STANDISH – The list of accolades for Rick Simonds is pretty lengthy.
Many locals remember Simonds, of Standish, for his two-and-a-half decades as athletic director and men’s basketball coach at St. Joseph’s College, which he left in 2003 with the seventh best all-time winning percentage in Division III.
In all, Simonds won 17 coach of the year awards during his career, which spanned from 1974 to 2009, with long stints at Ellsworth High School, St. Joe’s, and finally Bonny Eagle High School. He still teaches creative writing at Bonny Eagle, along with selling real estate for Pleasant River Properties and offering color commentary for Maine Red Claws basketball games.
And while Simonds knows how to sketch his Xs and Os on the court, he also knows a thing or two about writing, having penned dozens of poems, sports columns for the Maine Sunday Telegram and even a few children’s books. Earlier this year, Simonds went in a new literary direction, self-publishing a 230-page crime novel, “Blood Code,” that has sold more than 1,000 copies since its February 2011 release.
The book, which tells the tale of a woman exacting revenge 25 years later on the children of her rapists, is not for the faint of heart.
The Lakes Region Weekly recently caught up with the busy Simonds, who lives with his wife, Sherry, off Route 25 near the Saco River. He was taking a break from writing his next novel, a sequel to “Blood Code” that is due out in early 2012.
Q: Is writing anything like coaching?
A: Yes, in that a great deal of preparation goes into it. A terrific amount of organization is needed. When I sit down to write, I use outlines, timelines, many different types of pie charts so I can follow the development of my characters. I think the planning and preparation are similar, much like as a coach when you prepare for an opponent or a practice and it’s very distinctly and clearly outlined.
Q: This is not a kids’ book. Incest, serial murders, a lot of messed-up stuff. A lot of people would probably be surprised you could write something this dark and graphic. Why write about these topics?
A: First of all, it is a genre of choice. I’ve read literally thousands of murder-mystery-type novels. I kind of gravitate toward those shows on television, the CSIs, Criminal Minds. And after reading and viewing so many of them, I said to myself, “I can do one of those. I can write that.”
Now, my first initial thought was, if I’m going to do this, I want to make my villain as heinous as I possibly can. I used Hannibal Lector as a role model, if you will, because I think with “Silence of the Lambs” and “Red Dragon,” that he is charming, yet chilling. And I was looking for that.
I feel that most of the things I write are humorous – my poetry, my vignettes, my children’s books. But when it comes to the murder mysteries, the police procedurals, that is a different side. And really, it’s hard to explain, except to say the story was already formed in my mind before I sat down to put pen to paper. As I started to actually write it, it took on a life of its own and led to the ultimate result. And I would simply say that I am well into my second one and that the storyline isn’t anything like it in terms of being grisly or graphic, because that’s not the story.
I’ve had many, many people clamoring for the second one, but, in a sense, they may be disappointed if they’re expecting something that will be of the ultimate horror or evil.
Q: What did your friends and family think of this book?
A: It was interesting. I had been athletic director at St. Joseph’s College for four or five years before I spoke at a faculty meeting. And at the end of the meeting I had one of the sisters come up to me and say, “I had no idea you were articulate,” and I didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. But the point is, I think there is a perception oftentimes with athletes and coaches, that dumb-jock mentality, so I don’t think they often get to see the depth of the individual.
And so, now a lot of people have been surprised, a little bit perhaps by the genre and the darkness, but more that they recognized the time it takes to write a novel and the work that goes into it. And there had just never been a reason for people who knew me for years to think that that might have been the next progression. They knew I could write, because frankly, every year I put out the media guide (for St. Joseph’s College) and they knew I did articles for the Maine Sunday Telegram, but there wasn’t that automatic skip to a novel. And I think that surprised some people.
I also think a lot of people wanted to buy it because they wanted to see what (I) had written. And I take that as a compliment.
Q: Did you always have a goal of writing a novel?
A: Yes. I didn’t know it was called a bucket list, until that movie came out, but I have a chart that I completed in 1987 and on it I wrote, “I will write a novel.” The original thought, however, was that I would write my coaching memoirs, or a coaching book to help young coaches.
Q: You get into many crime-related specifics, such as the kinds of weapons used, the hierarchy and operations of the Maine State Police and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. They say you should write what you know. So, how did you know these things?
