Janet Ference, author
I write short fiction, novels, and plays. I love the worlds I can create with words. It’s always a surprise to discover the lives of the people in these worlds, and I’m grateful to lose myself in the mystery of their stories.
My first novel will soon be ready for publication. Riversbend Elegy, for saxophone, harp, and seven guns is a choral novel, an ensemble of voices lost in private grief, public conflict, and a few blind prayers. It’s Christmastime in 2004, and they’ve lost a native son. Tom McBee could tap dance, play jazz saxophone, and tell a mean joke. He was only 22 when he died as a soldier in Iraq. This novel gives voice to his family, as they gather in his small hometown in Indiana to mourn his passing. They are singular folk, and their song is often a dissonant one, but the underlying chord of custom carries a familiar American tune.
I’ve recently completed a polished first draft of my second novel, Riversbend Jazz, for saxophone, bass fiddle, and claw hammer. Set in 2020, Riversbend Jazz revisits the families from Riversbend Elegy. It’s been sixteen years since these folks came together for Tom McBee’s funeral. In 2020, they face a year when coming together has become dangerous. They are a politically-diverse extended family, now living all across the country. Riversbend Jazz follows them as they live and love and fight their way through that history-making year.
My third novel, already far along in its first draft, is called Flying Through The Air With No Particular Ease. It’s about breasts, faith, and knowing who to call when you have to kill a mouse. June, Meg and Avis are sisters. They grew up during the 50s and 60s in a small town in the foothills of South Carolina. Though they lead very different day-to-day lives by the year of their Lord 1999, they each drop their solo acts to join in the fight when June is diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
I’ve self-published a collection of my microfiction, Between Blinks, artfully short stories. To learn more about this book of hundreds of tweet-length tales, please check out my Between Blinks page.
To read more about my Riversbend chronicles and to enjoy bits and pieces of my other work, please visit my author’s page: janetference.com
Blue Fern Press
Blue Fern Press is the indie publishing venture I created to release my book, Between Blinks, artfully short stories. This collection of my popular ‘twitter tales’ is available from Amazon in both ebook and paperback formats. To treat yourself to a copy of it, see my Between Blinks page.