Christopher H. Jansmann's Blog, page 22

Swimming

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I freely admit that having both of my main characters be Olympic swimmers is a form of wish fulfillment on my part.

Before you ask, yes , I was a competitive swimmer right up to high school; and, no, I have never competed beyond the regional meets I attended before hanging up my goggles for good before my freshmen year. I remain a huge fan of the sport, though, having been hooked initially by the amazing swimmers who participated in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and solidified by their repeated feats at the 1988 Games. Living in the States allowed me to watch the LA Games in near real-time, though I missed a portion of the first few days while attending Scout Camp that summer (talk about poor timing!).

I was home in time that summer to watch Greg Louganis score his perfect ten, and though diving is not in my wheelhouse, I will admit to possibly including a character in a future novel that got into the sport because of him. (If you’ve never seen Greg in action, it is poetry in motion and worth a few minutes spelunking through YouTube.)

I still swim today, more for fitness than anything else; the pandemic put a bit of a crimp in my regular workouts, though, so I’ve shifted more toward what my swim coach used to euphemistically call “dryland” workouts — in this case, running. While I still can reach that Zen-like peace that appears when you are in the zone during a workout, there is just something so amazing about gliding through the water, absorbed in the moment that I can’t replicate outside of the pool. More than one thorny plot point was resolved during a long set, though in fairness, the entire arc of the Sean Colbeth series became apparent as I slogged through a rather hilly 10K course two years ago.

It’s about the only thing that kept me sane in the heat.

Drive-Thru

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If you are following along, you know I’m in the process of editing the next book in the Sean Colbeth series; I find it an intriguing experience coming back a few months after putting the manuscript to bed and reading it from the top, adjusting as I go.  Blindsided managed to add a few thousand extra words during that edit – probably the antithesis of the process – though those changes helped to extend some portions of the backstory for both Sean and Vasily.  (It helped that by the time I went back to edit the first book, I’d written the next two and had a far better sense of the quirkiness of my two main characters, and an idea on how to sprinkle more of that into the first book.)

Outsider has picked up three four additional chapters so far — mainly due to my own more robust relationship to the main characters that seem to have invaded my life. There’s also, I think, a certain desire on my part to tease a thread that started in the first book so it will continue onward.  I’m not sure this is how other authors work, but for me it’s been a pretty cool way to watch the wider story of these two characters unfold as I move further into their series. 

As I mentioned in a prior post, Sean and Vasily are quite alive to me in ways large and small. For example, I know (now) that Sean favors Samuel Adams over wine, and would willingly sign up for trials of any medical device that could deliver coffee to him intravenously throughout his work day. (He also has a penchant for a specific phone/laptop manufacturer that got me into hot water with one of my beta readers… but that’s a story for another day.)

One thing I’ve noticed for Vasily is his penchant for fast food, specifically In-N-Out Burger. I didn’t initially know that about him, but as more of his backstory appeared, it seemed completely appropriate he would be addicted to the Southern California mainstay — especially since he grew up outside of Los Angeles. What I didn’t know was how much Vasily missed eating there, at least, not until the third book was underway.   Thank goodness he’s something of an athlete in tip-top-form, but I wonder if I’m doing him harm each time I write him diverting into the next drive-thru he sees…

They’re Real To Me

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Although Blindsided is my first published work, I’ve written stories off and on for years now.  And in each of them, I’ve always felt the characters were actual people, fully fleshed out and replete with emotions, thoughts and motivations that I might not always understand.  The tricky part as an author is to display that depth on the printed page, or at least, just enough of it that the reader feels like they know them well enough to recognize them in their local Starbucks.

Have I mastered that art?  I think I’m still growing in that area, getting better with each paragraph I write, whether one of my novels or a spur of the moment short story that just needs to be crafted.  I do think that when characters start acting on their own, despite your best efforts, you’re on to something and need to let it run; about a third of the way into Blindsided, I realized my MC seemed addicted to coffee, and in my third, I shifted to an alternate MC who had always displayed a wry sense of humor, something that became far more pronounced when the story was viewed from his eyes.  Those attributes were kind of there, but never anything specifically listed on a character sheet.

Like all of us, I suppose, they sort of evolved as I “discovered” more of their life experiences.  Which is sort of odd, since I’m the one in charge of those in the first place.  Yet more evidence, I guess, that I’m just transcribing what they dictate to me…

Holiday Cheer

My sincerest hope that you are (safely) among close friends or family during this special month of holidays! I plan to curl up with a good book, a nice cup of coffee and maybe one or more of my favorite movies for this time of year. Like, say, Die Hard. Or Christmas in Connecticut. I do miss a crackling fireplace, but fortunately I’ve found a nice virtual one that will help make the day merry and bright.

Hi! I’m Chris.

Hello! My Name is Chris

Welcome to my corner of the universe! 

I’m a IT nerd by day, and novelist by night.  You can find my books on Amazon, including Blindsided, the first in a new series featuring Sean Colbeth and his trusty number two, Vasily Korsokovach.  As I do have a day job, the second book won’t be out until February, 2021, with the third appearing sometime next summer.  Concrete release dates will appear here, so be sure to follow me to stay in the loop.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter, you know aside from being a total geek, I have a penchant for science fiction and high quality animation.  I can’t promise those passions won’t appear here, too, especially since I have far more space to delve into the finer details of starship design – or whatever catches my fancy.

The Contact Chris link is open, too, where I will be fielding questions about my works.  I can’t promise to be able to answer everything, but I’ll do my best.