<\/p>\n
Nationally recognized author C. Joseph \u201cChuck\u201d Greaves will present his Cortez-based novel Saturday at Ignacio Community Library with a reading and Q&A session.<\/p>\n
In \u201cChurch of the Graveyard Saints,\u201d Greaves weaves romance with a conflict that is relevant to the Four Corners: preserving the environment vs. extracting its natural resources. The novel launched a new program \u2013 Four Corners, One Book \u2013 in which six or more libraries in the Four Corners joined together to feature a local book each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different perspectives in that book on environmental issues, on a sense of what home is and how we interact with our sense of home,\u201d said Cassandra Leoncini, Cortez Public Library publicist. \u201cThat should make for some pretty interesting discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ignacio attendees at the free event will be able to enjoy hot beverages while listening to a reading by Greaves and participating in a Q&A session with the author. The event will start at 10 a.m. Saturday and is open to everyone, even if attendees have not read the book.<\/p>\n
Greaves, who became an author after spending 25 years as a Los Angeles trial lawyer, said the novel was like a Shakespearean tragedy.<\/p>\n
The \u201cCapulets\u201d of environmental preservation and the \u201cMontagues\u201d of resource extraction square off in the background, while in the foreground, there is a love story, he said, referencing \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChurch of the Graveyard Saints\u201d is told from four character perspectives, including a local coming back to the area from Los Angeles and her professor boyfriend, both environmentalists; a father, who is a rancher; and a high school boyfriend, who works for a gas company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve tried to do in this book is to try and tell all sides of the story. There\u2019s a little bit of truth in everybody\u2019s point of view,\u201d Greaves said. \u201cIt\u2019s up to the reader to decide where their sympathies lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the Four Corners, One Book program, Greaves, who lives near Cortez, will present his novel at six libraries: Ignacio, Cortez, Mancos, Dolores, Montrose and Moab, Utah, at several events from December through February.<\/p>\n
The program\u2019s purpose is to strengthen a sense of community, to bring people together to discuss issues in an open forum and to encourage reading and literacy, Leoncini said.<\/p>\n
Greaves came to the Cortez library with the community reading program idea, and the library helped organize the program, she said. Because author programs can be expensive for libraries<\/a>, Greaves agreed to do the program free of charge, and the book publisher, Torrey House Press, offered to donate books to participating libraries.<\/p>\n At the Ignacio event, Greaves plans to discuss the novel\u2019s background and his motivation for writing the book.<\/p>\n Andrew Hutchinson, adult services specialist at the library, said the event reflects the library\u2019s mission to connect people with ideas for personal growth. It also reinforces the town\u2019s efforts to become a creative district<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can read it, learn more about their local area, talk with a local creator, and maybe why he chose to put those ideas into a novel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Greaves can also share his experience of spending two years trying to break into the fiction industry. His breakthrough came when his first novel, \u201cHush Money,\u201d won the SouthWest Writers\u2019 International Writing Contest.<\/p>\n Contests, he said, are one way to attract an agent who can help make deals with publishers.<\/p>\n