Our guest tonight: Melanie Forde
Thursday, April 20th – 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – 213 E Main Street, Front Royal, VA
Melanie Forde is the author of the Hillwilla series of novels, soon to be a trilogy. A veteran writer, she has ghosted in diverse formats, while also publishing under her own name numerous features and commentaries about the natural world. Fond of parsing the mysteries of Mother Nature, the former city girl has undertaken such foolhardy challenges as turning flax seed into linen over many labor-intense months. “Never again!” She lives on a farm tucked into a remote hollow of southeastern West Virginia, with two dogs, one cat and one husband.
Hillwilla and On the Hillwilla Road are novels showcasing Appalachia, with both warts and glories on display. Like the West Virginia venue, which is not quite northern and not quite southern, the main characters are misfits — all flawed, all trying to find their way. Beatrice Desmond is a widowed Bostonian, struggling to adjust to the culture of “born-heres,” who eye her suspiciously. In danger of closing herself off from her fellow man and spiraling into alcoholic depression, she begins a journey of transformation after rescuing a local girl, Clara Buckhalter, from an abusive domestic situation. This teenager is herself a misfit, no longer trusting in family ties or local ways. Clara yearns for something more in her life, but fears the risks of rising too far above her raising. Beatrice’s transformation is further accelerated by her work editing the memoirs of local philanthropist Tanner Fordyce. It’s hate at first sight for the two collaborators. Their relationship eventually morphs into friendship, then romance, as Tanner proves to be far more complicated than the alpha male stereotype he broadcasts to the world. The novels explore how these characters — like all of us — can soldier through adversity and reinvent themselves, at any age.
