BAKER CITY, HERMISTON — Oregon author Eileen Garvin’s new book, “Crow Talk,” hits the shelves April 30, and she’s planning two stops in Eastern Oregon to visit with readers and talk about her novel.

Garvin will be in Baker City on Wednesday, May 8. The event, organized by Betty’s Books, begins at 5:30 p.m. at Churchill School, 3451 Broadway St. (enter through the 16th Street parking lot).

Copies of her new book will be available prior to the event at the bookstore, as well as at the talk, where Garvin will be available to sign copies.

The author then heads to Hermiston for an author talk on Thursday, May 9, at The Next Chapter Bookstore, 1000 S. Highway 395, Suite C. That event begins at 6:30 p.m. Books will be available to purchase, and Garvin will sign copies.

About the author

Garvin didn’t set out to write novels.

She grew up in Eastern Washington, and majored in English. Then she got a job at a newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I fell in love with it,” she said. “Interviewing, researching, putting a story together.”

In 2004 she moved to Hood River and kept writing on a freelance basis.

She published a memoir, “How to be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism,” in 2010. In this nonfiction work, Garvin writes about her relationship with her sister, Margaret, who was diagnosed with severe autism at age three.

“It’s the story of growing up with a sibling with severe autism — when no one knew what autism was,” she said.

She enjoyed the writing process but wasn’t sure about her next steps.

Then, while driving one day, the first sentence of a novel came to mind.

“I pulled over and wrote it down,” she said.

That sentence became “The Music of Bees,” which was published in 2021 and follows the intertwining stories of three strangers who are connected by beekeeping. The story is set in Hood River.

“’The Music of Bees’ came along as a complete surprise,” she said.

She started work on “Crow Talk” in 2020.

“The thing that came to me first was the setting, and the characters came later,” she said.

The story’s location is based on a remote spot where she spent time as a child with her family. She was writing during the height of the pandemic, and set the story in the 1990s because she was “sick of screens.”

“There’s no smartphones, and barely email,” she said. “They have to deal with each other in person, a pay phone or by mail.”

“Crow Talk” follows the story of Frankie O’Neill, a “lonely ornithologist struggling to salvage her dissertation on the spotted owl following a rift with her advisor” and Anne Ryan, an Irish musician who is raising her five-year-old son Aiden, who refuses to speak.

The three characters become connected over an injured baby crow that “brings this trio together and an unlikely friendship blooms, allowing all three to forge a path towards healing, rediscovery, and joy.”