The Making of June
The Making of June is based on Ward’s experience living in the Balkans during the upheavals of the late 1990s. Set against the backdrop of a country plagued by Mafia corruption, strife between Christians and Muslims and an impending revolution, the book combines two love stories: a visiting American scholar falls in love with a Bulgarian woman, while his wife falls in love with Bulgaria itself. After June admits to a marital discretion, both anger and a sincere attraction propel Ethan toward Nevena, a young, hard-working maid who was orphaned as a child during an attack on her Muslim village. June stays in Sofia in hopes of reconciling with Ethan, hires a language tutor, takes a job as a journalist, and is eventually seduced by Chavdar, a Mafia kingpin as charismatic as he is lethal. Ethan’s love for Nevena deepens as he learns more about her tragic past and her loyalty to her little sister Boryana, an exotic dancer at one of the Mafia clubs. Boryana has betrayed her employer, dragging all of them into dangerous dealings with Chavdar and his henchmen. June finally realizes that the explosive revolution on its way is due to desperate poverty and injustice clashing with the outrageous excesses of Chavdar’s dirty wealth. She leaves him, but not without a terrifying battle. June not only survives her darkest hour but perseveres. She re-evaluates her role in the world and resolves to make it a more meaningful one. She remains in the Balkans working as a journalist, convinced for the first time that she can make a difference----in her own life and in the lives of others.
About Anne Ward Richards (Kansas City, Missouri & Kansas Author)
Annie Ward Richards left Kansas at eighteen for Los Angeles. There, she received a B.A in English Lit with an emphasis in Creative Writing at UCLA and a MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. While studying at AFI, she sold her first short screenplay to MTV/ BFCS Productions. Starring Joey Lauren Adams and Adam Scott, STRANGE HABIT became the Grand Jury Award Winner at the Aspen Film Festival and a Sundance Festival Official Selection.
After film school, Richards moved to Eastern Europe to work for Fodor Travel Guides, covering regions of Spain and Bulgaria. Ultimately she took a job writing and editing the features section of The Sofia Independent, Bulgaria’s English language Ex-Pat newspaper. She remained in Bulgaria for five years spanning a civilian uprising and government overthrow. The novel THE MAKING OF JUNE, which Annie wrote with the Bulgarian revolution and Balkan crisis as its backdrop was sold to Penguin Putnam and published to critical acclaim in 2001.
During Richards’s five years in the Balkans she received a Fulbright Scholarship, taught at the University of Sofia, and script doctored eight screenplays for Nu-Image, an Israeli/American film company that produced a number of projects for the SyFy Channel.