The main character of my Sean Colbeth Investigates series has been with me for a long time.
I think the first time he burst into being was back in 2008. I’d been tinkering around the edges of a science fiction novel that didn’t seem to be going where I wanted it to go, and found myself suddenly thinking about the small towns along the rugged Maine coastline. I’d driven through a number of them over the years, but had rarely stopped in any; as with most things, when you live in the middle of paradise, you generally don’t see it for what it is and allow it to fade into the background.
For some reason, this idea of an idealized, amalgamated small fishing village popped into being. I could see clearly how Route One cleaved the center of town, with classic brick buildings on one side of the street, and the Atlantic on the other. And watching over all of it was a swimmer-turned-policeman who seemed to have relationship issues.
Slowly, the sci-fi book wound up getting ignored in favor of my wanting to get to know this town — and this new character. Sean became my guide, unlocking the secrets that, in an early draft of my first book, “were hiding beneath whitewashed picket fences.” Sadly, the fences didn’t make it into Blindsided, but quite a bit did — including his best friend, Vasily Korsokovach, a fellow swimmer who in the original draft was from the midwest and faked a Russian accent to score with the ladies.
Okay, so maybe not everything made it from that early version.