07/20/2025 - Bee Club: Author Talk with Mea McNeil

Join us at Black Cat Fables for an enlightening afternoon with Mea McNeil, author of Bee Club, general fiction novel based on Mea's extensive work and research as a beekeeper!

When: Sunday, July 20, from 11:00am - 12:00pm

Where: Black Cat Fables (415 S. Myrtle Avenue, Suite B, Monrovia, CA 91016)

About Author Mea McNeil: M.E.A. McNeil (called Mea) is a journalist, MFA and Master Beekeeper living in a strawbale house on a small Northern California organic farm. She is of Finnish extraction, as is a character in the book, and one of her books of Finnish mythology was awarded the Aesop Accolade. Her over 100 long-form non-fiction articles delving into the bee world over two decades have provided a depth of education that frames her current novel, Bee Club.

About Bee Club: Bee Club, a novel by M.E.A. McNeil, tells the story of a disparate group attracted to the importance and intrigue of a bunch of insects. They find themselves bound together like kin to these undomesticated creatures – from the curious hobbyists to the entomologists delving into the mysteries of Apis down to the veins in their wings. 

Some keep bees to eke out a livelihood, like an elderly Finnish woman; some to heal, like the vet from a VA beekeeping program to treat PTSD; some for the spirit, like the woman who extols the beneficial vibrations of a buzzing colony; some for adventure and a few bucks, like the trio of friends that cram into a vintage Airstream to count frames of migratory bees for almond pollination. And then there is the bee-phobic teenager, with nowhere else to go. Here is an engrossing, witty and accurately-detailed story, as much about bees as their hovering people.

RSVP ahead of time to let us know how many folks to expect!