A vineyard writer

Jean Bozenhard Stone ’66-’68 wrote her first novel decades ago — she hasn’t stopped

Jean Bozenhard Stone ’66-’68 writes women’s fiction, which she distinguishes from romance thusly: “In a romance novel, the woman gets a guy. In women’s fiction, the woman gets a life.”

She writes about women who would be – or in some cases are or were – her friends, including some from her time at Pitt-Bradford. One woman inspired her first novel, “Sins of Innocence,” published when she was 46 and already had a full career in advertising.

The idea came from a story she heard in January 1968 at Pitt-Bradford, when a friend told Stone why she had not been in school during the fall of their sophomore year.

The friend, Stone said, had had a baby at a “home for unwed mothers,” places that, at that time, allowed young women to be pregnant and give birth in secret. Stone’s friend told her about the different young women who were at the home and how the nuns who ran it made them change their names to protect their true identities.

“We were in the sitting room at the Emery where they had the backgammon and chess sets. I remember sitting there when she told me that story, and it was like this lightbulb went on over my head,” Stone said.

That, Stone thought, would be the perfect place to set a novel and bring together a disparate group of young women.

More than two decades later, as an experienced advertising copy writer who had co-written a biography with Olympic gold medalist Tim Daggett, Stone closed her advertising firm and committed to writing her first novel, “Sins of Innocence,” which was the story of four women who met in a home for unwed mothers.

Stone writes about women who would be – or in some cases are or were – her friends, including some from her time at Pitt-Bradford.

The housemother in that novel, Stone admits, was based on someone familiar to the generation of Pitt-Bradford women who lived in Emery Hall in the 1960s – Dean of Women Mary Florence Taylor.

“Miss Taylor had a daunting job,” Stone remembered. “Although we often revolted, I recall that she was rather kind. When I realized I needed a housemother for ‘Sins of Innocence,’ I respectfully named the character Mary Frances Taylor (a slight variation). Like her predecessor, Miss Taylor was strict, yet she had a soft side. When I decided to spice her up in my story, I consulted with another friend and fellow former Pitt-Bradford student, Kathryn McGuirl Swedock. We decided I should give my fictitious Miss Taylor a few delicious secrets, so I did!

“In 1999, I wrote a sequel to ‘Sins’ titled ‘Tides of the Heart,’ in which my Miss Taylor had retired, but one of my characters tracked her down and found her living a comfortable life on Cape Cod (Mass). All of which, of course, I made up, but I did so with the hope that our Pitt-Bradford Miss T. had the opportunity to finally have a quiet, restful life after all we’d put her through.”

While “Miss T.” was retired from Stone’s writing, her friend Swedock is the basis for a recurring character in Stone’s current series set on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Stone and Swedock remained close friends after leaving Pitt- Bradford, and Swedock sometimes visited Stone when she lived on Martha’s Vineyard. Swedock died in 2015. “Sometimes I talk to Kathy in my head,” she said.

Missing her friend, she decided to give her own Vineyard series protagonist, a mystery writer named Annie, her own dear friend who had died, and whom Annie would often talk to.

Since writing her first novel in the early 1990s, Stone has added nearly two dozen more, primarily for Random House and longtimeNew York publisher Kensington Books. Her latest book, “A Vineyard Crossing,” came out in May, with another, “A Vineyard Wedding,” set for release in April. She’s already started the sixth book in the Vineyard series.

You can find all of Stone’s books on her website, jeanstone.com. -- KMW