Christopher H. Jansmann's Blog

One of the most interesting creative challenges I face when writing is remaining true to the spirit of my characters. It’s not just ensuring they sound consistent to the reader from book to book; I mean, that’s important, obviously, especially since I bounce back and forth between Sean Colbeth and Vasily Korsokovach. Those two have many similarities, to be sure, but they are unique personalities who see the world quite differently. Hearing Sean say something Vas might utter would kind of spoil the magic — or at the very least, make the reader think the author was just phoning it in.

But beyond that, it’s also means striving to ensure I adhere to this rather long (and mostly unwritten) list of rules for how my characters interact with the world around them. I’ve touched on that before in a different context, namely the rules of magic that Ocelot has to follow; while that was partly for my benefit to ensure I had him cast the same spell the same way for nearly the same reason throughout Reflection in the Shadows, it also helped to ground the story in a believable way. As readers, by the time we reach the finale we kind of know what’s in his arsenal at that point so his resolution makes sense (and wasn’t plucked entirely out of thin air). I suppose that’s also a side effect the mystery writer side of the house, i.e. my desire to make sure I’ve sprinkled enough context throughout the story that the reader might make the same connections my detective is making (or, in Ocelot’s case, select the same spells).

For Sean and Vasily, that also extends to ensuring they are incredibly consistent in how they apply their morality and ethics. I’ve written both of them long enough now that I can easily tell when I’ve begun to go off the rails on something and will pull it back in line with where they need to be. While such a diversion could conceivably be interesting, plot-wise, I always weigh that against whether it moves the character forward in some concrete way, growing them into the next iteration of who I want them to be — or if it was just a fun passage to write that lends nothing more to the story than a few pages of shock. When it’s the latter, I know I tread dangerously close to damaging my character’s relationship with the reader, damage that cannot often be repaired easily.

This is top of mind for me at the moment as I’m finishing up that bonus section of Aftermath I mentioned last week. It’s a minor spoiler to reveal that writing that addition has required me to justify what exactly happened between Sean and Suzanne; it’s also forced me to look at the final chapters of the prior book — Belie — and reassess them from Suzanne’s point of view. What was she actually feeling in those last moments? How certain was she of the path she’d chosen — and how did that certainty change in the hours and days and weeks that passed afterwards? I had a sense of all of that when I closed out Belie, but now that I’m right back into the thick of it with Aftermath, I’m finding her view on events is not quite what Sean reported back to us as readers.

Does that mean I might be breaking my own rules, then?

I’m honestly not sure. Part of me says no, for we were seeing everything through Sean’s eyes — seeing it as his truth. I don’t go in for the unreliable narrator format, so I believe Sean told us what he thought he experienced. Was it tinged by his own emotions? Unquestionably, almost as much as what I’m now seeing from Suzanne’s end of things. Am I surprised that two things can be true at the same time? Not in the least, especially when humans are involved. My challenge now is to make sure it continues to ring true, and that whatever resolution I am working toward passes the plausibility test — for both myself, as the author, and for you, as the reader. We both have some level of investment in this, so I know I need to get it right.

No pressure…

I’m just back from an amazing long weekend in Southern California, visiting with friends while taking part in what will be the last Disneyland Half Marathon weekend for a bit; with all of the upcoming park construction, runDisney is pausing events in Anaheim, though they will still take place out in Orlando. As much as I love Walt Disney World, it’s hard not to be partial to the coziness of Disneyland — especially when the 5K stages the corrals along Main Street, U.S.A. Somewhat foolishly, when I registered for the race I thought I’d be over my desire to run a half marathon and only signed up for the 5K and 10K events. Once I arrived on site, though, I quickly realized I’d made a mistake, especially given how wonderful the weather turned out to be. Now I’m going to have to wait it out, or break down and drag my wife back to Florida again in order to experience the unique magic that is a Disney running event.

