The newly released “On Harbor’s Edge” by Kate Hotchkiss will be featured in the North Haven Library Readership Series virtual event at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13. Submitted photo
NORTH HAVEN — The newly released “On Harbor’s Edge” by Kate Hotchkiss will be featured in the North Haven Library Readership Series virtual event at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13. The Zoom link available by contacting author@katehotchkiss.com.
One of Linda Greenlaw’s top five summer reads for 2020, she said of the author’s debut novel, “Captivating! “On Harbor’s Edge” hooked me line and sinker with fascinating characters and dramatic plots brilliantly layered in Maine island life a hundred years ago. Can’t wait for the sequel!”
Kate Hotchkiss Submitted photo
“On Harbor’s Edge, Book One: 1912–1913” is the first story in a series of dramatic, generationally layered plots from the early 1900s to the present, against the backdrop of Maine’s magnificent coastal scenery. In book one, an unsuspecting bride gets into a boat one stormy June day in 1912, and Thaddeus takes her far out to sea to the end of a small island. There, harbor folk welcome Mildred with hopeful joy, but she discovers the tiny fishing village is headed for a most dreadful end. In her efforts to save this treasured island home, Mildred risks losing everything she holds dear.
Hotchkiss was inspired to write the series while living on two Maine islands and visiting several others by lobster boat, sailboat, Penobscot Island Air taxi service, car, and mail boat. She was — and is — constantly amazed at Maine islands’ unique character and intense natural beauty.
“Maine islands have such rich history imbedded within their shores and communities that I have always enjoyed imagining what life could be like so many years ago,” said Hotchkiss. “It’s been great fun writing about characters who have become so real in my head they actually keep me company!”
While the Popplestone Isle tale is fictional, some of the hurdles Mildred May Gale and her neighbors face over a hundred years ago still challenge those on small islands today. Observes author and Stonecoast MFA educator Susan Conley, “Kate Hotchkiss captures the workings of an island here in one fantastic novel. “On Harbor’s Edge” gives us real Maine on the page: men and women working hard on the sea and finding big love with all its complications, while Hotchkiss shows us the extraordinary life force needed to keep an island village alive. “On Harbor’s Edge” brings us to Maine and lets us live on the island with her characters in a way that no other Maine story I’ve read has done.”
In addition to authoring the Harbor’s Edge series, Hotchkiss is a writer, model, and photographer. She lives on a Maine island with her husband Ellard after decades of private sector, government, and United Nations work in Asia. She raised two sons on several islands in Hong Kong and Maine and has lived on islands since 1998 with the exception of two years in Beijing.
“On Harbor’s Edge” is available from your local bookstore, Amazon, and www.KateHotchkiss.com.
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