June's Literary Blog
 

A LITERARY BLOG ABOUT BOOKS
How they affect us.
How they shape our lives.

Note
:
Postings made when muses strike.
Watch for blog alert notices
via
email, Twitter, LinkedIn
, and Facebook.

"We read to know
we are not alone."

C.S. Lewis

Copyright 2011-2018


Top 12 Reading
Recommendations
 
Please click a book image to purchase it on Amazon. 

Novels, books, and musicals
June has written and published:
Click a book image to purchase it on
www.amazon.com

"Meditations for New Members is a beautifully written little book...a gem.
The thoughts are striking and orginal--a few are quite profound."
--Fiona  Hodgkin, author of The Tennis Player from Bermuda

Sponsored in part by
Dani's Pantry
Fine authentic Italian food.
Cucina con Amore!

 https://amzn.to/2HdlA

 

 

B'Seti Pup Publishing
Editorial Services
Proofreading, Editing, Rewites,
Assistance with S
elf-publishing.

"It's the write thing to do."

"I like what you've done with my book.
Makes me fall in love with it all over again."
                 --Olajuwon Dare, author of Eleven Eleven

Contact June at
JuneJ@JuneJMcInerney.com
on Facebook.com, or at
www.BSetiPupPublising.com

This site  The Web 

  

Please support this Literary Blog
by buying on Amazon.
Thank you.

Archive Newer | Older

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Sparrow Sisters
I admit, now that I am retired, much lazier than I used to be. Mea culpa, but when it comes to idling away a day or two, I am the master! However, with novel number three in the pipeline and other chores to do, I also feel, more than most, guilty. When you’re young(er), you think you have all the time in the world to squander away. When you’re older and retired, not so much. Yet, I am only human and it is only human nature to occasionally want to veg. Especially on yet again another hotter than normal summer day. And, frankly, FrankieBernard, Sebastian Cat, and I really needed a break from the weather.

This past Tuesday, indulgently hibernating inside with the A/C cranked up, I treated myself to what I had hoped would be an “easy” contemporary woman’s read. But The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel (September 1, 2015) by Ellen Herrick is anything but that. Instead, it is a modern-day hauntingly mystical tale of not only sisterly and romantic love, but an insightful look into the darker side of small-town dynamics gone amok when irrational fear and misunderstanding take hold.

Set in the lush, verdant fictional Cape Cod town of Granite Point in the near past, this enchantingly luxuriant novel delves into the healing alchemy of balms, salves, powders, and potions derived from the plants grown by the eponymous single Sparrow Sisters – Sorrel, Nettie, and Patience – in their nursery first started in the 1600s by their ancestor. Eliza Howard was the wife of one of the town’s founders and, according to local history and a weather-warn gazebo plaque, falsely accused of being a witch. Patience, evidently, has inherited Eliza’s inexplicable talents and abilities to heal.

Enter Henry Carlyle who, a new doctor with a puzzling mystique all his own, settles in Granite Point and immediately, and not so inexplicably, falls in love with the slim, fiery redheaded Patience. Even as his practice and reputation grows, most of the townsfolk still turn to Patience for her homemade remedies until tragedy unexpectedly wells up from the darker side of her magic. And then…true to human nature, the town turns away from her. And then…the town begins to die…

It seems unlikely that, lost in the depths of perdition, both Patience and her once beloved community will survive...and Herrick, at one point, has painted herself and her stunning story into an impossbily inescapable corner. Yet, somehow, she rallies to the challenge as the women of Granite Point and a tenaciously aspiring reporter
band together and, with the aide of Patience’s loyal and loving sisters and Henry’s persistence, cause a seemingly surprise miracle to occur.

The characters in Herrick’s literary debut are deeply crafted, delightfully quirky, and nearly life-like. I actually wanted to move to Granite Point just to be among them and offer whatever help I could in their time of crisis. As I read, I consoled Patience, chided Henry, cheered Sorrel and Nettie on, yelled at an ambitious, yet inept Hutchins,
ohhed and ahhed during many of the surprise plot twists, and cried at the wanton desecration and destruction of…well, it would spoil the story for you if I told you.

Despite a few very minor disjointed seques and a bit of a contrived but clever twist necessary to bring this novel to its more than satisfying dénouement, The Sparrow Sisters is the perfect, plush, cooling antidote for a long, hot summer afternoon. I am hoping the continuation of their, and Granite Point's story, is in the works.