Visiting the park always makes me think of my characters, which was especially appropriate given how I managed to finish Aftermath just a few days before we departed. Overall, I’m happy with the story and how well it progressed Sean Colbeth as a character, though it wound up a bit shorter than I’d expected. Most of my novels (save for the first two) average around 90,000 words, which is a comfortable read for a mystery; that also generally gives me the freedom to explore several side plot lines in addition to the main mystery. This novel wound up being laser-focused on the mystery and only a single side story — that being Sean dealing with the (ahem) aftermath of the events depicted in Belie. I found that content compelling, and in re-reading the novel during my first editing run, didn’t feel like it needed any adjustment. As promised, we do land on the doorstep of Vasily’s wedding, but the actual event will take place in the next novel of that series (which seems incredibly appropriate).

And yet, this little voice in the back of my head kept mumbling I might not have tied up quite as many loose ends as I thought I had. That is one voice I always listen to, for as a mystery writer, the last thing you want to do is leave something hanging or solve the case without having actually provided enough evidence to do so; thus concerned, I tucked back into the narrative one more time, and realized I had the absolute best coda for the story hiding in the wings. While I’d not planned on cracking open the novel for a new addition, it has to be done, I think, in order to truly allow everything to move forward in my little universe. I expect I’ll have it completed in a few days, and then I can turn my attention toward expanding the world of Oliver and Vasquez with Midnight, which I still plan on getting released by the end of the year. Given how dark the real world seems to be at the moment, I think we could all use a little heroic fantasy; dusting off Ocelot and letting him take out a few bad apples seems like the least I can do to brighten our perspective, even if it’s just for a little while.

In case you missed it, the next Vasily Korsokovach novel, Silenced, became available for Kindle preorder on Amazon; I expect hardcover and paperback editions will also appear in the next few weeks. I’ve spent a bit of time re-reading it recently and have to admit it’s becoming one of my favorite stories. Reserve your copy now so you can have it when it drops!

Since his introduction in the novel Ditched as Vasily’s love interest, Alejandro Ortega-Cortez has blossomed into a full-fledged main character who shares a lot of screen time with my detective.  He’s a fun character to write, and has a far more complicated backstory than I’ve been able to reveal in the main Korsokovach series, so it felt fitting to craft a Christmas tale around this compelling Olympic diver-turned-career coach to help tease out some of those key details.

Download my latest podcast and listen in as my friend and I discuss this holiday story!

Not to give out too many of my secrets here, but I usually try to write for my website fairly early in the week on what I like to call “Marketing Monday.” As a (very) small independent author, I wear many hats when it comes to getting the word out about my novels; from crafting eye-catching covers to compelling internet content, I pretty much have my hand in just about every aspect of the business. The downside is that I struggle mightily with the fear that taking time to do the public facing content impacts my ability to produce the very thing I’m marketing; nearly six years in, I’m feeling a bit like I’ve kind of found the equilibrium, but also know there’s still room for improvement.

I’ve certainly made some changes since I started. This blog has been around since the beginning, of course, though those early days also saw me augmenting that effort with carefully curated social media posts in channels I thought my audience might be more likely to follow me on. Not only did that take an amazing amount of time, the social media landscape shifted seismically and then fragmented into more platforms — so many more that it was simply impossible for me to keep up. My compromise was to figure out a way to have this blog syndicate across as many of those platforms as I could get onto; while that means more people will see me, it does prevent me from making the content platform-appropriate. One of my goals for this year is to expand that further, and lean into some of the tools now available to me through the newsletter software I have (and the recent upgrades WordPress implemented). Stay tuned on that front (wherever you get my content :-)).

