PORT TOWNSEND — Tim Perry says his retirement just simply didn’t take.
“When I last retired from the Sheriff’s Office, I told my wife this was it and I was done,” Perry said. “But I said that before, when I retired from teaching. And of course here I am, working again.”
Perry, 70 — a former Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office undersheriff, Seattle police officer and professor of criminal justice at Shoreline College — is now a published fiction author.
After years of writing, rewriting and more rewriting, Perry’s turn-of-the-20th-century police drama, Trilogy in Blue: From the Ashes, went to press in June.
The payoff is in the big stack of bright orange and blue books — the first in the three-novel series — sitting on the dining room table of his Port Ludlow home, adorned with his name.
“And no, it wasn’t easy,” Perry said. “I received probably 60 rejection letters to get to this point.
“They all told me the ideas and writing were good, but the drama was clogged . . .
“I was almost done with it, but about six months ago I decided to work with an editor out of Copper Canyon Press in Port Townsend.
“Then I decided I was going to send out one last manuscript.
“Publish America sent me a letter about a week letter saying they loved it and they wanted to sign me to a contract.”
Perry said he immediately went to his wife to tell her the news.
“I told her it looks like I’m not retired anymore,” he said.
Trilogy
And he won’t be for the next couple of years, while he finishes the next two books in the trilogy.
Perry said the three books will follow three different generations of a family working in the business of the Seattle Police Department.
“This first book, From the Ashes, takes a look at the beginning of a family in trouble,” in the early 1900s, Perry said.
“You have a father who has made a fortune in the Alaska gold rush and set up shop in Seattle after the big fire.
“His son has decided to become a police officer and it explores their relationship, it explores that family and it explores the corruption on both sides.
“Oh, and just for good measure, I threw in a psychotic killer for the son to deal with. There’s a lot going on here.”
Perry said he isn’t worried about making a lot of money on the book. Just getting it published is a dream of his, he said.
The stories in the book are all based loosely on true stories he gleaned through his 30 years of police work. And yes, Jefferson County does serve as one scene in the story, he said.
Next book
“I’m already 17 chapters into the next book,” Perry said.
“It’s taking place through World War II and into the ’60s, with a new generation of the family.
“The third book will be another generation, and it will all tie together.
“And yeah, I do know how this all ends. I just have to get there.”
Perry, who retired from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in February 2008 after more than five years with the department — three of those as undersheriff — has served in law enforcement for more than 38 years.
He worked as a detective for the Seattle Police Department and served as chief of the Clyde Hill Police Department.
He first retirement from active law enforcement duty was in 1989, when he took a teaching job in the criminal justice program at Shoreline Community College in Seattle. After his retirement from the college, he joined the sheriff’s office.
Perry will have a book signing and books for purchase at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Ceder Ave., Port Hadlock.
A portion of the sales will go to the Friends of the Library group supporting the county library.
Perry’s book, Trilogy in Blue: From the Ashes is available at www.Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Borders, among other stores.
For more information, visit www.taperry.com.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
