Meet Author Janie Franz

Please say hello to author Janie Franz, a multi-talented lady. She says she "comes from a long line of liars and storytellers." That quote is straight from her bio at the end of the page. She is a woman of many interests.

Is keeping a promise to a dying woman more important
than personal friendships and safety ? Only Jan-nell can decide.

Jan-nell Speaks of Growing Things by Janie Franz

[Today, Jan-nell, the main character in the Bowdancer Saga of which The Lost Song: Verses is a part, speaks about her love of growing things.]

When I have my hands plunged deep into fertile soil, I feel more connected to the One and all living things. I lived on the horse plains as a child and trained as The Bowdancer, the spiritual leader and healer of my village. I grew herbs there and some vegetables. I fed myself and made salves and tinctures and teas for those who came for healing.

But I left that safety and lived on the Wayfarer’s Road, foraging for things to eat and herbs for cures and comforts. I taught my daughter all I knew and eventually how to grow some meager fare up on the mountain where she lives with the famed warrior women.

Since I left my babe with those kind hearts there, I have spent my days raising my son and growing new things in this fertile land of his father’s people. I have tomatoes and cucumbers and potatoes and lots of leafy greens to cook. I have an abundance of herbs for healing and for herbing a hen or a fine rabbit my son brings home when he is out hunting with his teacher, Bekar, the Master Hunter of the Sisterhood, the inner circle of hunters and trackfinders on the mountain. It is forbidden that she teaches him. But she honors a pledge she made to the babe when he was born and I had to bring him down mountain to raise. I wonder what else Bekar teaches him.

I have taught him all I know about growing things in this rich soil. He could tend my garden now without my eye on him and herb a stew as well as his sister or as I. I just hope he feels the same connection I do with the powers within the ground and the rain and sun.

[I smile at Jan-nell’s deep connection with the earth. I, too, feel it here in the mountains of Santa Fe as I dig and build, creating my first garden in this new home of mine. I would like to think that I will be as skilled as she not only in the growing of green things but in the culinary and healing arts she possesses.]

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Excerpt:

Jan-nell frowned into her tea. “I never did craft the story-song of your history.”

“Well, that is one of the reasons Leyton sent me down in the middle of hunting. She wants you to hear Dekla’s gossip before the old woman passes into the winter snows. Leyton says there is a song that no one has heard.”

“Is Dekla dying?”

“Not yet, but she is ill, and at her age, we do not know if this might be the time the Maker will take her.”

A hail interrupted their conversation, and they looked up to see young Bearin, coming across the meadowland with his bow and quiver across his back. Striding beside him was another tall woman in hunting leathers like Chandro’s, also bearing a long bow and quiver and something suspended from a cord over her shoulder and falling behind her back. The woman’s dark hair had been shaved on one side of her head and hung down to her mid ear on the other side. She moved with a catlike grace, and young Bearin was making a good show of copying her agile movements.

Jan-nell stood and ran to meet Bearin, stopping short of enfolding him in her arms.

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About Janie Franz

Janie Franz comes from a long line of liars and storytellers with roots deep in east Tennessee. Honed by the frigid Northern Plains and a degree in anthropology, her writing skill and curiosity have generated thousands of feature and cover articles over a vast range of topics for more than a hundred regional, national, and international publications for over a decade.

She has co-written two books with Texas wedding DJ, Bill Cox (The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book and The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book), and has self-published a writing manual, Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!

Janie runs her own online music publication, Refrain Magazine, and she is a book and music reviewer, and was a radio announcer, a booking agent/publicist for a groove/funk band, and a yoga/relaxation instructor.

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