The start of a new year is also when I traditionally take a look at what I’ve got planned for books, both to be published and to be written. 2026 looks like it will be a triple-release year:

Silenced , the next Vasily Korsokovach novel, is up first and due out in April. Taking place just a few days after Vasily’s surprise appearance at the end of Belie, our intrepid detective starts poking around the suspicious death of the same reporter who’d written an exposé of his assault a few years earlier. It’s a case that will tie up some interesting loose ends — but not without a few surprises. Midnight at Dawn is due out in July — assuming I can get my act together and complete the manuscript in time. For whatever reason, this unexpected sequel to Reflection in the Shadows is taking the same path as its predecessor, which does not bode well for my timeline. That being said, I’m pretty excited to spend more time with Kate Oliver and Tenoch Vasquez, even if it means the stakes are a bit higher (along with the personal tension between the two). The central plot here revolves around a missing artifact Ocelot has been tasked with retrieving; naturally, there is more to this thing that meets the eye — or that the gods have clued him in on — which may or may not lead to very bad, world-ending things taking place. And did I mention Kate seems to be acting strangely? Hmm. Aftermath rounds out the year when it appears in November. Picking up just after Christmas, we find Sean Colbeth pondering his life choices, including his decision to pay his father an unexpected visit. Rescued by an unexpected case that pulls Vasily in from California, Sean wrestles with his lingering personal demons while trying to resurrect the noted investigator buried under regret and recriminations. I’m nearly done writing this and love how the story has turned out, especially the way it will serve as a bridge into the next Vasily novel (which will finally have the wedding.)

Sprinkled in there somewhere is the possibility of getting out the short story I’ve been teasing about Rosie; that’s going to be a Christmas story, so if we are all very lucky, look for it to appear closer to the holidays. Subscribers will get early access to the novella, so if you haven’t already signed up, this would be a good time to officially join my mailing list. In any event, keep a watchful eye on my Publication Order page, for that’s where I’ll make any adjustments if the schedule changes.

And, of course, I’m exceptionally excited to be appearing at the Tucson Festival of Books again this year. Dates and times are still being set, but hopefully you can swing by and say hello if you happen to be in town.

“I’m the last person to tell you to tone down your workout,” I said as I pulled into traffic. “But I love you too much not to worry you might be doing real damage to that muscle. Did you see that sports medicine doctor I recommended?”

Alex shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat.

Despite the heavy traffic headed toward the 57, I chanced another look at my fiancé. “What’s wrong?” I asked softly after seeing his face. Reaching for his hand, I interlaced it with mine. “Tell me.”

He took a deep breath. “Before I tell you, promise me you won’t go into full Protect Alex Mode.”

My eyebrows went up. “That’s one hell of an ask.”

“Promise me,” he pleaded.

The look of terror I saw on his face when I glanced at him was enough to quell any protest. “Promise,” I said.

Alex took another moment. “The exam was inconclusive, so she ordered an MRI. And… not just for my wrist.”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” I said as I shifted lanes to get onto the 57.

“That makes two of us,” Alex chuckled ruefully. “You know how hard I hit the water when I go off the ten meter; since I’ve been favoring my injured wrist, that’s shifted my form a bit — and now my shoulder is spasming.” He looked out the window. “And so’s my back.”

“F***,” I breathed. “You should have said something!”

“And risk having you pull me from the water?” he asked. “Not likely.”

“I wouldn’t have—”

“Oh yes,” he interrupted. “You would have.”Silenced: A Vasily Korsokovach Mystery (2026). Copyright: Christopher H. Jansmann

It wasn’t my intention to lead my first post of 2026 with a bit of a teaser from the next novel due out, Silenced, but it felt apropos on a number of levels. The first relates to work I did over the holidays, which included recording several new podcasts with my friend that will appear over the next few weeks. Once of those was for Baubles, the Christmas short I wrote featuring Alejandro Ortega-Cortez; that story opens with Alex on the ten meter diving board, the star attraction at a fundraiser Rosie has talked him into participating in. As he gets ready for his dive, he laments about how his body doesn’t bounce back quite as fast as it once did from the insane workouts he puts in daily; it’s a thread that I pull on slightly in Masks and wind up dealing with more fully in Silenced.

Clearly tempting fate, I made the observation to my friend during the podcast that I really didn’t have direct experience with some of the injuries Alex was dealing with, short of some minor aches and pains anyone in my stage of life occasionally experiences. We both laughed about the indignities of growing older, and our own mutual issues just trying to stay relatively physically fit in a world that demands so much of our attention in other areas.

