I have long suspected that large swaths of my life were really the daydreams of some distant person (or perhaps a butterfly). Should government agents descend on Boulder to cover up a grand presidential conspiracy involving The Monitor, the person dreaming me up would certainly be Sam Lockwood, a 24-year-old writer living in New York City whose new novel “The Hidden Heir” is heavily set in Boulder and features the editor-in-chief of The Monitor as a character.
“While researching the novel, I was looking for a local paper that fit the story. I came across The Monitor and immediately knew that that’s where my guy works,” said Lockwood. Lockwood was attracted to The Monitor’s 110 year history as a local western paper, and to the community it serves.
“The Hidden Heir” is Lockwood’s first novel, which he self-published earlier this month. The book is premised on the secret love child of President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe being raised in seclusion on a ranch outside of Boulder. The child teams up with the editor-in-chief of The Monitor in an effort to reveal the conspiracy. The story is littered with allusions to a Boulder that doesn’t exist. It includes a restaurant that postures Mountain Good, but is not. It possesses a bar that might be The Windsor, but isn’t. Lockwood’s Boulder sits upon our own, in a past that never was and in places that never were.
Without revealing core plot details, I would say that “The Hidden Heir” is a deliciously fun read (especially for Boulder residents) and an adventurous example of historical fiction. I took particular delight at the following exchange between First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and other central characters.
“So I got [explicative]-ing played by the Editor of The Boulder Monitor? How bad is it?”
“We’re still trying to process that.”
“Well [explicative]-ing process it faster!” she screams.
If only I were so clever! Lockwood visited Montana, but not Boulder, five years ago. He otherwise has no connection to the state, to Boulder, or to The Monitor. Originally from Saint Louis, MO, he graduated from the University of Miami in 2021, and has since lived in New York. He completed the novel over the course of three year’s writing and research, and chose to hide his protagonist in Boulder for its beauty and isolation, so he says.
“I really connected with Montana when I visited, so I knew fairly early that I wanted to set the novel there,” said Lockwood. “The story begins in 1981, so I wanted to center it around a place which was then lightly populated. There are elements of the story that are clearly untrue, but I wanted it at least somewhat couched in reality.”
Lockwood had originally intended “The Hidden Heir” as a screenplay, of which he has completed several. He converted his original script to a novel while working full-time as an account executive between public relations and advertising firms. While he intends to continue pursuing a marketing career, he also hopes that “The Hidden Heir” might be the first step towards establishing himself as an author. “The Hidden Heir” is currently available for purchase on Amazon.
“I’ve always been interested in writing stories,” said Lockwood. “The screenplay for “The Hidden Heir” was pretty underdeveloped in comparison to the novel, but I think my writing style is ultimately geared towards how I might imagine the scenes playing out in a film.”
