Maine authors Cheryl Blaydon and Laurel Dodge will give an Author Talk at Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 1:30 p.m. Blaydon, a resident of East Boothbay, and Dodge, a resident of Nobleboro, will discuss their work and writing process, as well as share passages from their latest novels. Both authors will have books on hand for purchase (cash or check) and signing.  

Blaydon says, “We met at an art reception and discovered that we were both writers. We exchanged ideas and emails in lieu of letters (her forte) and a friendship was born.” The pair of writers are excited to collaborate on this joint talk. 

After 20-plus years as a painter, Cheryl Blaydon’s portfolio has grown to include six novels, the latest published in August of 2024. Hailing from upstate New York, she has worked in big business, sailed the Caribbean, traveled through Europe, and studied art in Florida. She now divides her time between writing and painting from an airy studio with a north-facing window in East Boothbay. Blaydon will focus her part of the discussion on her latest novel, "Reunion with Rembrandt," a romance novel backdropped by the colorful walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  

Laurel Dodge’s work as a naturalist at nature centers, land trusts, and a zoo has informed her writing, in which nature always takes a central role. "The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell," a 2024 IPPY bronze medal winner for literary fiction, is her first novel. She lives in Midcoast Maine with her family, where she watches moths at night and tries to wrest vegetables from her old farm’s tired soil. Dodge will focus her part of the discussion on her debut novel, "The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell," the tale of a retired rock star returned to her hometown in the western mountains of Maine to make peace with the river that took her first love.