Naturally, that was too good of an opening for whomever is actually in charge of the universe.

Fast forward to this past weekend: it’s just after New Year’s, and I’m taking down the tree and packing up the ornaments. A stack of boxes needed to be moved so I could get everything put back into the proper cabinet. Bending over, I deftly shifted the boxes…

…and something in the small of my back.

I didn’t think much of it at first, but waking up the following morning, I found getting out of bed had turned into an Olympic event. Heaving a leg out of bed was Herculean, let alone trying to stand up straight. Only once before had I felt something so severe, and that was when I’d lost my balance carrying a ladder and had twisted awkwardly; then, it had been a few days of discomfort, but I’d still been able to pull on my socks. Not this time.

Firmly in denial, I tried to tough it out that Sunday and dutifully pulled down the remaining outdoor decorations; I even managed to get around the neighborhood with Amigo, our dog. But I paid for those transgressions dearly, and landed out on our recliner overnight as it wound up being the only way I could get comfortable enough to grab a few hours of sleep.

I’m sure others who have already gone through such an experience are already shaking their heads at me — and I agree, I didn’t play it as well as I should have. I even made the mistake of going to the office on Monday; I tried to justify it as necessary since it was our first day back from the holiday, but in truth, the world wouldn’t have ended had I instead chosen to work remotely with a heating pad affixed to my back. In the end, I bowed to the inevitable and managed to get in to see my primary that afternoon; as I write this late on Friday evening, my adherence to her instructions has resulted in finally being able to reach across a desk for my coffee mug, as well as being comfortable enough to resume sleeping on my bed.

Things are still sore, a reminder that I did something significant to myself. I am also keenly aware of just how similar to Alejandro I appear to have been, though in my defense, when my wife told me to see the doctor, I immediately made the call. My friend and I also joked about the fact that I had completed my research into what poor Alex might be going through; honestly, though, I would have been quite happy to have simply remained with the anecdotes friends and family have told me over the years.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find that heating pad…

December always feels like the busiest month of the year, almost as though I’ve avoided eleven months of work so I can try to squeeze them the four paltry weeks we have left before the calendar changes to the new year. It happens to me every cycle, and in most cases, it’s just a psychological lie — for when I do ultimately look back at everything I’ve accomplished over the past three-hundred-plus days, it’s generally pretty impressive. There are times, though, when I’ve been unable to do that one thing I’d truly hoped to pull off; it’s not often, but it did occur last year.

My wife and I knew that my mother was going to be celebrating a milestone birthday, so early in 2024 we began plotting how we might make it even more special. Seeing as though she was the one who introduced me to Disney as a kid, one idea that kept circulating between us was treating her to a weekend at Disneyland; it felt especially poignant for the timing would be very close to the anniversary of the first time we’d taken her to the park that, as a kid, she’d watched Walt build on his television show back in 1954. Reservations were made and the plans were essentially set — and then had to be scrubbed at the very last minute when our trusty 2010 Prius became anything but and required an immediate replacement. As incredibly understanding as my mother was over having to cancel the trip, we never let go of the idea and kept it on the back burner until such time as the vacation kitty had been recharged enough to finally pull it off.

The Monorail Pool at the Disneyland Resort

Thanks to some careful planning, we managed to re-book the trip in late August and “surprise” my mother with her birthday gift a second time; Mom and I hit road in mid-December and landed at the park for two days of delight, accented by a liberal sprinkling of memories from a shared lifetime of Disney enjoyment. Granted, things had changed since that first time we’d visited Disneyland as a family; it was far busier, of course, and we won’t get into the crazy level of inflation the twenty ounce bottles of water they sell seem to have experienced. Getting around the park was a bit more deliberate, too, for despite Walt’s best intentions, hustling from ride to ride can often lead to logging more miles than you expect (or intend), shifting the day from one of joyous adventure to that of pure exhaustion.

Three stowaways who joined us for the trip, including one who has been around long enough to have accompanied us to WDW in 1996.

