It's Fun Being The Villain
As many CQ readers already know, the First Mate and I volunteer our time at Twin Cities Marriage Encounter. We are the current president couple for the TCME board, which really means that we get to meet a lot of very dedicated couples who deliver retreat weekends for husbands and wives looking to give their marriage some attention. We have made many friends in the organization, and two of them have donated kidneys to the FM in the last three years.
Every year we have a fundraising banquet where we hold silent auctions for items donated by a number of local businesses. One of the more unique items for bid comes from one of our friends in the Marriage Encounter community. William Kent Krueger is a well-known mystery writer and one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, and he has offered to name one of the characters in his novels after the highest bidder -- and a year and a half ago, that was me.
He called me shortly after the banquet and asked me whether I'd want my character to be a good guy or a bad guy. "Oh, a bad guy," I assured him with a laugh.
"Run of the mill bad guy, or truly evil?"
"Really evil," I replied, and the both of us laughed.
"I hoped you'd say that," Kent told me. "I have something in mind -- and say, could you sign a release from my publisher?"
Now that sounded like it would be interesting!
I didn't ask Kent about it afterwards, but a few months back he let me know that he had wrapped up his draft of the new novel, and that I should see a copy soon. The book, Thunder Bay, arrived on Saturday -- and I finished it today. It's excellent, and yes, I'm really rotten in this novel. In fact, I'm so rotten that I --
Well, I can't tell you that. The book hasn't been released yet; Kent was kind enough to send me an advance proof of the book. However, you can pre-order the book now, and Amazon will have it at your door as it hits the bookstores. You can click on the second link to order the audio version on CD. You won't be able to put it down. Trust me ... it's not like I'm eeeeeeevil, after all.
Addendum: I'll be interviewing Kent on this book, his Cork O'Connor series, and the path he took to becoming a full-time writer (an excellent story) when the book is ready for release in late July.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on June 11, 2007 10:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (2)
Posted by RBMN | June 12, 2007 1:06 AM
Ed,
I think even before the Thunder Bay book, there were a few Canadians in government that saw you as a villain, as I recall. What they'll probably say when they read this book is, "see, we told you so....eh." :-)
Posted by Fausta | June 12, 2007 8:41 AM
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy! Congratulations.