About Margery:
“A lone hiker is drawn deep into the woods and emerges into a community set apart from the real world. What unfolds for him there—and the secret he discovers—isn’t what you might expect. With its rich descriptions of the natural world, its wise and articulate insights, its cast of humane characters, Margery addresses the deepest and most important issues we face. It’s Jeffrey Penn May’s best book.” – John Dalton, prize winning author of Heaven Lake and The Inverted Forest
Introverted backpacker Jeremy wanders off trail and discovers an eccentric, otherworldly town nestled in a mountain basin. The people he finds there are pleasant but a little bit peculiar. He befriends a reticent doctor and his quirky wife, and Margery, who regularly leaps from a cliff in death-defying bungee jumps.
Why, he wonders, do the otherwise healthy and upbeat townspeople seem to be disappearing? Does it have anything to do with hallucinogenic mushrooms and the transition from life to whatever lies beyond?
“This graceful, lyrical, and delicate novella lets us live in the mind of a fellow human who seeks solace and escape in the wilderness. May is brave enough to tackle and illuminate the big mysteries: how and why we keep going, how we face death, how we connect or fail to,
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Author Bio:
Jeffrey Penn May (Jeff May) won several short fiction awards, received a Pushcart Prize nomination, and was a Homebound Publications Landmark Prize finalist. Jeff has published mountain climbing articles, short stories, poems, education articles and technical writing guides. He wrote and performed a short story for Washington University Radio and was a consultant to a St. Louis theatre company.
After earning his a B.A. in English and Psychology, Masters in Secondary English, and a Writer’s Certificate from the University of Missouri, Jeff worked as a waiter, hotel security officer, credit manager, deck hand, technical data engineer, creative writing instructor, and English teacher. He was the principal of a small alternative school where he organized a fund-raising, climbing expedition and appeared in television and radio spotlights.
Born at Fort Ord near Monterey, California, and raised in St. Louis, Jeff comes from a family of all boys and has always been compelled to explore the outdoors, leading to many questionable “vacations.” His adventures include, but are not limited to the following: floated a home-built wood and barrel raft from St. Louis to Memphis, navigated a John boat to New Orleans, drove an old Volkswagen alone 8000 miles around the west, spent a month in a dirt floor shack in west-central Mexico digging for Pre-Columbian artifacts, climbed mountains from Alaska to South America, and spent several days in the Amazon jungle.