As often as I visit the parks myself, I was startled when the two of us realized she hadn’t been out to California since Disneyland celebrated its 50th year; that her latest foray happened in the midst of their 70th truly underscored just how much time had passed. It felt especially acute to me, for as we rode the rides that had been her favorites two decades earlier, all I could see in my mind’s eye were the younger versions of the two of us, racing from experience to experience that very first time we’d gone to California. Then, in a flash, I found myself reliving our first time at Disney World in the late 1990s — a trip that she had long wanted to do but had been impossible when my brothers and I were growing up. I’d had the exuberance of a twenty-something; she, the childish delight of finally realizing a dream that had been languishing since Walt introduced the concept all those years earlier. That trip was special on a number of levels, but now has taken a back seat to the long weekend we shared this year.

Dinner one night gave us excellent views of Main StreetSleeping Beauty Castle decked out for the holidaysRadiator Springs – Cadillac RangeThe gingerbread house in the lobby of the Grand Californian

We covered quite a bit of ground over the course of three days; the food was, as always, exquisite, and it was a delight to share some of my more recent finds with Mom. Our conversations were wide ranging and equally as delightful, covering territory beyond the day-to-day chats we normally enjoy. Her perspective on the parks — especially given how many years had intervened since her last visit — was unexpected, and added to the experience in ways that I will treasure forever. All too soon, though, we were back in the car, headed home to Tucson and the reality of our lives in Arizona.

Still, for the first time I found myself seriously wondering where all the time had gone. I’m a bit agog — even now, as I write this — that it had been twenty years since the last time we’d travelled together; in many ways, I found myself suddenly wishing to capture the moment in amber, or to pin the current versions of ourselves to this point in time, never to age beyond it. Neither option is possible, of course, for outside of my fiction, the world belligerently continues to march forward to the future in a timely fashion. Unlike some, I am fortunate to be able to see my mother on a daily basis, but that, too, has hidden from me just how quickly the years have flown by.

I’m glad we were able to pull off the trip, albeit a year later than expected; I know she enjoyed the experience immensely, and the two of us created more memories we’ll treasure forever.

There’s a bit of a nip in the air these days in Arizona, a reminder that the seasons do, in fact, change here in the desert. A beanie and lightweight thermal gear have come out of the cupboard for my early morning runs, and more often than not, the water in my bottle is well and thoroughly chilled by the time I’ve made the entire circuit. All these years later and I still have trouble mentally adjusting to the idea that it can get cold in the Southwest; making it even harder to accept is that daytime temperatures are usually very pleasant, creating a sort of whiplash from morning to evening.

Aside from our quasi-regular trip to spend Thanksgiving with our friends in California, my wife and I usually stay put for the holidays the cold weather is essentially reminding us is on the way; last year, we did sneak out to Florida to visit family, which itself was quite the experience. It’s literally been years since we’ve celebrated Christmas outside of our own home, and while it was fun to see everyone I think both of us are rather thankful to not be traveling cross country during the thick of the season. That being said, a tiny part of my soul is actually (and, frankly, surprisingly) yearning for a classic Maine Christmas with all of the trimmings. As much as I hate the cold, I fear I have fallen prey to the nostalgia of Christmases past — memories of snuggled around the fire with warm mugs of cocoa while we counted down to the big day.

I’m sure my memories of those times are now more like borderline Hallmark specials than reality, but they still surround me like a warm hug that often infuses our yearly preparations for the holidays. It leads to traditions such as laying my G-scale track around the base of the tree to ensuring we’ve decorated our mailbox and bushes with festive lights and garland. About the only snow I can guarantee seeing is the faux version placed beneath the small porcelain village my mother-in-law gifted us years ago; between that and a “holiday” scented Yankee candle, I can get kind of close to the way things once were.

