Isa Cruz

On Monday, Curtis Memorial Library held an event highlighting three local Maine authors who brought out their passion for writing and their personal connections to their works.

This event is part of a series that features local authors approximately once a month. Jon Roy, Curtis’s technology librarian and the organizer of the event, hopes the series highlights the work of local authors.

“We’re really hoping by offering three local authors the opportunity to talk at the same event, it will pull in a bigger crowd than one single person would,” Roy said at the event. “So, it gives them more of an opportunity to share their items to a bigger audience.”

The three authors featured at the event were Moriah Freeman, author of “The Blue Room,” William Hyland, author of “Bayside,”  and Regina Strongheart, author of “When My Mother was a Mountain.”

“The Blue Room” is centered around a character named Kathryn who suffers from chronic pain. She eventually relies on an imaginary sanctuary, the titular Blue Room, to relieve her of her pain and help her discover more about herself, her past and her relationships.

“This book is a book about transformation,” Freeman said. “It’s about embracing life just as it is and using everything as an opportunity for waking up, for changing, for growing and for transformation.”

Freeman also explained that many of the takeaways in her novel come from her own experiences. She has suffered from chronic pain for about 20 years, and the lessons she has learned over those years appear in her novel through Kathryn’s journey.

“It is not a memoir, and it is not an autobiography, but there are lessons that I’ve learned that I wanted to find a way to share,” Freeman said. “I learned that pain can be a messenger,… a teacher, a friend, that can reveal to you things you need to know about the way you’re living your life that you might want to change.”

Noting the blue paintings on the wall of Curtis as Freeman read an excerpt from her novel describing the Blue Room, Roy emphasized the significance of having authors discuss their writing in person.

“That’s the benefit of reading and hearing an author really talk,” Roy said. “[You] hear the emotion in their voice and hear the inspiration they’re able to provide through their writing.”

“Bayside” is a murder-mystery novel set in Maine that also touches on themes of self-discovery. Its setting is largely based on Hyland’s experiences growing up in Damariscotta.

As in “The Blue Room,” Hyland’s main character is inspired by his own life experiences.

“I remain happy that I was able to craft something that was … certainly reflective of my upbringing in the Midcoast,” Hyland said. “I was able to sort of bring in some pieces of my childhood [and] my adolescence in this novel.”

Hyland expressed eagerness for other Mainers to read “Bayside” because of its setting.

“I think if you’re a Mainer, or even if you’re somebody who just moved here the past few years, I think you’ll appreciate some of the local color that’s added into it,” Hyland said.

Because “Bayside” is set in Maine, Hyland underscored his gratitude for the chance to share the novel in a local Maine library.

“I wanted to be able to share the story in coastal Maine, in a place similar to where it was set,” Hyland said.

The final book presented, “When My Mother was a Mountain,” is a memoir about Strongheart’s solo camping trip throughout South Dakota, where she not only engaged in a difficult and dangerous journey but also had many moments of self-discovery and healing.

At the event, Strongheart explained that, throughout her journey, she experienced many moments that triggered a certain memory.

“All of a sudden I’d see something, and it would inform … or wake up some memory in me that now I understand needed to … come up and be looked at and felt again,” Strongheart said. “I hope lots of folks read this book and feel inspired to go out and heal the things inside of them.”

Roy emphasized how inspiring the series has been so far.

“I think author events are just simply inspiring. You find what inspires them, and in many case[s], it will trigger a new hobby or an interest in myself and other people that listen to it,” Roy said in an interview with the Orient.

The next event in the library’s local authors series is on December 16.