friesen under his wing three years ago.
“The first writing he sent me was pretty awful,” Murphey said. “I kept telling him to open up and tell people who you are.”
Once Jonathan Friesen was able to be honest with himself, his writing drastically improved, Murphey said.
“Jonathan is an incredible writer,” said Friesen’s wife, Wendy Friesen, who helped him decide to write “Jerk, California.”
But it was difficult to relive his childhood struggles that inspire the emotions for the book, Jonathan Friesen said.
“I’d be writing and my hands would be jerking all over the keyboard,” he said.
Jonathan Friesen is contracted to write two more books for Penguin Book Group, and although he still has twitches and ticks, his future looks far more stable than his past.