New book ruffles friends’ and family’s feathers

Patrick Blennerhassett says people will either love or hate his first novel — but they won’t be indifferent to it.

Monument, which hits bookstands today, may be labelled as fiction, “but it’s based in a large part on my experiences growing up,” the former Kamloops resident said, “and it’s not an extremely happy book.”

Friends and family members may recognize themselves in the fictional family he has created, he said, and because of that, he expects to hear some negative feedback.

He was particularly concerned about how his parents would handle the book — which features a protagonist who loses his hockey career to injury, kills his girlfriend in a car accident and loses himself in the seedy side of Vancouver nightlife, surrounded by friends who are violent, racist drug and alcohol abusers.

In fact, Blennerhassett put off giving them a copy of it for about six weeks and, once he did, spent plenty of time talking with them.

“It was pretty touchy,” he said. “I can deal with myself and how it makes me look but I’m still worried about my parents. But they’ve been pretty good about it.”

The main character in Monument, Seth Wilhelm, begins as a promising young hockey player — just as Blennerhassett did when he was living in Kamloops, going to school at John Peterson secondary — who ends up playing in a senior men’s league.

In fact, hockey is the only constant for Seth, the only thing he can commit to as the rest of his life falls apart.

The title comes from the monumental decisions Seth has to make in his life, also something Blennerhassett had to do.

“I’ve made some monumental decisions, like going to Langara College rather than Cariboo College, how to deal with getting cut from a hockey team.

“They seemed like small decisions at the time, but they ended up creating a whole life for me, directing me down a path.”

That path took him to the Victoria News, where he is the entertainment reporter, after spending three-and-a-half years covering hard news.

The change was also monumental, putting him into an area he loves to write about after finding his senses overloaded by writing about things like court cases, where he said he felt empathy for the victims, their families, the young people facing charges and how so many lives had been destroyed.

Monument may never have been if Blennerhassett hadn’t decided he needed to exorcize some demons.

One of the first steps in doing this, he said, was to stop drinking.

“I wasn’t considering myself an alcoholic, but it was starting to stress me so I decided I was going to stop drinking for a year.

“I only made it to 10 months, but in that time that I quit, I realized I couldn’t go out with my friends who were drinking all the time.

“Bless them, they’re not privy to what you’re doing, so I just stayed home and started writing.”

Soon, the story took him over and he found himself writing, not because he wanted to, but because he had to.

With the book finished and finally published, Blennerhassett said he’s not planning another one anytime soon.

“I made the mistake of being too personal with this one,” he said, “and I need time to sort things out with my family and friends.”

Blennerhassett will launch Monument on Saturday in Kamloops at the Commodore Cafe and Lounge, 369 Victoria St., from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

He’ll be there to sign books, meet with friends — and start on some of that sorting things out.