Many of my memories have bled into how my characters view the holiday. We saw snippets of how Sean choses to celebrate in both Downhill and Snow Drifts; Alejandro’s love for decorating was on full display in Baubles and will make a larger appearance in Silenced. I haven’t given Vasily much of a chance to let us know how he feels about December, other than acknowledging he’s pretty much okay with whatever Alex might do (though there are some limits). I also have a sense that Rosie probably stopped celebrating at some point, and then once the guys dropped into her life, suddenly found a reason to restart; in my imagination, she’s got an artificial tree to rival the one at Disneyland in her grand foyer, replete with a cache of thoughtful gifts only she could come up with.

The Disneyland Christmas Tree from 2024. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite this big…

I’m not sure when this will actually make an appearance, though, as my somewhat linear chronology says that the next time we’ll see her, it will be January and well past time for said tree to have come down. Then again, this novella featuring Rosie has been haunting me for a few months now, so… maybe this will appear sooner? Stay tuned.

There aren’t a ton of overlaps between my day job and my secret life as an author, but the one that seems to tie them inexorably to each other is the work that goes into maintaining my website. I’ve probably selected a path that is atypical for most authors in that the solution I chose a number of years ago is a balance between being hosted in the cloud and having full control over the actual content there; my reasoning at the time was that websites are kind of my thing (hence wanting full control) but I had no desire to actually maintain the hardware to run them (hence the hosting). For the most part that has worked out quite nicely, though every now and again I run up against some sort of oddity that requires me to don my Tech Nerd hat.

Case in point: somewhere along the line last spring, I lost access to the open source image library my blog often uses. It wasn’t a big deal as I have plenty of my own photos to use, but the convenience of finding an image that “fit” whatever article I was writing instead of hunting through my own files was pretty nice. Then, maybe in mid-summer, I began to see an error when crafting these posts; it was incredibly generic, though, and after a number of fruitless web searches, I had absolutely no idea what was causing it to appear. Posting content didn’t seem to be affected, so like a terrible end user, I kept on grooving.

Okay: in fairness the techie inside my brain was paying attention and worried that the message was some sort of canary in a coal mine. And, as it turns out, said canary was right on the money, for in August I suddenly lost the ability to share my posts across all of my social media platforms. That impacted me far more than anything else, so I dove back into everything again and pulled back far more layers of the onion than ever before. The culprit appeared to be a base module in my website, one responsible for both preventing spam but also was keeper of the statistics; that the reports on web traffic suddenly all slipped to zero around the same time felt like a clue even my fictional detectives might not have missed.

And yet, armed with such knowledge I still had no idea how to fix the problem. Endless searches across the web resulted in answers ranging from delete your entire website and start over to jettison that tool and buy ours for the low, low monthly fee of $x per year. None of them seemed right, especially to someone used to looking through error logs and not predisposed to assume the initial error is actually what’s going on. I’ve written plenty of code in my years as a software developer, enough to have suffered a multitude of self-inflicted bugs that have long since made me paranoid and suspicious.

So, back to the logs I went, hunting for what I presumed would be hiding there: much like Vasily scouring the financials from a suspect, I scrolled endlessly looking for some sort of anomaly that, on first blush, might seem innocuous. This past weekend, that review finally paid off when I discovered my troubles started about when this module updated last spring; each successive increase in problems coincided with another update, almost as though the features in the package were somehow slowly becoming incompatible with my website.

Now, you might be asking yourself, how can that happen?

That’s a great question, and the answer lies in how a developer might handle what we think of as legacy applications. In my case, the software running my website is so-called backwards compatible to several older versions of server operating software. Unfortunately — or, at least as far as I can divine without decompiling the code in question — this module that is integrated into my website is making use of newer features in newer versions of that server operating system, one that, as it turns out, I was not running.

At least, not until late Sunday afternoon. Once I tracked down how to request the upgrade from my hosting company, it took another few minutes to reset a few authentication tokens and just like that… no more errors. Not only that, both the open source image library and my ability to post to social media also magically returned. From what I can tell, it seems my willingness to allow the website software to automatically keep itself up-to-date ran up against the hosting company’s policy of deferring to the client on such things. Is that a bad thing? Probably not, though it also tells me I need to be more vigilant when the website software proudly informs me it’s now running the latest and greatest whatever.

