Why I Wrote This Book

I did not set out to write a novel. 

Elias Wynn: The Witness began during a season when my life no longer felt safe or predictable. I was studying neuroscience, working as an EMT, serving in my church, and preparing for a future in medicine. I was close to finishing a long undergraduate journey, and my wife and I had already begun looking seriously at what the next step could be. 

Then my body started failing in ways I did not understand. 

At first, I thought it was me. I thought maybe I was not disciplined enough, not healthy enough, not strong enough. But I was going to the gym, working, studying, serving, and trying to build a life. Still, I could feel myself getting weaker. 

In January 2025, I was diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis, formerly called Wegener’s disease. By then, much of the life I had been trying to hold together had already started to come apart. 

I did not know what to do with that. 

During that season, I started therapy. My therapist encouraged me to journal again, but I did not want to sit there writing about myself. I did not want to pity myself. So he suggested something different: write from someone else’s perspective. 

At first, I did not do it. 

Then one day, while I was home, I asked God what I was supposed to do. The idea came suddenly: write what I was going through, not as myself, but through the life of someone else. 

That was where Elias began. 

I wrote the first chapter without planning to write a book. But when I finished it, I realized there was something there. A story. A voice. A way to tell the truth without simply explaining myself. 

That first chapter became a novel. 

This book is fiction, but the fear, grief, confusion, anger, and stubborn hope underneath it are real. I tried to write honestly, but with restraint. I did not want to dump pain onto the page just for the sake of pain. I wanted the darkness to mean something. I wanted the suffering to point somewhere. 

Elias Wynn: The Witness is not an easy read. It moves through illness, trauma, spiritual pressure, manipulation, and the terrifying desire to be healed. But I wrote it with hope in mind. 

For anyone who has felt trapped in their body, their mind, their past, or their fear, I hope this story reminds you that you are not alone. You are not lost. There is still hope. There is still light. 

Sometimes the light is not found where we expected it. 

Sometimes, in this world, you only recognize the light because you have seen the darkness around it. 

And sometimes you have to step into the ugly places to find out that God has not left you there. 

That is why I wrote this book. 

Stay with the light.