Bean And Ab Mysteries

When he’s being awkward, tongue-tied, and, generally overwhelmed, Bean is me as I was at that age. When he’s being competent, smart, innovative, and effective, he’s what I wanted to be. That said, I like Bean and, having both grown up on an island off the coast of Maine, have a lot in common with him. Ab is based very loosely on Debbie, a dark-eyed beauty from New York City whose family visited the island every summer and with whom I would love to have had the kind of adventures that Bean and Ab share and, I guess, now I have. Spooky is sort of a composite of a number of guys I grew up with; mostly Peanut and Poacher. I love writing these stories because, through them, I get to fulfill the fantasies of my youth. But it’s not about me – at least not any more – these kids have developed personalities of their own and established themselves as solid, flesh-and-blood, three-dimensional people who have amazing strength of character and, in the course of their adventures, reveal traits of loyalty, integrity, grit, and sacrifice that challenge me to be better than I am.