A mountain town. A growing controversy. A reporter in the thick of it.
Mountain Blues by New Denver author Sean Arthur Joyce is a novel set in the fictional town of Eldorado, but Kootenay folks will find a lot to relate to. The novel launches at the Nelson Public Library on Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m.
According to the publisher, NeWEst Press, Eldorado is “a small mountain town in the Kootenays, chock-a-block with aging hippies, eccentrics, loggers, and protestors.” The protagonist, journalist Roy Breen, moves to Eldorado from the big city and finds himself impressed by the landscape, the townsfolk, and the coffee. But there isn’t much time to sit around at the café admiring the view: the hospital is under threat, and Roy must find a way to balance his journalistic integrity with the need to join his new neighbours in the fight to keep it open.
”Mountain Blues is rich with characters and setting. Joyce’s fresh voice gently reels you in, hooking you with delicious humour, eccentric characters and insights into what it means to live in the Kootenays,” says author Garry Ryan in a back cover testimonial.
“I had a lot of fun with it,” says Joyce, who admits that writing fictional characters into a setting that clearly echoes his own community resulted in a few anxious moments, but “I see it as a tribute to my community,” he says.
Joyce has published a number of nonfiction history titles and poetry collections, with essays and poems appearing in Canadian, American, and British literary journals. His most recent nonfiction book is Laying the Children’s Ghosts to Rest: Canada’s Home Children in the West, published by Hagios Press in 2014. Mountain Blues is his first novel.
Contact: Anne DeGrace: adegrace@nelson.ca or 250-505-5684 or Art Joyce at ajoyce@uniserve.com.