WASHINGTON — Sen. William S. Cohen, fresh from serving eight years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has spent part of his spring promoting “One-eyed Kings.”

For the most part, the book’s hero, Sen. Sean Falcone, is the product of Cohen wondering what would happen if an ex-Vietnam POW was to return home and run for the Senate, plagued by cynicism after witnessing the sorry American attitude toward veterans.

“There are some of my experiences I’ve woven into my character,” Cohen said recently, adding that three senators have said, “Thanks for writing about me.”

The title is a metaphor for partial vision in the intelligence community, and is taken from the saying, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

“The metaphor is that all people have restricted vision, and it can get out of control and spin into directions not anticipated,” Cohen said.

“Kings” also continues the senator’s literary production. Cohen, 50, co-authored a spy novel with former Sen. Gary Hart, “The Double Man,” as well as “Men of Zeal,” an insider’s look at the Iran-Contra hearings that he penned with Sen. George J. Mitchell. He has also written two books of poetry, and a history of his first year in the Senate.

While Cohen has been busy promoting the book in Maine and in national forums, he is not planning an encore of the frequent-flier efforts that tailed publication of his other works.

“I’m not doing the full-fledged promotion I’ve done in the past,” Cohen said.

After working 60 to 70 hours weekly for his constituents, Cohen found writing time one weekend a month, taking about three years to complete the book. And he wrote all 466 pages in longhand, using cheap, blue felt-tipped pens.

“This is equivalent to my workshop. This is what I do in my spare time,” Cohen said.

While the book basically was completed a year ago, Cohen was making minor changes to update references to the Gulf War as late as Feb. 15.

And, Cohen insists it’s all fiction, with nothing culled from secret documents or clandestine meetings. The story is based loosely on the Iran-Contra scandal and Cohen’s personal speculations about spying between friendly countries. And while many colleagues have been busy buying stacks of the book, he did not have to run it through senatorial or intelligence censors, he said.

“This is purely a product of my imagination,” he said.

Even the part where Cohen’s fictional senator joins forces with a Washington Post reporter?

“Yes,” he said. “Now you know it’s fiction.”