Mystery writer, musician and artist David Crossman grew up on Vinalhaven and graduated from the island school in 1970.
The roots of his mother’s family (Roberts) extend back to the earliest settlers on the island who arrived in the late 18th century. David stressed that he and his younger brother Matt were born on the island and therefore really are Vinalhaven natives. His older brothers Phil and Dick, however, were born in Massachusetts, and are clearly from away.
Crossman is probably best known to Maine readers as a writer of mystery novels. This, however, is not a complete job description of a man with such a diversity of talents. Phil Crossman’s younger brother is the author of six books, an accomplished artist and a musician with seven albums to his credit. Currently he and his wife Barbara live in Nashville, Tennessee and, together with their son Jason, have their own TV production company.
When Crossman graduated from high school, the Vietnam War was raging. Benefitting from a high draft number, he left the island and began a peripatetic life that has taken him to “six or seven states and four or five countries”. Altogether David said he and his wife Barbara, who he met in Florida, have moved 21 times.
David got the writing gene from his mother Pat, a published author, skilled designer, and talented artist. She produced “a prodigious amount of material,” that he is still going through. Three of the four Crossman brothers are writers. Brother Dick is, “a good poet.” Phil has been a popular columnist for the Working Waterfront and is author of the book Away Happens. David told me he and Phil, have talked about collaborating, possibly on a TV pilot. David likes the idea but emphasized that “Phil needs to learn to spell.”
I asked David where he got the idea for the Bean and Ab books that have become so popular in the last decade. He told me he and his wife were living in Egypt in 1997 when he became homesick for Maine. He started writing about growing up on the island and found it helpful. The exercise ultimately turned into The Secret of The Missing Grave, published in 1999, which was the first book in the Bean Carver and Abby “Ab” Peterson series. He had so much fun he decided to continue.
What is the difference between writing for teenagers and adults? David told me he enjoys doing both. “I had vivid memories of being a teenager growing up on an island so I just plowed ahead. I was confident that I could appeal to a younger audience. Subsequently I have discovered that the series spans the generations.”
Crossman’s characters are drawn from people he knew growing up on Vinalhaven. The character of Ab was based on Debbie, a summer girl from New York. “She was a friend who became a flame, and is now a friend,” he recalled. “We spent a lot of time together and the adventures in my books are bits and pieces of things that really happened, as well as island legends, island locations, combined with flights of fantasy and imagination”.
At the end of the third book, The Legend of Burial Island (published in June 2009), David said, “Bean and Ab have aged. They started out as 12 and 13-year-olds. Now they have a tentative, rather tenuous relationship and are not sure how they feel about each other. Their hormones are beginning to kick in. It reminds me of myself back then.”
Crossman’s other characters are composites of people from the island although he tries to stay faithful to local types. A lot of people on the island have said, “‘I know I saw myself in your book’.” “When people recognize themselves it lets me know I am being true to life.” Forty years later his memories of island life remain vivid. David says he can conjure them up wherever he happens to be living.
Burial Island is an actual island, near the entrance to Carver’s Harbor on Vinalhaven. And yes, there is a legend connected with it. When I told David I’d heard that his first book The Secret of the Missing Grave might lead to a possible movie contract, he said he has talked to movie companies before, “but you don’t hold your breath.”
I asked Crossman how he happened to be in Egypt teaching television production. He told me he had worked in advertising “for years” and in the process he learned a lot about the technical aspects of the television business. When he heard they needed teachers in Egypt, he applied for the job and spent a year teaching video production to students primarily from the Upper Nile region.
The Crossman’s TV production company, The Learning Dock, is headquartered in Tennessee and specializes in high-end, instructional DVD’s. “We were living in Friendship, Maine when I got a call from our son Jason who asked if we’d join them for a year and help get his business off the ground.” When their first grandchild was born, Barbara announced they were not moving back to Maine. “Maine is OK in the summer, but she is from Florida. We return once or twice a year to connect with family.”
David told me that although Barbara was not a musician, she has “plenty to do”. In addition to being CFO of their fledgling company, she started her own relief organization in Sudan, which has subsequently merged with Aid Sudan. Barbara serves as a consultant to organizations and ministries doing humanitarian work in south Sudan. She goes back and forth several times a year. “I accompanied her the first time she went, but things have settled down. She has a network of people who help facilitate the various projects she is involved with.”
Crossman has numerous projects in the works. A “bittersweet novel” he is working on called Night of the Full Moon Catch, set on the Maine coast, particularly excites him. He has two albums coming out, Decades and Better Late. And finally, Bean and Ab’s next adventure will be The Riddle of Misery Light.