Staff Writer

It’s a sibling story — two brothers are involved in a paint ball accident during a snowstorm in a small (fictitious) town near Brunswick. With a person missing and one of the brothers under suspicion, the aftermath of the accident tests their loyalty to each other, author Lewis Robinson said. 

That is how he would describe his first novel “Water Dogs,” which hit shelves Tuesday. He is scheduled to read a passage Sunday, Jan. 25 at Louis T. Graves Memorial Library in Kennebunkport as the first of many stops in a book tour to promote the novel.

Robinson, 37, lives in Portland with his wife CC and newborn daughter Maisie. Robinson has also taught for the past five years at Stonecoast, the masters in fine arts writing program at the University of Southern Maine. 

One of the few local published authors in the program, Robinson said he began teaching at the college shortly after a collection of his short stories titled “Officer Friendly” was published. With students in the fiction-writing program ranging in age, Robinson said he does not use his own writing as teaching material. 

“If my students want to read it and talk to me about it they can, but there are too many other good books out there,” he said.

Robinson said he writes a little bit every day. 

“Sometimes I have slower periods, but I write a lot of material and don’t always end up using it,” he said.

When he began “Water Dogs” four years ago, he had characters in mind, writing about the brothers’ childhoods initially, but later said he realized the story started as adults, not when they were children.

“I’ve always been interested about family stories,” Robinson said. “I’m curious how the family past affects the current relationships, even as much as we all try to escape the past. Once I realized where this story started, I latched onto the accident.”

The back-story includes the death of the brothers’ father when they were in their teens, how it set the family in disarray and impacted the action in the present day plot line, Robinson said. He said early reviews have focused on these “more grizzly” aspects of the novel, however he said there are lighter parts and a love story weaved in between the major plot. He said he is most nervous about the prospect of a New York Times book review.

As a boy, Robinson said he was a “big reader,” and wrote a letter to E.B. White, author of “Charlotte’s Web.” He said White wrote him back “just a short note,” but said that was when he began thinking of writing as a career. 

“It was the first time I thought more about the writer. I thought it was something I could aspire to be,” he said. 

Robinson majored in English literature at Middlebury College in Vermont, and later earned his masters in fine arts at the University of Iowa in 2001. 

Having spent his childhood living just outside of Boston and Buffalo, N.Y., Robinson moved with his family to Yarmouth when he was 10 years old. He said the “Maine details” are important to the setting of the novel, and New England details are prominent in his short stories.

“The setting needed to be isolated and removed, but influenced by Portland. As I imagined the story, I could see the Maine details,” Robinson said. 

Knowing what he likes to read, Robinson said he hopes “Water Dogs” appeals to a broad audience, and that people are interested in the story. 

“I love reading myself, and I like providing the kind of experience I enjoy as a reader. That’s what I think drives me,” Robinson said. “There are so many forces in the world that alienate people, I think reading brings them together in an important way.”

Robinson said books allow people to experience new worlds and meet new characters, and stimulate the mind differently than any other form of entertainment.

“I love a good story,” Robinson said. “There’s so much a book can do that a movie can’t.”

Robinson said during the first stop of his book tour, he plans on reading from his novel for about 20 minutes before taking questions from the audience. With the novel hitting shelves only a week and a half prior to the reading, Robinson said he doesn’t expect people to have already read the book.

“It’s always fun to talk to people who have read the whole book, but I also love introducing people to the story,” Robinson said. “I’m looking forward to celebrating the completion of the project. There’s always some relief when a project is over.” 

As he travels through New England for the book tour, Robinson said he is jumping right into his next novel. 

Hard cover copies of “Water Dogs” can be purchased for $25 through local bookstores.