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Two Popular Authors to sign Books at Sherman's Barbara Freeman
Both writers live in Maine and have recently written books which are receiving excellent reviews. For more information, call Sherman's at 633-7262. Van Reid Since 1990, Van Reid of Edgecomb has been a familiar face at Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta, where he is assistant manager. He is also known from his local theater performances. Now he is receiving national recognition as the author of a book which is on the Boston Herald's 1998 short list of ``Summer's Heavy Hitters.'' Cordelia Underwood: Or the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League came out in June, and every indication is that it is, and will continue to be, a success. Rave reviews have accompanied the publication, from advance publicity by Viking Penguin Press which told readers to spend an idyllic Maine summer with a beautiful heroine, to high praise by Publisher's Weekly when the book first appeared. Extremely favorable reviews followed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Christian Science Monitor, Portland Press Herald and, on July 26, in the New York Times book section, in which Kit Reed called Cordelia Underwood an ``amiable, richly populated first novel...that should soothe even the twitchiest reader.'' The author has even had some ``tickles'' from Hollywood. ``A lot of people think it would make a good movie,'' he says. ``Quite a lot of the book actually takes place in Boothbay Harbor,'' says Reid, who has been praised for his excellent research into the late 1800s in which he set the book. The area and its people, and some of the incidents that actually took place, have become part of the story. A sea monster watch, for example, was based on sightings reported in coastal newspapers of the time. ``Everybody really likes the sense of place in it,'' says Reid. ``I was really trying to evoke the perfect summer. Part of my whole purpose is to celebrate the state and the places I'm familiar with in Maine.'' Cordelia Underwood is the first in a trilogy. It is about a lovely young Portland woman who inherits a parcel of land where something mysterious may be buried. The story begins on the Fourth of July and continues throughout the summer, bringing in characters including the kindly Tobias Walton and a trio of earnest bachelors who form the exclusive Moosepath League, a gentleman's club in Portland. Reid explains that the idea for Cordelia first came to him in 1991. His inspiration, what he calls his ``beginning model,'' for the series, and for the Moosepath League, was Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. But, he adds that Cordelia Underwood ``has taken off in its own direction.'' The second volume, which will be published next summer, and for which the first draft is complete, is tentatively entitled Molly Peer. Reid is eminently qualified to write about Maine. His family has lived in the Edgecomb and Boothbay Region since the mideighteenth century, very near where he and his wife Margaret and their son Hunter live now. He says his ancestors include farmers, ship's captains, fishermen, and rum runners. While he did not attend college, Reid has wide experience in a variety of fields, having worked in a lumbermill and the electronics industry, as an orderly in a hospital, as a maker of wooden toys, and as a carpet installer. He has been writing for 20 years. James L. Nelson Former tall ship sailor and Maine author James L. Nelson's latest book, The Continental Risque, is Book III in the author's on-going Revolution at Sea saga. The new book continues the adventures of United States Navy Captain Isaac Biddlecomb during the American Revolution. This volume includes the capture of Nassau and New Providence Island by the American fleet in spring, 1776, the first-ever US Navy and Marine Corps action. The first two books in the series, which is published by Pocket Books, By Force of Arms and The Maddest Idea, have enjoyed brisk sales, with Arms now in its fourth printing. There are currently plans for at least two more volumes following The Continental Risque. James L. Nelson was born and raised in Lewiston. Both of his parents have taught English, his father at Bates College and his mother at Lewiston High School, from which James graduated in 1980. After high school, Nelson attended film school at UCLA, where he received several awards. Upon graduation, he worked at various jobs in Hollywood while trying, unsuccessfully, to become a screenwriter. During his time at UCLA, Nelson sailed with the college yacht club. After graduation he bought a small sailboat, and then a 27-foot sloop aboard which he lived in Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles. In 1939 he took his first opportunity to ``run away to sea,'' joining the crew of the Golden Hinde, a replica of Sir Francis Drake's 1577 ship. He was soon made bosun and sailed with the ship for a year, from L.A. through the Panama Canal to Texas. Convinced that he did not want to return to his former career, he sold his boat and moved to Washington State. There he worked aboard the brig Lady Washington and then on the Columbia Project, prior to joining the ``H.M.S.'' Rose, a replica of a Revolutionary War British frigate operating on the East Coast. While working aboard the Rose in 1991, Nelson conceived and began writing the first book in what would become the Revolution at Sea saga (By Force of Arms). Nelson left the Rose in 1992 to move back to California. There he married Lisa Page, another traditional sailor whom he had met aboard the Hinde. By Force of Arms was completed in 1994 and sold to Pocket Books shortly after with agreements for two more in the series, and then another two. In 1995 the Nelsons, with their new-born daughter, moved to Ohio. Arms was published in 1996 and Book II, The Maddest Idea, in 1997. In 1997 Nelson, with his family, returned to Maine and now lives in Harpswell. The author is working on Lords of the Ocean, Book IV in the series, due to be published in summer, 1999. The author's experience at sea served him well; a number of reviewers commented on the historical accuracy of the books. Novelist Patrick O'Brian said of Arms, ``Authenticity runs throughout the book, carrying total conviction...'' The praise continued for The Maddest Idea, which the Portland Press Herald called, ``...sprightly in style and accurate in historical sweep and detail.... Nelson has no apologies to make by sailing in company with [C.S.] Forester and Patrick O'Brian....''
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