Oddly, that is so not how I do things in my day job; we try extremely hard not to upset the applecart with any of our updates, nor do we embrace enhanced features until we are sure all of users can, well, use them. Some of that is just policy I’ve developed from years of being in this business, but the rest is a healthy understanding of what a mistake can do to a client. I feel fortunate that I was able to troubleshoot my personal website, but I am keenly aware not all authors are comfortable in that space. I’m sure that’s why there are hosting solutions out there that require far less technical expertise, but the tradeoff is a severe lack of flexibility. Maybe it’s worth it to some, but for me, for now, I’ll stick it out with what I have currently.

At least, until the next thing breaks.

It’s kind of ingrained into me now to be up to my eyeballs in writing during the month of November. While NaNoWriMo may no longer exist, the patterns I developed when it was in full swing continue to this day, though I have to admit, the accountability the little word counter their website offered during the various writing periods was quite the inducement for moving forward. My current writing tool of choice — Scrivener — offers something similar, though I don’t often dig deeper into the more granular stats it keeps. The one time I did, I was moderately surprised to find out weekends were the days when I wrote the most; makes sense, I suppose, given how I’m working this whole novelist thing around my actual daytime gig.

November has also long been the dominion for my original character, Sean Colbeth. Only on one occasion did I not work on a novel for his series during this part of the calendar; that was a two years ago when I wrote the initial part of Reflection in the Shadows. Since then, I’ve reverted to form and generally find myself deeply enmeshed in whatever adventure Sean manages to get himself mixed up in; as the calendar closes in on Thanksgiving, I’m close to a third of the way through Aftermath and on track to have it done by year end. In past years I’ve often started working on the “November Project” in mid-to-late October, sneaking in a few weeks of bonus work; this year, due to a bunch of traveling — mostly around those pesky half marathons I’ve been running — I was forced to start pretty much on November 1. That’s not a bad thing, but my inner writer feels guilty about not being further along.

I also feel the most in tune with Sean during November; some of that has to do with the fact his first novel, Blindsided, pretty much takes place then. But the larger part has to do with my own feelings about Maine, and how, for many years, I spent the two weeks around Halloween visiting with family back there. My sense of how the state exists during that not-quite-completed transition from summer to fall to winter is quite vivid, right down to the chilly breeze that can slice through any amount of fabric you care to wear. The trees are often bare but the grass is sometimes still green, though it could crackle beneath your step if an overnight freeze had occurred. It’s a season of contradictions, rife with nefarious possibilities that just seem perfectly suited for my detective to tackle — especially with the promise of a year-end redemption waiting in the wings.

Sean, obviously, senses all of this thanks to his author, but oddly, has a different view of it. To him, Fall represents the beginning of his reprieve from the mass of tourists invading his small village; it’s the gateway to a quieter period more in harmony with the town he grew up in. Having Windeport become a cruise ship destination upended some of that, of course, but like any good Mainer, Sean has adapted and endured.

Events in Aftermath see Sean working a case in Florida, and as he moves from one scene to the next, I can feel how he’s constantly comparing the places he encounters down there to his home back in Maine. It pulls him in ways I didn’t expect, leading me to think that it might be next to impossible to get him to ever leave Windeport behind. For short periods? Not an issue. Permanently? Probably never going to happen.

I mean, I could force the issue, of course, but I feel strongly he would fight me — and then find a way to work his way back to Windeport. Which, in the end, makes perfect sense.

I’m ecstatic to announce that I’ve been selected to participate in the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books Indie Author Experience, taking place March 14 & 15, 2026. As competitive as the selection process is, getting a spot in the tent is a huge honor and one that I am humbled to be able to accept once more. This time out, I’ll be there for Reflection in the Shadows — and my time is on Sunday, March 15, from 10 to 1. Mark your calendars now, and I can’t wait to see you!

Where has the year gone? Just like that, the release date for my latest novel, Belie, is right around the corner — and you know what that means! Time for some teaser tidbits that may or may not include spoilers. (You’ve been warned.)

