Richard Kinson shows up in SEER as Craig Anderson’s mentor.

He is older. Established. He sees something in Craig that Craig cannot see in himself. He does not push. He illuminates. He holds up a mirror and lets Craig come to his own conclusions about what he is looking at. He is the presence in Craig’s life that makes it possible for Craig to accept who he actually is.

I did not plan to write a mentor figure. He emerged from the story because the story needed him. Because Craig Anderson — fatherless, uncertain, resistant to his own calling — needed someone to stand in that gap.

That pattern showed up again in Black Water with Alan Charms. Different story. Different world. Different mentor. Same fundamental dynamic. A man who cannot fully see himself needing another man who can see him clearly enough to reflect it back.

I think this keeps appearing in my fiction because I believe it about real life. The men I know who have become who they were built to be almost always have someone in the story who saw them before they saw themselves. A father. A pastor. A coach. A mentor. Someone who refused to let them shrink into the smaller version of themselves and kept pointing at the larger one.

I write that figure into my stories because I know what his absence costs. And I know what his presence makes possible.

If you have had someone like that in your life you know exactly what I am talking about. If you have not — maybe your job is to become that person for someone who needs it.

That is a story worth writing too.

Stephon Rudd