The Rockbridge Regional Library in Lexington will host author Melanie Forde on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 2 p.m. for a book reading and presentation on her newest book, “Guardian of the Crossroads.”
She’ll take questions about her books and writing life, and will do a book signing after the program.
The fictional story, set in Fauquier County, centers around Catherine Devine, who briefly becomes a minor celebrity when she saves a child from an oncoming truck. Cate is an unlikely heroine, stuck in a dead-end job as a school crossing guard and parttime art teacher. Stalled in her early 40s, she lacks sufficient faith in herself to craft any plans — grand or small.
But Cate harbors an extraordinary secret — she occasionally experiences psychokinesis. As she ponders just how she stopped that truck, she comes to believe her mind can move more than just physical objects. Perhaps she can move time itself. With her wolfhound, Hecuba, at her side, Cate sets out on a journey of self-discovery as she confronts buried talents, old wounds, and a destiny larger than she ever imagined.
Forde is a veteran writer who has ghosted in diverse formats, from academic white papers to advertising copy. Forde really did live on a West Virginia farm, with two dogs, one cat, and a husband instead of llamas and a beloved English setter, topics she probed in the trilogy “Hillwilla,” “On the Hillwilla Road” and “Reinventing Hillwilla.” She then published “Decanted Truths,” her epic saga about an Irish– American family from Boston, and “The Quarryman’s Girl,” her depiction of a pair of French–Canadian sisters transported to Quincy, Massachusetts, at the onset of World War II. “Guardian of the Crossroads” is her sixth novel.
