Husband and wife author team coming to Kamloops for book signing and readings

ARTS/ ENTERTAINMENT — A pair of B.C. authors will be in Kamloops on Wednesday, May 14 for book signings and reading events.

Husband and wife Gary Geddes and Ann Eriksson are both releasing books this season: Geddes a book of poems, What Does a House Want (Red Hen Press) and Eriksson a novel, High Clear Bell of Morning (Douglas & McIntyre) about a family coping with the news that one of their members has developed a mental illness.

They will be signing copies of the books at Chapters from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and giving author readings at the Kamloops Library at 7 p.m.

High Clear Bell of Morning illustrates the strain on Canadian families facing mental illnesses, and draws attention to the inadequate system that is meant to help. Ruby’s life begins to unravel when, at 19, she begins hearing voices coming from her closet.

As her father, Glen—a marine biologist studying killer whales on the West Coast—sees her transformation from studious, engaged and strong-willed to moody, paranoid, and delusional, he becomes desperate to protect and understand his now seemingly unrecognizable daughter.

Eriksson is a biologist and author of three previous novels: Decomposing Maggie (Turnstone, 2003), In the Hands of Anubis (Brindle & Glass, 2009) and Falling From Grace (Brindle & Glass, 2011), which was awarded a Silver medal in the 2011 Independent Publishers Book Awards. For more info, go to: http://www.anneriksson.ca.

The subject matter of What Does a House Want? includes multinationals, Israeli-Palestinian violence, the guilt of Leon Trotsky, POWs, assassins, madbombers, China’s bloody Emperor Qin Shihuang, and the reputation of Ezra Pound.

Geddes has written and edited more than 40 books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, criticism, translation, and anthologies, and won a dozen national and international literary awards, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region), and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

There is no charge for the reading events. For more info on the Chapters signing, call 250-377-8468. For more info on the library reading, call 250-372-5145.