SALISBURY — Livingstone College political science professor-turned-fiction writer M.J. Simms-Maddox is on the road promoting her ‘Priscilla’ trilogy.

“As an independent author,” she says, “I must invest in my own work, hence the book tour.”

She began her tour at the Harlem Book Fair on July 21, followed by a family gathering in South Orange, N.J.

Book one, “Priscilla Engaging in the Game of Politics,” a piece on politics and race, portrays a bright, carefree, enterprising young woman strongly bound to her father — an itinerant Methodist minister and consummate politician about whom she has conflicted feelings.

Integral to the storyline is Priscilla’s childhood in the late 1950s and the early 1960s highly-segregated South —Mississippi and North Carolina — where critical life lessons are imparted to her.

The author is preparing to promote book two, “Mystery in Harare: Priscilla’s Journey into Southern Africa,” at the South African Book Fair, Sept. 7-9, in Johannesburg. She aims to learn how the character-driven thriller bodes with Zimbabweans and South Africans, the people about whom she has written.

She will promote book 3, “Three Metal Pellets,” at an event yet to be announced. “Meanwhile, it’s on to Jo’burg!”

A coming-of-age series, the books are distributed by Ingram Book Co., and are available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, in bookstores, and on the author’s website: www.novelsbymj.com.