Jenifer McVaugh (1942- ), author of "Hello, Hello" (1991), "Storylines" (1995), "The Love of Women: A Moral Tale" (1998, Boreals), and "Paradise" (2005) studied philosophy and literature at the University of Michigan. McVaugh, who teaches journal writing, writing for publication, oral history techniques, and clear language, now lives and writes in Canada's Ottawa Valley and Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains.

"With a nod to Byron and a wink to Leacock, The Love of Women unveils its comically Canadian picaresque --- from a woman´s point of view. Our Rosie Goshen, erstwhile convent girl turned runaway, lands up in the imaginary Ottawa Valley town of Booth and transforms it within five days, for better or for worse. Ensconced as a maid in Booth´s Strathcona hotel, circa 1920´s, Rosie flexes her newly-discovered ´initiative.´ To the beautiful and intelligent hotel keeper, Carmel McReady Woods, Rosie is irreplaceable; to Carmel´s would-be poet husband, the surly but stunning Lawrence Woods, Rosie is irresistible. Simultaneously right-hand woman and other woman, Rosie gets by on practical morality and regular doses of good luck. Rosie´s youthful passion arouses in the misanthropic Lawrence: "the anticipation of desire." All too tardy a penitent for the transfiguring power of her love, Our Rosie Goshen emerges relatively unscathed from this satirically ´moral tale.´" Gwendolyn Guth