National publishers have recently published two new books by Homer authors. Beacon Press of Boston published last month scientist, poet and nonfiction writer Eva Saulitis’ “Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas” (Beacon Press, Jan. 15, $26.95). A biologist who has been studying orca whales in Prince William Sound for 24 years, Saulitis writes of the whales and landscape she came to know. “There’s great tenderness in this book, and great pathos,” author Bill McKibben said of her book. “Sometimes one wonders if it’s worth the pain to pay attention amidst the gathering storm, but this powerful account shows us that it’s precisely by keeping track of the world around us that we stay human.”
On the faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage’s low-residency master of fine arts writing program and the Kenai Peninsula Writers’ Conference, Saulitis also wrote the poetry collection, “Many Ways to Say It.”
Also released last month is Jennifer Bernard’s “Sex and the Single Fireman” (Avon, Jan. 29, $5.99), the third novel in her Bachelor Firemen romance series set at San Gabriel Station 1 in California. It follows Bernard’s introductory novel in the series, “The Fireman Who Loved Me” and the second book, “Hot For Fireman,” both released last spring.
“The pace is swift and the plot keeps twisting,” Publishers Weekly said of her first novel. “This is a solid, sexy and funny start to a planned series.”
A Harvard College graduate and the daughter of professors, Bernard worked as a fact checker for Funk and Wagnall’s and as a news promotions writer at TV stations in Portland, Maine, and Los Angeles before moving to Alaska in 2007 and Homer in 2009.
“Sex and the Single Fireman” introduces a new character, firefighter Sabina Jones, a former child actress who left Hollywood for a more meaningful career as a firefighter.