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'Finest Hours' Author: 'Telling Hero Stories For The Rest Of My Career'

LOS ANGELES (CBS) -- Massachusetts author Casey Sherman hit the red carpet Monday night for the premiere of the film made from his 2009 best-seller, "The Finest Hours," at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

It's a place he never thought he'd be.

"I call myself the accidental author," said Sherman. "I never believed I'd be writing books one day."

The former WBZ-TV producer has written eight books, but "The Finest Hours" is the first to be turned into a film. It won't be the last, either--his book co-authored with Dave Wedge about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, "Boston Strong," is being turned into a movie starring Mark Wahlberg.

Related: 'Finest Hours' Co-Author Talks Movie Adaptation, New England Storytelling

"That's a story about real heroes, the heroes that came out of the Boston Marathon bombing," said Sherman. "I'll be telling hero stories for the rest of my career, and I'm very proud to do it."

Sherman worked as a TV news producer for 20 years while writing books on the side. He said he was thrust into the spotlight by the Boston Strangler case.

"My aunt was the last victim," said Sherman. "I re-investigated the case, wrote a book about it, and then just said, you know what, I can do this. And I just started carving out two hours a night, every night, working on my little stories and going back to the newsroom."

pine
Actor Chris Pine arrived at the premiere of Disney's "The Finest Hours" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Now, his book about four young Coast Guardsmen on a daring rescue mission off of Chatham in 1952 is a Disney movie starring Chris Pine, Eric Bana, and Casey Affleck.

"It's such an honor to be working with a lot of the talent that we've had the opportunity to work with here at 'The Finest Hours' and on 'Boston Strong,'" said Sherman. "What I love about it is, everybody's so respectful to the actual heroes of these stories. They know they have a responsibility to tell the story the right way, and they do."

On Hollywood Boulevard Monday night, the film's premiere was filled with real-life Coast Guard members as well as those famous faces.

"We're really excited to share the mission of the Coast Guard, what these guys went through back in 1952, and it's very relevant to what the Coast Guard does today," said Sherman. "If we can get people interested in the Coast Guard's mission, we've done our job."

On the red carpet, Sherman told WBZ that he knew this day would come, and after all this work, he's ready to celebrate.

"When I wrote the book, I knew it would be a great film, I just had to get it done," said Sherman. "And that's the persistence of the storytellers, of the writers, and then the production crew with Disney, they all really believed in this story. So, tonight, it feels like a relay race. Everybody had a leg to run to get here tonight, now we can all celebrate."

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