Elizabeth Bass Parman Spins a Touching Tale in 'Bees in June'

In her second novel, Bees In June, author and former reading specialist Elizabeth Bass Parman enchants readers with an emotional story centered around Rennie Hendricks, a woman grieving the loss of her young son while working through the challenges of a broken marriage. Set in 1969 in the fictional town of Spark, Tennessee, readers follow Rennie as she navigates this difficult period in her life, and just when it seems as if she’s lost her way, she remembers her Uncle Dixon’s advice about talking to the bees. The more Rennie communicates with the bees, the more she begins to find her way, guiding her towards healing. According to Parman, “The story is about how she and these bees that belong to her aunt – who some people thought of as a witch, but other people knew as a healer – and her Uncle Dixon help her to not just realize her dreams… I thought her dreams were not big enough, I wanted bigger things for her, and so I wrote the book about her finding not only that happy and peaceful life, but achieving what she thought would be impossible.”

In the novel, Parman also includes a touch of magical realism by giving the bees magical qualities, and she admits to not knowing much about them when she was first began writing the story. “I was fascinated to learn so much about them. It was tempting to put more information than I did in the book, but I didn’t want to overload the book so I just saved what I thought was just the most amazing facts to include… you think about scooping out a big spoonful of honey to put on your toast or English muffin… think about how much work that is for the bees, and it… made me think differently, about the work that bees do and how much we take for granted.” And while bees do perform a significant amount of work, their lives are surprisingly short. Parman explained that bees born in the summer can live from 12 up to 18 months, while those born in the winter do not live as long. “It’s not a long life, but it is the life they are given, and how they choose to use it and how we are the benefit as we are with so many things that bees do.”