5:25 pm edt          Comments

Monday, July 27, 2015

Phoenixville Rising
In the midst of doing extensive research for my third novel – number two is in the works, but not quite ready for prime time – I ran across an exquisitely written novel set in Phoenixville during the time it was languishing as a former Pennsylvania steel town just before its resurgence – from ashes, as it were – to becoming a healthy, vibrate community. Where, incidentally, I just happen to live.

Now, reading a finely crafted piece of historical literature set in a time and place one knows, but has only read about, is one thing. But to read one that is set in the almost too familiar surroundings of one’s own home town is another. And that is exactly what local author Robb Cadigan has done in his first novel, Phoenixville Rising (2013), a coming-of-age fictional tale that perfectly captures Phoenixville’s essence, flavor, and sense of history. A metaphor, for that matter, for any small American town in the throes of rebirth.

Sketch Walker and his best friend Boo are two clicks away from juvenile delinquency in 1980 when, with its foundry closed, the small borough set in the northern hills of Chester County, PA was rapidly deteriorating into a somber, sobering depression. Residents struggled to find and keep work; the borough council struggled to find ways to raise spirits and funds; and children sought ways to stay focused, optimistic about the future, and…amused.

Asthmatic Boo’s highest ambition was to be full-fledged member of Deacon’s “Furnace Boys” – the rough gang who used the upper floor office of the decrepit abandoned steel mill as their headquarters. He and would do anything to attain what he thought was a boy’s highest status in life. Sketch – so nicknamed because of his amazing drawing talent – often assisted Boo in his procurement raids. But as he adulthood stirs within him, he begins to feel differently from his best friend. While considering it his responsibility to protect and defend Boo, he begins to think that perhaps it would be best if he left his hometown and its dead-end existence. His struggles with these dichromatic feelings are the foundational pith of
Phoenixville Rising. Told in the first person, it relates the events of that fateful autumn that lead up to and culminate in personal and communal tragedy.

In a concurrent plotline set in the 1860s era, young Rebecca Wilton, daughter of the foundry owner, falls hopelessly in love with a young factory worker who, after giving her an onyx – black diamond – necklace bravely marches off to war. As he binds Sketch’s, Boo’s, and Rebecca’s stories together with the precious jewelry, Cadigan expertly – and compassionately – explores the inner minds and souls of his three main protagonists as they come to grips with misfortune, calamity, and heartbreak.

I was really taken by this narrative, especially with the descriptions of local places, real-life streets, and some characters obviously based upon real-time locals. I found myself during my four-day read, gasping at how familiar everything was, trying to second-guess the author. What is fact? Based upon fact? Pure speculation? Fiction? Cadigan, it seems, is a master at combining fact with fiction in that perfect way a good novel should blend realities with figments of the author's imagination.

In and of a town that some real-life residents still complain is uneventfully dull (NOT!),
Phoenixville Rising is a profoundly powerful story of both a town’s resurrection and a man’s redemption. It is an exciting, must read for any local resident even remotely interested in their heritage. A must read for anyone, anywhere looking for a discerning literary diversion.

3:48 pm edt          Comments

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Adeline
It’s almost the middle of the summer and the past few days have been fetidly hot and humid, the heat languishing heavily in the air. Too hot to do anything else, I’ve been hibernating in the cool confines of my living room doing what I (like to) do best: reading and writing. The book I chose for my hermitage during, so far, the hottest days of the year was Adeline: A Novel of Virginia Woolf (April 2015) by Norah Vincent.

It is not, as I anticipated, an airy fare but probably one of the most difficult yet intriguingly interesting novels I’ve read in quite a while. In fact, it is a complicated and intricate rendering of the thoughts and feelings that Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf had throughout her life that led up to and precipitated her self-drowning in the Ouse River (Brighton, England) on March 28, 1941. At the very least, this is quite a heady topic to tackle non-fictionally – as many before this author have attempted. But to write a fictional treatise that also encompasses the many complex psychological and emotional facets of Virginia’s marriage to Leonard Woolf – as well as that of her often nefarious relationships with others – intertwined with the thoughts and feelings behind her many often controversial novels – is a huge undertaking that could easily have fallen short of its mark. Yet in Vincent’s capable, compassionate, and talented hands, this novel is a remarkable success.