A: I have no knowledge of police procedural, other than the many that I’ve watched on TV. But as much as I’ve interviewed different police, whether it’s state police or detectives, they all say that isn’t even close to being accurate, so you almost have to re-learn. For example, in terms of TV, they get DNA results the next day. But in reality, it may take three weeks to get DNA back.
But I was very fortunate. I spoke with Joe Loughlin, who was working at the Portland Police Department. He put me in touch with some detectives who I sat and spent days with at their office. I spent time with another Portland police officer, Bruce Coffin, my good friend from Windham. I’d ask him all sorts of questions: what type of ammo, where do you practice, anything and everything. He was very patient, and I learned a great deal.
Q: There hasn’t been a serial killer in Maine since the early 1980s. We seem to have a lot of murders and murder-suicides though. Do you think Maine is still a place where you can leave your doors unlocked?
A: I think we’ve always been looked at as bucolic and pastoral, but I think as we grow, we’re being confronted with many of the same problems as other states. However, having said that, you’re right in that most of the murders committed in Maine are not of the serial nature. It’s more the crimes of passion, the harm to an individual, the spouse, those types of crimes. So, to answer your question, yes, I still think you can leave your doors unlocked and your keys in the car, not that I would advise that. But compared to other states, I think we’re very fortunate.
Q: You demonstrated a lot of local knowledge in this book. You mentioned such places as Patches Variety Store in Standish, the Chalet at St. Joseph’s College, the running path around Bowdoin College, the intersection of Route 100 and Blackstrap Road. Do these places have special meaning for you?
A: No, but of course one thing, I have one advantage in that many of the murders that I depict are on college campuses. And having spent as many years as I have on college campuses, I have a good understanding of that. I don’t know if they have any specific points for me, but yet I know about them.
Writers are always given two choices. And that is, do you want to come up with something fictitious, Cabot Cove, for example in “Murder She Wrote,” or do you want to actually use real places. And I just felt that it’s more realistic to the reader if they can put themselves into the mind and body of the characters. And I’ve had dozens of people tell me, I really enjoyed the fact that it was about Maine. Now, that is a good and bad thing. It has helped in sales in Maine, but people in Alabama have no understanding of what Route 115 is for example.
Q: Did you do that to get more readers interested in your book, or was it a literary device?
A: No, it was not done with the idea of stimulating sales. It was a literary device. But, after the fact, that’s exactly what’s happened. So many times, people have said I’ve heard Mac’s Grill and Gipper’s Sports Bar (both in Auburn) were mentioned, so they wanted to get the book. But no, I wrote it as a literary device because I know those places, and therefore I can describe them, depict them.
The other thing that has blown me away is how many businesses and individuals have written me, emailed me, or spoken to me and said, I want to be in the next book. We want our business to be mentioned in the next book. And you know, I’m going to be self-promoting here with this next statement: My next book, purposefully now because of that reaction, I’ve gone to Ellsworth, Damariscotta, Wayne, different areas that I didn’t go to in the first book, with the hope that those communities will embrace the writing as well.
Q: The book ran the spectrum of human desires. On one hand you have the ruthless, scorned woman exacting revenge. On the other, you have the Sanderson family, which is strong, happy, and dedicated to public service. In creating these characters, which was easiest to write about?
A: You know, I’ll tell you, the only character I drew from real life was Reed Sanderson’s father, Sandy. That’s my dad. And my dad, who meant the world to me and is dead now, but every time I wrote that character I pictured my dad. He had a real good sense of humor, was a little acerbic, a little bit of a wise guy. And so, as a result, I’ve really enjoyed that portion of it.
Q: What’s next for author Rick Simonds?
A: Well, the next book is not a pure sequel, but is called a serial with the use of the same police officers and personnel. The readers will recognize one of the criminals, but there’s a whole new cast of characters that come into play. Again, I’ve utilized many new locations in the state of Maine. I’ve discovered in my research some fascinating things relative to the state of Maine and ghost stories, all of which is included. And while it’s not quite the same in terms of being quite so grisly, I think it’s a very good tale that the readers will enjoy, especially as they get to know the characters more.
Rick Simonds, in front of bookshelves filled with crime novels
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