PORTLAND, Maine — "Bad Animals" is a new novel by Sarah Braunstein, a writer who lives in Portland and teaches English and creative writing at Colby College in Waterville, and it's special to her because it's the first book she started and finished in Maine.
Braunstein moved to Maine 17 years ago, and one of the things she does not take lightly is the support and encouragement of her fellow writers in this state.
"The tightness of the Maine writing community is everything to me," she said.
That support is especially important since writing is not a team sport. Writers spend endless hours staring at a screen or piece of paper, often wondering if their work is any good and if anyone will ever read it. No one is cheering them on from another desk five feet away.
"It’s solitary, and there's so much time just by oneself," Braunstein said. "And one has to not be afraid of that. So learning to be alone with yourself and your ideas is so important."
"Bad Animals" tells the story of a librarian in Maine who loves her job and whose life is turned upside down when a teenager accuses her of an unsettling misdeed.
"I love books. I love libraries and book people," Braunstein said, which, coming from a novelist and English professor, does not come as a great surprise. "I wanted to write about a librarian. I wanted to write about literary culture—and also about Maine. I think the novel is in some ways about the romance that people have for Maine."
Maine, it's often said, is one big small town, and here's one of those random people connections that just might put a smile on your face. Although they didn't grow up in Maine, Sarah Braunstein was high school classmates with … wait for it … NEWS CENTER Maine Meteorologist Todd Gutner.
A tight community indeed.