Christened “Adeline” after a maternal aunt that had died, the name – associated with grief and gloom – was dropped by the family in favor of “Virginia”. Though forgotten by others, the name remained with the author, blossoming into her thirteen-year-old alter-ego as she struggled throughout her life with mental (bipolar) illness whose episodes were often marked by Virginia talking out loud to “herself”, that is, to Adeline. Vincent infuses her novel with these “imaginary” conversations, encapsulating the effects of Woolf’s younger self upon her writing, her marriage, and her inevitable suicide.

Told through Virginia Woolf’s perspective, Adeline submerges its reader into the world of the Bloomsbury (literary) group that included such notables as T(om). S. Eliot, James, Joyce, Lytton Strachey, Vita Sackville, and Dora Carrington. Woolf reveals her inner most thoughts and feelings about her contemporaries as well as the unique, yet often flawed philosophies behind her own writing. Woolf, once a strong voice in life, now, through Vincent becomes a strong, powerful voice in death with all the sordid and sublime thoughts and feelings of a brilliant, yet tortured writer.

But, as I said, it is by far not an easy read and definitely not for the causal pursuer of “woman’s fiction”. As a matter of fact, it is, in itself, Vincent’s own literary genre: bio-fic(tion) or bio-lit, blending biography, literary criticism, and fiction while attempting to paint a portrait of the lives and work of writers she admires. This literary fictional scholarship is at its finest – a must for any (young or old) serious student of literature – and, I hardily advise, worthy of incorporation into all well-rounded high school and college English Literature courses.

A heady, stylistic, and often lyrical read worthy of Woolf herself, Vincent, in an interview, stated that while she was intrigued with her subject, she was initially intimidated to write about the famous yet ill-fated author. She overcame her fear through meditation. “I simply wrote down what I received,” she states, “…the words I heard, the things I felt…this book happened to me. I simply watched it spread and take shape, like a stain on a tablecloth.”

Vincent’s stunning work, however, is much more than a spreading stain. Sure to leave its indelible mark on the table of great, nearly profound literature, it is a valuable addition to anyone’s library.

6:42 pm edt          Comments

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Girl Waits with Gun
I thought I’d end the weekend with a tidbit of history, a review of a good book, and…a cocktail. Please read on. The three are tightly connected.
 
An almost obscured character in history, Constance Kopp was, at the very least, one of the original modern-day feminists. At most, she was a strikingly tall, ample woman who did not – would not – refrain from speaking her mind nor, as a “pistol packing mama”, from – at all costs – protecting her two younger sisters from the increasingly dangerous threats of one Henry Kaufman, noted clothe dyer. Because of her undaunted courage and selfless tenaciousness, she was appointed in 1916 as one of the first female deputy sheriffs in the United States by Bergen County, N.J. Sherriff, Robert Heath. Constance was, as Kaufman testified in his own defense at his trail, “…not a regular lady.”

Indeed!

The fascinating real-life story of Constance, Norma, and Fleurette Kopp is the basis of Girl Waits with Gun (September 2015) by Amy Stewart, an outstandingly well-written novel that, with just a few creative flourishes, fictionalizes the gripping, almost hair-raising events that led up to Constance’s appointment. The sisters were so intriguing in real life, it would seem they really did not need creative embellishments. Yet, in Stewart’s capable hands, her adept fictional trimming augmented and enhanced their distinct individualities into three-dimensional personas. Narrated by Constance in the first person, her strong voice literary bounces off the pages, almost as if Stewart herself did not write the novel based upon her own assiduous research, but was merely the channeling instrument through which the formidable Constance spoke, once "discovered", demanded to be heard and immortalized in the pages of this five-star historical literary offering.

Unlike other great writers of historical fiction, Steward did not keep to the tried and true, more popular mainstream characters of the past. Instead, while painstakingly researching a gin smuggler name Henry Kaufman for her non-fiction work, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks, she “stumbled” upon a 1914 newspaper article about how the buggy Constance and her sisters were riding in was smashed into by an automobile driven by one, um, Henry Kaufman. (It is not known if the former and latter Kaufmans were one and the same.) Intrigued to learn about the subsequent events that escalated and culminated into a sting operation by Sheriff Heath and the Kopp sisters, Stewart stepped out of the formulaic literary box and set her sights on telling Kopp sisters’ story. Entitling it, of course, with the intriguing headline that first captured her attention.

