Victoria woman inspired to realize childhood writing dream after taking daily photos on breakwater

Sawatsky Sign-Off: Jean's Dream "It's spectacular!" Adam finds out how daily walks along the breakwater, inspired a Victoria woman to realize a childhood dream.

In the beginning, the breakwater near her home simply inspired Jean Paetkau to take pictures.

“It was kind of like my meditation,” Jean says. “It was really beautiful."

During her daily walks along the structure, Jean captured sunrises and sunsets with her camera, until they captured her imagination in an unexpected way.

“I thought what a beautiful place,” Jean recalls, before laughing. “Why not set a murder here?”

You see, ever since Jean was 16 years old, she’d wanted to write a mystery novel, but never had the self-confidence to pursue it.

“I did everything but admit that writing was my calling,” Jean says.

Although the prospect of pursing that dream at 53 years old, when you’re balancing a full-time job with being a single mom of two, seemed impossible — it also felt imperative.

“There’s something about having kids,” Jean says. “You just realize what matters.”

So, one morning after her walk along the breakwater, Jean sat down at her kitchen table and committed to face her fear of novel-writing failure.

“I didn’t even try to plan it out,” Jean says. “I just said, 'Let’s write a chapter. Let’s see how that goes.'”

So Jean started writing about the sun setting and a woman discovering a body by the breakwater.

“I really want a single mom to solve a crime while she’s on the way to drop her kids off at school,” Jean says.

Over the next six months, Jean considered her complex plot while walking, wrote chapters before her kids were waking, before solving her fictional crime in a way that felt satisfying.

“I did it!” Jean says. “But I felt scared because someone else had to read it.”

But after sending the novel to half a dozen publishers and agents, Jean says she felt invisible.

“I didn’t hear a thing back,” Jean says. “I didn’t get a reply.”

But Jean refused to give up, took the risk of self-publishing her book, and will never forget the feeling of seeing her sunset photo on the cover of the first copy of “Blood on the Breakwater.”

“It’s spectacular!” Jean smiles. “It’s like I grew a new heart.”

But nothing could prepare Jean for the feeling of selling-out at her local market, which led to becoming a bestseller at her local bookstore, before earning number one on an Amazon national sales chart.

“I wrote this book between five and six in the morning, before making school lunches,” Jean cries, never imaging she was also making her childhood dream come true. “And now I’m a best-seller.”

While Jean wishes she could go back in time and tell her 16-year-old self to believe in herself, she can now show her own kids what happens when you never give up on yourself.

“If there’s something that’s your passion, you just have to pursue it,” Jean smiles. “And even if it happens when you’re 53, it still feels absolutely marvellous!”