In the spirit of collectivism, three members of the Portsmouth Authors Collective are joining forces for a combined book launch of their latest novels. The event is scheduled for 6:30 pm on 24th October at The Lens Studio in Portsmouth Guildhall, and all are welcome to attend. Tickets are free.
In Helen Salsbury’s second novel, The Worry Bottles, Naomi is at breaking point. But writing her concerns down on paper and sealing them in bottles tossed out to sea temporarily relieves her mounting anxiety. When her bottles begin washing up on the beach of an island in the Bristol Channel, Matthew, the island’s caretaker, sets off on a Don Quixote-like quest to rescue her. Soon, the two are bound together in a mystery involving a 14th century mystic and the inhabitants of the island’s former commune.
Communes also feature in Loree Westron’s new novel, but twelve-year-old Dylan Dearborne is weary of her hippie mother’s transient life and longs for the things she has never known—a father, a family, a place where she belongs. Returning to the farm on the Nez Perce reservation, to the family her mother fled from years before, she begins to uncover secrets that reverberate down the generations. Set in the western United States, A Legacy of Earth and Sky is part road trip, part coming-of-age novel, and part family saga.
A Danger of Books, Richard Salsbury’s third novel, is once again set in the fictional English town of Strathurst. But this time, we follow an alternative timeline into a dystopian world where artistic endeavours are thwarted by oppressive copyright laws. Drawn into an underworld of illegal artistic appreciation, Josh attempts to uncover the culture Britain has disowned, and discover its connection to a mysterious note from his long-dead father.
Annie Kirby, author of The Hollow Sea will be speaking to the three authors about their books, and Olly Gruner will be providing a musical interlude for the evening. Free tickets are available from the Guildhall here.
Check out Helen Salsbury’s work here, Richard Salsbury’s here and Loree Westron’e here.
Picture courtesy of the Portsmouth Authors Collective.