First and foremost, of course, a little self promotion: if you’ve not already preordered your copy of the book, there’s still time! Use these links for the version you want:

Kindle

$3.99

Delivered directly from Amazon

Order Kindle

My favorite Version

Hardcover

$37.27

Save when you purchase this through Bookshop.org – and support your local bookseller, too!

HardcoverPaperback

$17.70

Also available through Bookshop.org

Paperback

All editions will be downloaded and/or shipped starting on November 18, 2025. (Full disclosure: I get a tiny affiliate cut if you happen to use the above links for Bookshop.org.) For those of you interested in an Audible version of Belie, that will appear about a week after the Kindle version is released.

Okay, now down to business! Per usual, these tidbits will be presented like the kind of Q&A I do on my podcasts — and yes, there will be new episodes of that in the new year, so be sure to subscribe.

Belie is an unique title for a novel.

If you’ve been a fan for a while, you probably have already seen or heard my explanation for how I name my books, namely that the title is significant to the plot, though not always in the most obvious of ways. This novel is no exception, for while there is a direct connection the crime that drives this story, how it relates to the many threads I began weaving back in Blindsided is equally as critical. Sean has several moments of reckoning in Belie, many of them rather painful — and with repercussions that will radiate out into future stories.

I’m starting to worry that might be why the next Sean Colbeth novel is titled Aftermath.

Yes, that title is equally as significant. And that is all you are getting out of me right now.

The central case in Belie revolves around a mass shooting. That seems like an unusual starting point for Sean.

Part of the genesis for this story came from an extremely tragic event that befell a Maine community the year before I began writing Belie. Having lived and worked in that portion of the state, the unbelievable loss of life in spot I knew well affected me far more than I expected; like most people, I continued to be horrified there seems to be no answer as to how we stop this epidemic of gun violence. The only tool I have is my writing, and as I’ve made no secret of my tendency to sneak social commentary into my stories, crafting a tale that might focus a bit more attention on the situation felt like the right move. Belie therefore starts out quite dark as Sean tries to process the insanity he is forced to deal with; for me, as an author, it was a difficult experience that took more out of me than I expected.

Sounds like it was tough to write.

It was. Enough so that I took almost a full year off from Sean before starting Aftermath.

The blurb notes that Sean does some sort of off-the-books investigation. That doesn’t seem like him?

I had an extremely interesting email conversation with a reader about this very point after Solitude was released. The honest answer here is that, frankly, Sean hasn’t truly been himself since Suzanne dropped out of his life for a week in Vengeance; losing his position as Police Chief with Windeport seems to have compounded the issue and affected his sense of self, enough that he actually begins acting slightly out of character.

Will he recover?

Absolutely — and that’s not really a spoiler, for all of us have periods where we wrestle with who we are and where we happen to be in life. Sean is no different, though it might take a book or two for him to get there (given how slowly time passes in my universe).

Wait – aren’t these stories contemporary?

Yes. But before you ask how that answer contradicts my prior one, you should know I’ve inverted the laws of physics such that while the time period stays consistent with current events, my characters aren’t aging as fast. Think of it as my version of the fountain of youth. I’ve made a few exceptions though; while I obliquely reference the current political climate in the United States, I have chosen to ignore the entire COVID pandemic.

You hinted earlier that Sean wasn’t happy working for the State Police.

Solitude didn’t cover this directly, but if you read between the lines in that critical final chapter of Vengeance, Sean shows the first vestiges of doubt when he accepts the offer to run the Major Crimes unit. All of those feelings come to full bloom during the course of Belie, though how he resolves them won’t become apparent until Aftermath. All I can say is: fasten your seatbelts. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

Okay, that’s it for now! Just in case you missed it at the top, here are those links again for preordering your copy of Belie.

Kindle

$3.99

Delivered directly from Amazon

Order Kindle

My favorite Version

Hardcover

$37.27

Save when you purchase this through Bookshop.org – and support your local bookseller, too!

HardcoverPaperback

$17.70

Also available through Bookshop.org

Paperback