Author finds strange comfort writing under different name
By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — When it comes time to exchange business cards, Paul Watkins has a few options.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, at a coffee shop on Main Street, the 50-year-old locally-based writer opened his wallet, unsnapped some pockets and sorted through the available versions of himself, in varying states of redaction.
There’s simply Paul Watkins, with no other information listed on the card, save the name, printed in deep blue. There’s the official-looking Paul Watkins, Peddie School History Department, card, complete with contact information and school insignia. And then there’s a card which seems to have no connection to Mr. Watkins at all.
Centered in red ink on the plain white card is the name Sam Eastland. At first glance, it would appear to have been pulled mistakenly, given, perhaps, by this Mr. Eastland to Mr. Watkins upon meeting.
Except that Paul Watkins is Sam Eastland. On occasion.
"I never expected I would write a series of suspense novels and I certainly never dreamed of writing with a pseudonym," Mr. Watkins confessed, in the preface of the latest installment of his Inspector Pekkala detective series, The Beast in the Red Forest. "But for the past six years I have lived under the name Sam Eastland."
The character of Inspector Pekkala was inspired, in large part, Mr. Watkins said, by his grandfather, who had been a London Metropolitan Police Investigator who served in Scotland Yard’s famous "Ghost Squad" during the 1940s.
"I thought I must try to write a book that somehow reincarnates this man," he said.
At the same time, Mr. Watkins said, an event occurred that spurred the series into existence, involving the belt buckle of a phantom WWI-era rider.
According to Mr. Watkins, a friend of his was present at a construction site in Belorus when a backhoe unearthed the body of a soldier lying astride his horse. Wearing a belt buckle that bore the double-headed eagle of the Romanovs, the man was identified as a soldier of the Tsar’s Army, which would place his death some time in the early days of the Russian revolution.
After the body had been re-interred, Mr. Watkins’ friend was given the belt buckle as a souvenir, which he then passed on to Mr. Watkins, he said.
The object kindled within him a desire to give voice to the thousands of people whose stories had been swallowed up by the revolution, Mr. Watkins said.
The idea to write under a nom de plume was not his, but, rather, that of his British publisher, Mr. Watkins said. Having already established a literary voice, the suggestion was made so that the series wouldn’t conflict with the work he was releasing under his own name.
"At first I was very apprehensive about it," he said. "But I can’t deny I was intrigued by the idea. There was something beguiling about the idea of becoming something as fictional as the characters I created."
So he went ahead and wrote the first book of the Pekkala series, Eye of the Red Tsar, followed by Shadow Pass. Both books have since been translated into 17 languages.
Despite the opportunity to completely reinvent himself under the radar, Mr. Watkins decided that with the August release of The Beast in the Red Forest, "it was time to take off the mask, however comfortable it has become to wear."
One of the great ironies of his publishing life, Mr. Watkins said, is that the "fake me is now outselling the real me," by a considerable margin.
Born in America to Welsh parents, Mr. Watkins was educated in England at the Dragon School and Eton College, before returning to the United States to study at Yale University.
He has previously written for The London Times, The London Sunday Times, The New York Times, The Observer, and National Geographic, and teaches senior level history part-time at The Peddie School.