Author Archives: Janis

About Janis

Janis Owens is a novelist, memoirist, folklorist and storyteller. She is a native of Old West Florida, born in Marianna in 1960. She attended public school, and the University of Florida, where she was a student of Harry Crews’ Creative Writing Workshop and earned a degree in English with a minor in Southern history. She is the mother of three grown daughters, three son-in-laws, one grandaughter, with another grandbaby on the way. She is active in Florida conservation, oral history, historic preservation and dedicated to the celebration and preservaton of small town American life. She is by trade a writer, and the award-winning author of MY BROTHER MICHAEL, winner of the Chautauqua South Fiction Award for Best Novel, MYRA SIMS, THE SCHOOLING OF CLAYBIRD CATTS, and THE CRACKER KITCHEN. Her most recent novel, AMERICAN GHOST, won the Silver in fiction at the Florida Book Awards. After 52 years as a proud Floridian, she now resides in the Old Dominion of southwest Virginia due to her husband's job transfer. She is working on her next novel.

On the Road Again

Since American Ghost came out last week (or week before? Is it passing that quickly?) I have been speaking and driving, and driving and speaking, in that order. After two years of conversation about cornbread and butter-beans with Cracker Kitchen, I thought the segue into American Ghost would be a mite bumpy, but so far, so smooth. Southerners love story, food, and history in about the same measure, and in final send-off of my years in test kitchen, food blogs, and cook-offs, I recommend a final recipe for your consideration, courtesy of my cousin Marcie. Click here to continue...

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His Grace Will Lead Us Home

Into the mix of a particularly difficult summer – losing Mama and helping Daddy readjust, while meanwhile trying not to become clinically obese – yet another card has fallen. It’s a particularly painful card and all the more painful as it was unforeseen: Wendel’s lid plant, once owned by Anheuser Busch and lately, Ball Corporation, is closing. Click here to continue...

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The Valley and the Shadow of Book Reviews

I have had to loosen my grip on the summer’s great loss in order to attend to the immediate future – American Ghost, which debuts on October 9. I’ve just posted an update on the Tour Schedule and am getting early glimpses of national reviews – so far so good, the first in Publisher’s Weekly, as follows: Click here to continue...

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The Haunting of Brother Roy, Part III, conclusion

I‘m going down to Ocala tomorrow with an assortment of Mama’s granddaughters to do a final great day of cleaning on her house. In the process of nailing our plans with daddy, I casually asked about his ghostly “shadder.” He has never been too worried about it, and told me that since it seemed to originate in Mama’s old bedroom at the end of the hall, he’d simply moved his bedroom there, if for no other reason than he was tired of being haunted. In consequence, the ghostly “shadder” has ceased its nightly appearances. Click here to continue...

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Book Tour Posted

I have had cheering news here in the dog days of summer: American Ghost has been chosen for features in both Elle and Good Housekeeping, and as a Pulpwood Queen main selection. The launch date has been moved up to October 9th, and as Miss Katie B used to say: If August is here, October is just around the corner. Click here to continue...

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