“Why did she change her name?”

Good news: she didn’t. Well, not really. She is still Jean Stone according to voter registration and her driver’s license and her CVS Extra-Care card.

But when she wrote Good Little Wives, it clearly was a departure from her other books – edgier, funnier, a little irreverent…a peek into the world of the rich and the snobby. In order not to confuse Jean Stone readers who were used to a more traditional story, she took the pen name, Abby Drake.

As a side note, “Drake” was Jean’s mother’s maiden name; “Abigail” was her great-grandmother’s name.

As another side note for Jean Stone readers: She is still writing under her own name – check this site for updates as they happen!

Here are a few other truths about Abby/Jean:

1. Notable(?) Lineage: Abby/Jean is a Mayflower descendent…hailing from Edward Doty, a 21-year old “wild and frivolous youth,” who was a party to the first duel ever fought in America. Hmm. Speaking of skeletons, her great-grandfather (same side of the family) was a bigamist.
    

2. Other side of the family: She is currently researching the disaster of the General Slocum – a steamboat that caught fire on New York’s East River in 1904, while bringing mostly women and children to a Sunday School picnic. Over 1,000 people drowned…two of whom apparently were related to Jean’s father’s family.
    

3. Happier note: Born and raised in western Massachusetts, Abby/Jean enjoys close proximity to both Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard – a testament to her dual personality. She lives in a treehouse in Amherst, down the hill from the smart people at Amherst College, on the opposite side of the town common from where Emily Dickinson lived. Once hopeful that such a distinguished literary environment might be reflected her own writing, Abby/Jean now confesses that, so far, the closest she’s come has been by making Emily’s gingerbread cookies at Christmas.
    

4. Favorite pastime: Watching the Boston Red Sox. She has even taken to wearing a Red Sox cap while writing, which she realizes is kind of scary, but she figures it’s safer than smoking, which she gratefully gave up 1997.
    

5. Favorite places: France – Paris, the Riviera, Provence; stateside, Alaska (is that stateside?) and, of course, Martha’s Vineyard, the setting for several Jean Stone books.