Girl Waits with Gun is yet another favorite novel that once I started it, I just couldn’t put it down. Like Stewart, I fell in love with each one of the Kopp sisters, reveling in their differences, enjoying their repartee, cheering them on out loud as they boldly braved, thwarted, and eventually stifled and squelched Kaufman’s postal threats and physical attacks. And while Stewart touches upon matters that have quite serious social and moralistic consequences, she does so with refreshing candor, aplomb, a droll sense of humor, and the genial self-confidence that is the hallmark of an experienced and knowledgeable author who knows precisely how to intrigue, enlighten, and entertain her readers.

Yet another of my best picks for this year’s literary pursuits, 
Girl Waits with Gun even has its own signature cocktail invented by the author to sip while being read. Stewart’s New Jersey Automobile is based upon the Automobile, a potent potable popular in the 1910s that combines equal parts scotch, gin, and sweet vermouth. She, thankfully, toned down the recipe, substituting cider for scotch and sparkling wine for vermouth. Yet, even served over ice, the 2015 version still packs, like her novel, a mighty heady and delicious wallop.

A great novel, its tasty drink, and the story of, well, a heroine! I couldn’t have asked for anything better on a warm summer Sunday evening. Join me in this rare indulgence, folks! Belly up to the reading bar and enjoy yourselves!

5:29 pm edt          Comments

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Crooked Heart
Best known here in the States for her two children’s books, Horton’s Miraculous Mechanisms (2011) and Horton’s Incredible Illusions (2012), Lissa Evans is an well-established British author whose expansive and unique talents include a dry, comedic noir writing style that keeps her readers not only chuckling at her droll wit, but reading well into the early morning hours, wanting more. At least it did me.

Yesterday was a busy day, setting up my Pre-Read/Used Book Sale (see yesterday’s entry below) and tending to my companion pets, among other tasks. So when cocktail hour finally rolled around, I had planned on reading a chapter or two of Evans’ Crooked Heart before a light dinner and an early bedtime. Needless to say, these plans did not work out. When faced with either a great read and an early bedtime…well, we all know what I chose. I finished this delightfully quirky, slightly black-humored novel at 2:00 this morning.

Her first adult novel soon to be published here in the United States, 
Crooked Heart (July 28, 2015) was first released in England in 2014, successfully nipping on the heels of her first two hits: Odd One Out and Their Finest Hour and a Half. You can read the salient details of her prize-winning writing career as well as an online interview at www.lissaevans.com. Right now, let me tell you about her Crooked Heart and its two oddly mismatched, yet totally irresistible main protagonists.

Set in London and its suburb of St. Albans during World War II, Evans’ well-crafted plot line blends Nick Bostock – a different sort of ten-year-old with an undetermined limp, jug ears, and a command of the English language well beyond his young years – with Vera Sedge – an irascible con artist, who is ineptly doomed to suffer daily disasters of her own making. When his elderly godmother succumbs to senile dementia, he is evacuated out of London with other children to the country side. Nick becomes Vera’ ward and soon collaborates with her to bilk money out of “innocent” citizens, pretending to collect donations for various wartime “causes”. Nick’s moralistic ethics soon clashes with Vera’s hardened heart and when Vera’s son, Donald, looses him during the Blitz, Vera is faced with a heart-wrenching dilemma.

What transpires is a sit-up-and-take-notice series of events that is hard to put down, even at 1:00 AM! Evans picks up the pace as the plot thickens and crashes headlong into a surprise, satisfying denouement. Like all good writers, she had the ending in mind first and built the rest of
Crooked Heart around it; a master stroke of creative literary architecture.

With true-to-life, richly drawn, yet humorously crafted characters, this five-star spring offering from Harper Collins is not to be missed, dear fellow readers. It was, for me, yet again another essentially vital summer read. I hope it will be the same for you.

5:23 pm edt          Comments

Monday, July 6, 2015

Pre-Read/Used Book Sale – Part 1
Okay, my dear, devoted followers. Thank you so much for patiently waiting so for so long for my, I understand, greatly anticipated Book Sale which, TA DA!, starts today!

