1175 Reed Street, Lakewood, Colorado 80214, United States
Welcome! Joan Beesley, Author
Cross the Atlantic with me on The Emerald Isle in 1853. Wait with me at UCLA Medical Center. Let's peer into The Witchbox...
Available Books
40 Shades of Green: The Junkman of Brooklyn
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Come with me on a journey across time and space. Across the landscape of today's Denver, Ireland in the mid-1800's and Brooklyn, New York in the early 1900's, to meet the "Forty Shades of Green". Meet Michael Flynn, the frail, coughing 3 year old boy fleeing the Famine and the English in County Leitrim, making his way up to Amity Street from the Brooklyn Harbor. Walk the streets as he and his father collect hawsers from the immigrant ships to sell for scrap. Listen to the sounds of the ships on the East River by his warehouse, the sounds of his horse-drawn wagon as he, now a teenager, collects old pots and pans from his neighbors to sell for scrap. Take a good look at his evolution to a canny Irish businessman, now in a top hat, pin-striped suit and gold watch fob, "intimate" with senators and politicians of The Democratic Brooklyn Ring, equivalent of Tammany Hall, yet equally active and charitable in The Emerald Society, The St. Patrick Day Parade and The Knights of Columbus. Watch the building of the Brooklyn Bridge as he rises from "Junk Man" to wealthy scrap metal industrialist. Hear the humanitarian decision he made during The Great Depression which in turn, made him a millionaire. Watch as he salvages anything metal, from submarines, Brooklyn "L" lines to the USS Huntington and many other WWI destroyers, even buying, and then selling the USS Normandy, back to the Navy as scrap for profit.
Told by his great-grand daughter, "Forty Shades of Green" is both a biography and autobiographical novel, recounting also the events beyond his death at 88, how the now-stern Irishman, confined to bed with arthritis, moved up to Prospect Park, passing his global aluminum and steel window business along to his sons and grandsons after WWI and WWII. Is the magic, talent and entrepreneurship of the family patriarch passed down through the Flynn family, the "Forty Shades of Green"? No stranger to terrorism, read the touching ending as Michael Flynn alters the destiny of the author herself.
Now available in Paperback and E-Book on Kindle: https://amazon.com
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Hothouse Flowers is the story of a war that was waged and won. It is a unique account of my daughter’s battle and victory over cancer. At age three, my daughter was diagnosed with a rare and almost incurable form of cancer, Neuroblastoma. As a writer, it was natural for me to begin a journal during the long days and nights, seven weeks, on the isolation ward at UCLA Medical Center. My journal grew into a novel that I hope will provide insight and courage to other cancer patients and their families. It is unique in that I have written it from several different perspectives. On one hand it is a practical “how to survive cancer” tool, but it is also an engaging story straight from the real life dramas of everyone involved. The book traces the long journey from diagnosis to victory, chronicling the patient’s and her family’s struggle, the warrior doctor at Denver Children’s Hospital, the brilliant scientists at UCLA Medical Center and the spirit and determination of young cancer patients awaiting bone marrow transplants. This is a story of triumph. The book details the family’s struggle-an ultimate triumph over “The Enemy within.” “Hothouse Flowers” is a metaphor for the fragile young cancer patients undergoing the dangerous bone marrow transplant, who have no immune system for several weeks following transplant. Kim was the only child on her corridor who survived the treatment successfully. The book details the often inexplicable, but encouraging signposts along the way. Most of all, it celebrates the triumph of a cancer survivor, Kim Beesley, and all the other Hothouse Flowers of her generation. The title, Hothouse Flowers, came to me one night at UCLA when the nurses were scurrying through the isolation ward, treating the highly vulnerable children. Having no immune system to protect them, they required constant specialized care to stay alive, similar to delicate orchids bred in a nursery. This analogy grew as my daughter overcame the odds and blossomed herself, into a rare and beautiful flower.
Now available as an E-Book on Kindle: https://amazon.com
Witchbox: A Collection of Short Stories
Hothouse Flowers: "I Just Wanted To Be Herer When You Called My Name!"
