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Endorsement - Avhi's Flight
“This book highlights the sad realities that accompany women and their children in Nepal on a daily basis. It is an eye-opening story about how profound gender-based injustices are common practices in Nepal. The purpose of the Women’s Foundation of Nepal is to tackle these issues by raising awareness of them and empowering women for their rights.”
---Renu Sharma, President The Women’s Foundation Nepal
Awarded Best Multicultural Fiction
Awarded Best Women's Fiction
Released February, 2019 Archway Publishing - Purchase at SHOP
From a remote corner of Nepal's countryside, fourteen-year-old Avhi Tharu says a prayer for Mr. Singh. She has been promised to him in marriage. Instead she clubs him in the head and flees with his ox and cart from the village. Days later, she slips through a mountain pass on the way to Pokhara, and with newfound fellow travelers, reaches Kathmandu. There she encounters the cruelty of the kamlari system, and sexual trafficking that goes unchecked by a suppressive culture. She soon discovers a purpose beyond herself, but must come to terms with her past before she can move ahead.
This 228-page story transports the reader on an eye-opening adventure that is both beautiful and bittersweet. It weaves together the complex threads of one girl's search for wholeness, the reckoning of lives left behind, and the disturbing truth behind the veil of a country where travesties to women and girls regularly occur. Avhi's' Flight is an important piece of fiction. Like the bestseller "Half The Sky", this story aligns with a central moral challenge of our time.
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Avhi's Flight offers insight as to the difficult life many women and girls face in Nepal. There is not an abundance of shelters, food pantries, lawyers, or authorities to turn to, as there are in the States. Women and girls are abused, abducted, sold into brothels, sold into slavery, and there is little recourse. Janet believes we are at a place in time when an understanding of such hardships might lead to change, and hopes her book can further the discussion.
Released September, 2020 Archway Publishing - Purchase at SHOP
Wynton Ellery is a security officer working customs in the port of New Orleans. When he and his brother, Raymond, cross paths with the wealthy and powerful, Doussaint family, they are innocently embroiled in a murder case. Wynton’s wisdom and fervor for his beloved Crescent City offer hope despite Raymond’s pessimism as he is pulled between the notion of this hope his older brother espouses, and the oppression he sees and feels by black injustice. Even the New Orleans detectives are at odds with the mounting evidence, insinuations, and slate of suspects because of Jack Doussaint, a corrupt senior State Senator, and a Mexican partnership turned lethal. An eyewitness can solve the case, but who can safeguard the witness and at what cost?
This 275-page book is a slice-of-life look at two New Orleans families four years after Hurricane Katrina. It follows detectives through a murder investigation, and the lead characters through a two-family saga. It touches on history, with a story centering around America’s worst national disaster. It touches on social issues offering insight to the effects the storm has had on a people, and class division at a time when America has elected its first African-American president. It is a regional and cultural piece that peers into the distinctively unique southern city of New Orleans. Ultimately it is a story of healing as readers discover that despite setbacks and heartbreak, hope shines through.
Winner - Literary Fiction
Released March, 2021 Pegasus Publishing - Purchase at SHOP
A BOOK ABOUT ACCEPTANCE
Pockets is a likeable penguin, but she doesn't fit in. She doesn't speak, everything is too loud, and she looks different. She doesn't have the Emperor orange stripe along her beak, and she was born with pockets on her belly. She gets by with headphones and things she keeps in her pockets. But it is not until she discovers icePads, that she finds her voice and a way to fit into the penguin community.
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POCKETS is written hoping children in grades K-2 will understand that differences are okay, and people can be appreciated for who they uniquely are.
Released June, 2011 Mirror Press - Purchase at SHOP
This 161-page book of poetry was written on behalf of and for the victims and survivors of the April, 2011 Tornadoes in Alabama. While media and community discussions focused on the statistics of the storms, no one addressed the overwhelming feelings of loss, grief, and how to take the mental, emotional steps toward recovery.
The purpose of this book was to produce sales to benefit those affected by the devastation. Sales had to be turned around quickly; there was no time to pursue literary agents and mainstream publishers. Janet, therefore, started her own publishing house, Mirror Press, in order to gain an ISBN number and barcode. She found a printer in Austin, TX, and printed 5,000 books. She spoke to the CEO of Books-A-Million, who promised to distribute her books in every store statewide. At $20 each, there was an opportunity to raise $100k. BAM did not charge a fee or take a percentage of sales, neither did Janet or Mirror Press. In just two short months, a book of poetry had been written and was in circulation. Without offering it on-line, and without social media, or paid advertising…six months later, 3,000 books had been sold raising $60k which was distributed to several charities at work in North Alabama and B’ham.
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