Listed below are the first ten pre-read/used books from my vast collection now available for purchase. I am going to try, as the year waxes and wanes on, to once a week post ten more titles for your potential purchase(s). So, if you don’t see a title that interests you now, chances are there will be one or two titles that would better suit your fancy listed in the near future. Please watch this space!

A small codicil: Please note that since the titles I am selling are pre-read and currenlty owned by me, they are embossed with my name (From the Library of…) and dates when read and/or reviewed. A few also include pre-review comments and notes. Other than that, all books -- most of them first editions – are in mint, pristine condition, including the hardback dust covers.

CURRENTLY FOR SALE

  • Lovett, Charlie – The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession. First Edition hardback. ©2013 Viking Press. Fiction/Suspense. A suspenseful mystery surrounding a long, lost, now found, Shakespearian manuscript. $14.00+s&h
  • March, Mia – Finding Colin Firth.  Paperback. ©July 2013 First Galley Books. Fiction/Women’s Literature. Great summer read about familial ties, love, loss, and renewal. $8.00
  • Ruby, Ilie – The Salt God’s Daughter. First Edition hardback, with pre-review notes on front fly leaf. ©2012 Soft Skull Press. Fiction/Fantasy. Magically gripping tale of two sisters struggling for survival along the California coast. $14.00+s&h
  • Ridgeway, Bee – The River of No Return. First Edition hardback, with penciled pre-review notes on front fly leaf. ©2013 Dutton. Historical Fiction/Fantasy. Intensely riveting historical fantasy reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon. $14.00+s&h
  • Kean, Sam – The Violinist’s Thumb…and Other Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Generic Code. First Edition hardback. ©2012 Little, Brown and Company. Non-fiction/Science. A the long title suggests, a fascinating read about myseries of mankind woven into the strands of our genetic code. $13.00+s&h
  • Woodroff, Martha – Small Blessings: A Novel. First Edition hardback. ©2014 St. Martin’s Press. Fiction/Women’s Literature. A bookstore manager helps a college professor and the son he never knew learn the meaning and values of love and family ties. $13.00+s&h
  • Corell, Angela – Grounded. Paperback. ©2013 koehlerbooks. Fiction/Women’s Literature. Simply put, a feel good story about exchanging the luxuries of the high life for the joys of country living. $18.50+s&h
  • Choos, Yangsze – The Ghost Bride. First Edition hardback. ©2013 HarperCollins Books. Fiction/Fantasy. An eerily enchanting tale about the ghost bride of a deceased son who relives ancient customs and finds true love while traveling through the Chinese afterlife. $14.50+s&h
  • Shepherd, Lloyd – The Poisoned Island: A Novel. Paperback. ©2013 Washington Square Press. Fiction/Suspense Thriller. Set in 1812 London, this finely crafted detective story unfolds the secrets of a mysterious Tahitian plant. $8.00+s&h
  • Wallace, Wendy – The Sacred River: A Novel. First Edition hardback. ©2013 Scribner. Historical Fiction. Three women seek redemption, each in her own way, along the banks of the Nile River. $13.00+s&h

If you are interested in purchasing a title or two, or even more, please email me at JuneJ@JuneJMcInerney.com with “Book Order” in the Subject line and the author(s) and title(s) and your name and complete mailing address in the text. Let me know if you wish to pay via PayPal.com or by check and I will respond with the appropriate details to complete the transaction. Once your remittance is received, the book(s) will be mailed to you via USPS media mail.

Simple as that!

Thank you!

4:14 pm edt          Comments

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Cherry Harvest
I’ve lived in the Phoenixville area now for nearly forty years, more than twice as long as the then small New York village where I was born and raised. I consider myself a PA “native’ – well, almost – and over the years have taken time to learn a bit about the borough’s history and heritage. I am thrilled when I learn a new golden nugget of information and revel in passing my new-found knowledge on.

For example, did you know that the huge campus of Valley Forge Christian University, less than three miles from my home, was once the Valley Forge General Hospital where nearly 300 German prisoners of World War II were interred from the fall of 1944 to the later part of 1946?
VFGH, according to a September 2012 Phoenixville Area Historical Society article, was one of 311 WWII POW camps in the United States (http://hspa-pa.org/Newsletter/2012%20Sept%20Newsletter.pdf.) This interesting larger than life footnote of local history was relayed to me by my book-loving, tennis playing buddy Betty after both of us read The Cheery Harvest (June 2, 2015) by Lucy Sanna.