Witchbox: A Collection of Short Stories
The title for the collection, "Witch Box ", is taken from an old brick house I’d pass everyday in Cleveland, Ohio, thinking of who might have lived there. "Tobacco Leaf" is also a childhood tale about seizing the moment. "587 5th Street" is a memoir of sorts about a child’s memories of 1952 Brooklyn. "Brandy, A Dog of Means" is a children’s tale published here posthumously by my father, Edward R. Flynn. How happy he would be to see it finally in print! "Breezy Point Summer" is about an adolescent coming of age. "River of Life" deals with the hopes and dreams we all have for our children’s success and happiness.
"Heirloom" is about a difficult decision. “Be Strong!” is about death. "Message to Michael" is about an individual I encountered stepping out of my comfort zone and "High Times at Time-Life" is about the fact that all that glitters is not gold.
These short stories are tales from specific periods of my life. The themes of the stories, while contemporary, deal with the classic themes of life.
We all have stories to tell, those special or unusual events, the details and life lessons that are a part of who we are. I hope you enjoy mine!
Now available in Paperback and E-Book on Kindle: https://amazon.com
Lot's Wife: A Collection of Poems
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
Witchbox: A Collection of Short Stories
Lot’s Wife deals with several themes, places that leave an indelible mark on our souls, the beauty of life which I believe is a reflection and glimpse of God’s beauty itself, the coming of old age and how we cope with the inevitable losses and sorrows that arise in the otherwise perfect world we had planned. How do we deal with the torn and rough patches we suddenly discover in the tapestry of our lives?
These poems are from specific periods of my life. They celebrate life’s classic themes of love, learning, loss, perseverance and fortitude.
Lot’s Wife is an eclectic group of poetry celebrating the nuances of New Orleans, the perils of a modern-day Lot’s wife in Boulder, Colorado, and the seasonal beauty of Colorado in "Aspen Grove". I’ve included poems about losing loved ones in "Companion Poems", and growing old in "An Old Friend" and "Running Beside the Wheel". I visit Ellis Island prior to its restoration in "Disabled". I hear the desolate call of a buoy on Long Island Sound in "The Tolling Bell". Finally, we meet a character right out of The Old Man and the Sea in "The Sonnet of the Portuguese Fisherman". Enjoy!
Now available in Paperback and E-Book on Kindle: https://amazon.com
Poems Along the Path
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
Poems Along the Path is a collection of poems written during a bone marrow transplant at UCLA Medical Center.The author returned from a business trip in New Orleans to find her 3 year-old daughter extremely sick after many visits to her pediatrician who repeatedly told her there “was just something going around.” Her child, in fact, had Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a deadly and virtually incurable childhood cancer.
"My daughter, Kimberly Beesley, was one of the first children in the nation to survive a bone marrow transplant for the notorious cancer Neuroblastoma, due to the experimental protocol and extreme harshness of the chemotherapy and total body radiation. I stayed with Kim in her room on the isolation wing at UCLA for 7 weeks during which I kept a journal, writing the poems included in this book, a tremendous outlet for the extreme emotional trauma I endured assisting the medical team wherever I could, in the battle for Kimberly’s life. The poems contain valuable and difficult learnings that may be of use and comfort to other families in treatment. They detail the often inexplicable, but encouraging signposts along the way."
Now available in Paperback and E-Book on Kindle: https://amazon.com
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
Through the Looking Glass: A Memoir
I never imagined I’d be writing a memoir. Yet how do you capture the wonder of certain periods of your life? Certain things you never forget. Those very earliest memories are part of your soul, definitely a significant part of who you are.
While many of the special people who created those memories may be gone, I’d like to immortalize them in this memoir, most especially my parents, Joan and Edward Flynn and my grandparents, Mary and Frank Flynn, Eleanor and John Dillon. “I walk the corridors of my mind, looking for clues as to where you went…”
Once, as a child, I walked an Ocean City, New Jersey boardwalk with my father late one night. We released an foil aluminum balloon we were holding up into the black sky at the end of our walk, watching it bob with it’s ribboned tail, reflecting the lights of the boardwalk amusements and wild pounding surf until it disappeared. The lives we live are much like that balloon with it’s many beautiful reflections. One wants to capture the beauty of it all before it fades into the night.
These memories are from specific periods of my life. The stories deal with life’s classic themes of love, learning, loss, perseverance and fortitude. For me, at least, they are too special to be forgotten. I hope I have conveyed to you how really special they were!
Now available in Paperback: https://amazon.com