Meet the Author - June Tate

I must confess that I didn't grow up with a burning ambition to be a writer. from the age of five I wanted to be a hairdresser and when I left school I trained in my chosen career. Although I did love letter writing and had seventeen pen friends in my teens. I also thought when I retired I would write a novel, so I guess the desire was just hidden for a while.

Several years into my career I joined the Cunard Company and worked in the Beauty Parlour on board the original Queen Mary for several years where I looked after VIP's and movie stars. Rosalind Russell and Joan Fontain were among my clients and one night in a night club in New York, I was introduced to Errol Flynn. We used to give gents manicures too and a Millionaire wanted to take me to Australia with him for three weeks! I declined!

I then moved to the Mauritania which went cruising around the Caribbean and Mediiterranean Sea for six months of the year. During this time I met an airline pilot who flew out to New York unannounced and proposed.

Several years later and with two daughters, one of them persuaded me to join a class for Creative Writing which set me off on this wondrous journey. I started to learn my craft and discovered that the novel was closest to me heart. After finishing a novel, I met an agent at the Romantic Novelists' Association and at her request sent her three chapters and a synopsis and then the full manuscript. After making several changes, the manuscript was sent to two publishers and to my great delight, they both wanted it! There was an auction between them and then I worked for the winner.

I chose Southampton as my background. It was my hometown and a seaport so was perfect for the Sagas that I penned. I do like to write about the seedy side of life and Southampton was a perfect background.

I prefer to write about the past. For my older readers it's nostalgic and for the younger ones, a lesson in social history. I've written as far back as the first world war up until the sixties, covering the years in between. Especially the second world war where there are so many stories.

Brides of War which will be published in late April will be my eighteenth novel and tells the tale of two GI brides and what happens to them when they move to America. Their trials and tribulations and how they overcome their difficulties. I am now working on another, as I write one a year.

I'm always delighted when I receive messages from my readers who say they have enjoyed my books and I always answer them. After all, if they've taken the time to write the least I can do is write back.

My web site is junetate.info.