Instantly captivating from the opening paragraph, Sanna’s first novel is everything historical literature should be. Based upon a little known facet of American involvement in World War II, this story, through the actions and dialogue of its well-developed, true-to-life, all-too-realistic characters, embraces the essences of marital and maternal love: family, after and above all, comes first. What the parallel main protagonist, Charlotte Christensen, does to protect hers and ensure a much needed financially successful cherry harvest is the pith and thrust of Sanna’s five-star tour-de-force.

Set in a farming community along the western shore of Lake Michigan during 1944, this strikingly stunning novel recalls – and reveals – the interment of captured German solders in thirty-nine prisoner of war camps across the state of Michigan. Once a well-kept secret, this author bravely trots out the salient facts to formulate her story.

Beset by the scarcity and dire rationing of food and the shortage of workers, commercial fruit farmers are faced with financial ruin if their upcoming harvests are not successful. To ensure her family survives, staunchly stubborn, strong-willed Charlotte convinces local authorities to allow her husband and neighbors to hire PWs to help.

The year slowly progresses and Charlotte’s plan is successfully unfolding…until her husband, Thomas, befriends Karl, an Oxford-educated PW. When Karl starts to tutor their daughter, Kate, in mathematics, Charlotte finds herself strangely sexually attracted to him. As a result, unlike the tight-knit vest and socks she weaves for her son, Benjamin, serving overseas, things quickly begin to unravel. In order to protect herself, her family, and the all-consuming success of the harvest, Charlotte begins to harbor devastatingly dark secrets that threaten to literally destroy lives. In the midst of the turmoil, teenage Kate – her head often in the clouds of books, cherry blossoms, and budding romance -- finally rebels and speaks up with the voice of reason.

The Cherry Harvest is a powerfully written, well-executed testament to the strength and fortitude as well as the dissolution that prevailed in the mid-western United States during World War II. Sanna brings an innate touch of sweetness to her work, yet does not shy away from calmly writing crisp, almost brutally stark realities. The complex, yet tight plot line is fresh and original, nicely decorated with knowledgeable descriptions of the lakeside country of her native Michigan. The totally unexpected explosive denouement twists and turns, folding in upon itself, like the often tumulus swells and currents of the Great Lake upon whose shores the novel’s setting is nestled.

While its events occur during WWII, this is a timeless novel expressing universal and eternal themes and truths. Best enjoyed by the more mature, discerning reader, The Cherry Harvest is an eye-opening, heart catching, poignant tale that mesmerizes from the first opening sentence to the last of its tear-jerking ending.

It is the essential, if not quintessential summer read.

2:53 pm edt          Comments


Archive Newer | Older
June J. McInerney, the host of this Literary Blog, is an author, poet, and librettist. Her currently published works include a novel, a book of spiritual inspirations, two volumes of poetry, stories for children (of all ages) and a variety of children's musicals. Her titles include:
 
Miss Elmira's Secret Treasure: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s
Colonial Theatre: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Roarin' 20s 
Phoenix Hose, Hook & Ladder: A Novel of Phoenixville during World War I
Columbia Hotel: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s
the Schuylkill Monster: A Novel of Phoenixville in 1978
The Prisoner's Portrait: A Novel of Phoenxville during World War II
Forty-Thirty 
Rainbow in the Sky
Meditations for New Members

Adventures of Oreigh Ogglefont
The Basset Chronicles.
Cats of Nine Tales
Spinach Water: A Collection of Poems
Exodus Ending: A Collection of More Spiritual Poems

We Three Kings

Beauty and the Beast

Bethlehem

Noah's Rainbow

Peter, Wolf, and Red Riding Hood

 

 

Originally from the New York metropolitan area, June currently lives near Valley Forge Park in Pennsylvania with her constant and loving companions, FrankieBernard and Sebastian Cat. She is currently working on her sixth novel.

June's novels can be purchased at amazon.com, through Barnes and Noble,
at the Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area,
and 
the Gateway Pharmacy in Phoenixvile, PA
.

For more information about her musicals, which are also available on amazon.com,