Queen Bea


Matt, Nate, Mike, Julie Hamel

Three of my adult children got tattoos in honor of their mom. Susan had no tats but she would absolutely love the idea. (I took a pass, preferring to do scars instead.) We also decided to put the artwork on Susan’s headstone.

Bee and QuillQueen Bea Pushing Quill Pin

Allow me to translate:

Susan’s middle name is Bea and she’s the inspiration for Queen Bea in my Matterhorn series. She bugged me for years to write down the bedtime stories I made up for our kids—hence the bee with a crown pushing a quill pen.

The eight books took me ten years to write, working in the margins of a busy life. Susan cheered and encouraged me along the way and put up with the vagaries of a scribbler’s life.

The dedication in the books is literally and literarily true:

The characters and stories in this series exist because of Susan,
who made them all possible.

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