On Thursday, September 15, at 6:30 p.m. the Joslin Memorial Library is hosting four local authors. Lee Hall Delfausse, author of “Snow Sanctuary,” Amiee Hoben, author of the “Third Way,” Mary Kathleen Mehuron, author of “Fading Past” and “The Opposite of Never,” and Catherine Drake, author of “The Treehouse On Dog River Road” will share a bit about their books and their journey as writers. This event will take place inside the library. Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments will be served.
‘THE THIRD WAY’
South Dakota college student Arden Firth is brave enough to take on the rigged political system and corporate America. Despite her fear of public speaking, she becomes the leader of a movement to abolish corporations in South Dakota, joining forces with a mysterious law student to push South Dakota Ballot Initiative 99. But dark money and power won’t go quietly and forces conspire to destroy their work.
Hoben, who has worked as a land conservation lawyer and in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 corporation, brings a unique perspective to this coming-of-age novel that provides a thought-provoking counter to the reviled 2010 Citizens United case declaring corporations to be “persons”
‘THE TREEHOUSE ON DOG RIVER ROAD’
Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Spencer wants nothing more than to change everything about her life. Recently laid off from her depressing job in Boston and ready for a challenge, Hannah heads to Waterbury, Vermont, for the summer to take care of her sister’s kids and do some serious soul searching. There, she embarks on an ambitious project: building a treehouse for her niece and nephew. As she hammers away, she formulates a plan to jump-start her life with a new job out west. Her next-door neighbor, Nathan Wild, has just moved back to Vermont. Will he complicate her desire to change course?
Catherine Drake worked for many years in the land conservation field developing public outdoor recreation areas and preserving forests and farmland for future generations. After raising two daughters, she and her husband moved to Vermont where she writes and has been active in the environmental community by serving on the local land trust and conservation commission.
‘THE OPPOSITE OF NEVER’
Two intertwining love stories show that life is mostly a mixed bag: Devastated by the loss of their spouses, Georgia and Kenny think that the best times of their lives are long over until they find each other. Teenagers Zelda (Kenny’s stepdaughter) and Spencer fall in love at first sight yet fall prey to and navigate opiate addiction together. Set in Vermont, it ultimately reveals that love and real contentment can happen at any point, but happy endings are often a surprise.
Mary Kathleen Mehuron lives and teaches in a ski town in Vermont where everyone calls her Kathy and she and her husband raised three sons. She has a weekly column in her local newspaper, The Valley Reporter, called Take Me Back. The Vermont Arts Council recently gave her an artist development grant and she is using it to grow the column into a non-fiction book to benefit the Mad River Valley historical societies.
‘SNOW SANCTUARY’
Avalanches, injury, paralysis, death, loneliness -- all part of international ski racing -- are predictable dangers compared with the corruption of coaches. Lia Erickson learns how to grapple with these challenges in her ski journey through the Sierra Nevadas and the European Alps, eventually gaining courage from her teammates and herself.
Lee Hall Delfausse, a graduate of UC Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa, and a postgraduate in Journalism and American Literature, now lives in Vermont and is a member of The League of Vermont Writers. As a former member of the U.S. World Cup ski team, for four years she enjoyed the travel, the friendships, the challenges, all while learning to overcome the dangers, the injuries, and the conflicts. Her novel "Snow Sanctuary" is a compilation of the many stories she gathered from her teammates. Having coached both skiing and tennis for years, she now wants to inform female athletes and parents about the subtle dangers that can arise when coaches are unsupervised.
