The first thing you notice about Jennifer Donnelly is her passion. Whether you’re reading one of her novels or talking to her about them, expect the experience to be intense. Donnelly, who lives in the Hudson Valley, will be at Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck, NY, Saturday, Aug. 20, at 7:30 p.m. to read from her most recent novel, “The Wild Rose.” The book is the third in a series about an English family in 1914 London. Another thing her books all have in common is their historical backdrop. “I want history to live and to breathe and not be embalmed in my novels,” Donnelly said. “I want it to be a character in its own right.” She majored in European history and English literature in college, so historical fiction seems a natural fit for this writer. But Donnelly’s history takes brittle, weathered documents buried in the archives and links them with flesh and blood. In addition to the three Rose novels — “The Tea Rose” was first, followed by “The Winter Rose” — Donnelly has written two young adult novels and a children’s picture book. Her breakout book was “A Northern Light,” a young adult novel about a famous murder of a pregnant woman in the New York Adirondacks in 1906. The novel won the Carnegie Medal, the L.A. Times Book Prize, the Borders Original Voices Prize and a Michael L. Printz Honor and has been taught in high school English classes across the United States. “Revolution,” her other young adult book, weaves together the stories of two teenage girls, one who lives in contemporary New York City and one who lived in Paris during the French Revolution. Donnelly said that she doesn’t come up with ideas for stories — they find her. She uncovers some piece of history that grabs her and follows it compulsively to its conclusion. The world of the Roses books blossomed for her while she was a student in London. “I had this bananas landlord who made dolls and collected antiques,” she said. “He took me to the Portobello Road Market in a Model A Ford — where did he even get a Model A in London? We took off to the East End, which was a very shabby part of London at the time, in the ’80s, before it was developed. And I swear to God, we left modern day London and emerged in the London of Dickens. I was hooked, I was in love, I fell head over heels and I knew I wanted to write about this place and its people.” sThe story that would eventually become “The Tea Rose” took 10 years to write. And rewrite. And shop to publishers. And shop again. Until, finally, an editor decided to take a chance. “It was a very small advance, but I was so excited I literally danced on my table that night,” Donnelly said. “And once it was printed, my agent said to me, ‘What’s next?’ Oh yeah, something has to be next for these characters. I realized the main character had two brothers and followed their adventures.” “The Winter Rose” and “The Wild Rose” are the stories of those two brothers. Donnelly will read from “The Wild Rose,” which was released Aug. 2, and sign books during her visit to Oblong. “It’s such a pleasure for me to do a reading at a local independent book store,” she said. “Oblong feels like a second home to me. Suzanna and Dick Hermans have been so supportive. I love the sense of community I find there, especially since I spend every day of my life in a room alone with my imaginary friends.” Jennifer Donnelly will be at Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck Saturday, Aug. 20, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.oblongbooks.com or call 845-876-0500.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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