Five weeks into a book tour that continues on through September, novelist Katherine Towler took a well-deserved break at a cabin in northern Vermont. Her charming Cape Cod tucked away on a side street near the water in Portsmouth might be an ideal getaway for many of us, but sometimes a writer whose homeplace is her workplace really needs to get away.

Since her second novel, “Evening Ferry,” was released in June by McAdam/Cage, Towler has toured the Northeast, visiting bookstores, speaking with library reading groups, appearing on radio shows and as presenter at a writers’ conference at Goddard College.

“Yes, it’s great to get a few days off, but it’s been exciting to meet readers who are now familiar with the world of Snow Island and are looking forward to the next book,” Towler says.

“Evening Ferry” is the second book in a planned trilogy about life on a small and isolated New England island over a period of 50 years. The first book, “Snow Island,” released in 2002, was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers series, the Borders Original Voices program and as a Booksense 76 pick. “Evening Ferry” has also been chosen as a Booksense pick, which represents monthly book choices of independent booksellers nationwide.

“Evening Ferry” returns to the fictional Snow Island, based on a real island in Narragansett Bay, which was the inspiration for the novels. Opening the trilogy, “Snow Island” wove together the stories of two main characters in the island community as the United States entered World War II: a 16-year-old girl coming of age and a World War I veteran coming to terms with the past and his personal loss.

The setting and many supporting characters stay in place for “Evening Ferry,” while two new main characters step forward from minor roles in the first novel. As the Vietnam War begins, Rachel Shattuck returns to Snow Island to care for her injured father and discovers her mother’s diaries, which reveal her mother’s character, the nature of her parents’ marriage, and Rachel’s own family history. The third novel will move ahead 20 years to the time of the first Gulf War, and one main character will be a Vietnam veteran.

Obviously, war is a major theme throughout this trilogy. Towler feels strongly about the current war in Iraq, and coordinated the 2003 “Poets Against the War” event in Portsmouth as part of a national movement. However, her intent is not to be dogmatic in her novels but to simply explore the impact of war, especially on an isolated, rural community. She says, “I’m hoping readers come away questioning war, asking, ‘Why do we have to go to war? Is there a way we can break the cycle of violence?’”

Where is the third book? “In my head,” Towler says. While preparing “Evening Ferry” for publication and heralding its release, she has not been writing. But she’ll get back to it soon enough. Since completion of her graduate studies in the mid-1980s, she’s been writing “pretty much continuously.” As a freelancer, she writes publications and materials for schools and nonprofits. She has also served as an editor for the Mars Hill Review, been awarded a number of fellowships, including the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, and taught creative writing.

Her career grew out of being a great reader as a child. “I loved books,” she remembers, “and that made me want to write. By 13 I said I wanted to be a writer.”

She’s also written a number of short stories, poems and interviews, and has racked up her share of rejections as well as publications. “There were times I questioned the amount of time I devoted to writing,” she says, “and the juggling it required. I still had to make a living while doing it. But I realized that I loved to write and life didn’t seem complete without it.”

Being a modern novelist also often means maintaining a Web site. Towler manages the content of www.katherinetowler.com herself and enjoys the e-mails she receives from her readers.

“I spent eight years writing (Snow Island). No one was waiting to read the book. No one asked about it. It was very different to write the second one while there were readers, and a publisher, waiting for it. I was delighted, but there was a sense of pressure I hadn’t had before.

“It is a tremendous experience to have readers and to hear from them. I’m very grateful for that. To realize that the characters that have lived in my mind can live in the minds of others as well—I’ve known that as a reader, but it is a totally different experience as the writer.”


Katherine Towler
will read from “Evening Ferry”
Thursday, Aug. 18 at 7 p.m.
Barnes and Noble, Newington
603-422-7733
www.katherinetowler.com