The Kingfisher and the Crow: how this book came to be.

When Pete and I first announced the publication of Kingfisher on our social media accounts, the most memorable comment I received was from a friend who asked a very fair question:

 Wait— what?

My friend was not alone, apparently, in her surprise about the news. Both Pete and I have been greeted with somewhat mystified congratulations about our book, given our day jobs. Very few people knew we were working on it. So while we are waiting a few more weeks for Kingfisher’s release, let me catch you up on how we got here.

***

It all started when bad weather ruined what might have been a good day of fishing. Pete loves bass fishing, and he invited me to Rhode Island for some fishing at a cabin he had rented on a small lake in mid-October. I agreed to join him so we could catch up and he could razz me for scaring all the fish away. The tackle, whiskey, and wisecracks were all ready to go when the snow hit.

Yes, you read that right. Snow— inches of it, overnight. We were stuck inside. At some point during a game of cribbage— which I was winning, as I am sure Pete remembers— I mentioned that I had been working on a novel. He gave me a shocked look, then told me he was working on a short story.

I had known this guy for decades. How did I not know that he also liked to write? No matter. We spent the afternoon working on our stories and talking about writing. That was the beginning of the beginning.

***

A few months later Pete called me with an idea— we would write a book together, a thriller, just to see if we could pull it off. He would write from the point of view of the villain. I would write from the point of view of the hero. Somehow we would put both of those points of view together into one story. We agreed to talk on the phone every Sunday night until we either had it done or decided to give up. I wasn’t getting anywhere with my own novel, and we were both stir crazy from the lingering pandemic restrictions. So I agreed.

Our goal was to finish— something, anything. If it was any good, we would print a few copies and give them away at Christmastime.

Neither of us would have believed that our little side-hobby would one day be available on Amazon.com.

***

Our near total ignorance of the creative process was a tremendous advantage. There was no wasting time arguing about whether we were “doing it right,” because neither of us knew what that would mean. So we relied on our own life experiences to guide us and just went after it.

What you will find in Kingfisher— how we describe the world of Washington, D.C., its inhabitants, their personalities and quirks— are rooted in our own experiences. I spent a few years as a twenty-something in Washington bar-hopping with underpaid staffers and interns. Pete spent decades working in or around the political process and has forgotten more about congressional fundraisers than I will ever know. Pete has family roots in upstate New York. I was raised in Wisconsin and have forgotten more about débutantes and steely-eyed matriarchs than Pete could bear to know.

That said, our cast of characters grew to be more than the sum of our memories and impressions. Somewhere along the way, they began to finish the story for us, and by the end of the first draft, had taken it in a direction neither of us had expected.

In a future post, I’ll take you further behind the scenes of Kingfisher and its characters. After you have met them. Believe me, there’s a lot to say.

Until then, spread the word— The Kingfisher and the Crow arrives November 12th!

Tim