Spoiler alert: this blog entry reveals specific plot points in Vengeance. If you don’t want to spoil any surprises, you might want to save this entry for a later date. (You’ve been warned.)
One of the incredible perks of working for the University of Arizona is experiencing first hand just how deeply ingrained science is to our collective DNA. In my two decades on campus, I’ve been privileged to watch as we landed a robot on Mars, landed another robot on Mars, and then returned a sample from an asteroid to Earth — and that’s just the big stuff that made a public splash. Most people don’t know we help to chart Near Earth Objects that might someday crash land, or that we pioneered wastewater reconnoissance during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, I often find myself quite jealous of the work my colleges in the various labs across campus do; it makes the business applications I design seem somewhat less elegant in comparison.
The recent solar eclipse on April 8 was an excellent, albeit rare, chance to see that science in action; along with a colleague from my team, we traipsed over to the wide, grassy mall at the center of campus in the hopes of peering through one of the many special telescopes the Lunar and Planetary Sciences department generally has available for sure celestial events. As you can tell from the photos, though, the place was jam-packed with people from all walks of life, there to experience a unique moment that likely won’t pass again through our region for another couple of decades. I had a pair of trusty eclipse glasses with me, so despite not being able to reach the telescopes, I still had a fine view of what was about a 70% totality — just enough to make the day feel slightly overcast for about an hour. Walking back to the office, I thought about how it didn’t seem all that long ago that I’d been standing in that same spot back in September 2017 watching a total eclipse with my wife; we’d taken the morning off to experience it together, a moment I will treasure forever.
I mention those two waypoints as they are interesting touchstones in my journey as an author. In 2017, I’d begun to seriously think about pulling together the various threads of what would become Sean Colbeth and his universe, but hadn’t quite gotten over that initial hurdle of sitting down and pounding out the first draft. Now, in 2024, I’ve just published the sixth book in that series and am well into work on the eighth. What an amazing journey it has been in such a short, short time.
Vengeance has done relatively well in its first few weeks out on the market; I am, as always, humbled to know that there are fans out there who took the time to pre-order a copy in advance, or grabbed a copy within a few days of release. What has been immensely fulfilling for me over these last six — well, I suppose eight — books is watching how Sean Colbeth has evolved as a character. Blindsided will always have a special place in my heart, to be sure, but the version of Sean appearing is quite different than the one in Vengeance. Admittedly, some of that is due to how I structured that first, pivotal book in the series; I didn’t want to load down the plot with tons of backstory, opting instead to spool that out over the course of the series.
I’ve also grown as a writer, something that has allowed me to explore every nook and cranny of the people I’ve created for these stories. The real world around me has changed since I began, too; I can’t help how some of that has affected the tone of the stories, the environment Sean finds himself in or the people he’s often forced to deal with. When I started writing Belie a few weeks ago, it was during an unusually turbulent period for me emotionally; while I often use real-world events as inspiration for the cases that Sean investigates, I think my somewhat bleak view had me returning over and over again to the mass shooting that took place in Lewiston last year. Having grown up just an hour or so south of there — and in a state where such things simply didn’t happen — I started wondering first how the community would react, and then, ultimately, how Sean might handle working such a tragedy.
The answer has surprised me. Picking up a few months after the events in Solitude, I found my hero unexpectedly short-tempered and on the cusp of burning out. His relationship with Suzanne is still on uncertain ground, too, which pushes him into some questionable decisions that will come back to haunt him. While not exactly a hot mess, he’s kinda close, questioning why he accepted the position with the State instead of just riding off into the sunset at the end of Vengeance.
Okay, so admittedly Sean isn’t the kind of guy who would do that… but then again, he’s in such a different place in Belie than I’ve ever seen him before. Maybe this Sean would. He hasn’t yet — and I’m not expecting him to — but just the fact that I’m even thinking that about him has me worried. They say that people often have second acts in life; I’m starting to wonder if Sean has designs on something I’ve not yet considered. A third of the way through Belie, I honestly have no idea. Yet.
Stay tuned.
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