In Between?

Are you in between? That’s your affair–not mine.

Pumpkin, Butterscotch and Caramel Sno-Cone

The first snow fell and autumn color had not finished–in between fall and winter.

And my friend CJ has always been in between–in between cultures. See for yourself: Tangier Gardens at https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

North Africa… 25 yrs ago

A curious geography, historically active with pirates, djinns and easy paths to drug use…

A strange place for an American college student to do his term abroad design study.

But Christopher Janus was fascinated with the Med, its sun, beaches and the Moroccan pedestrian towns and markets. CJ chose Tangier.

Read his flash fiction stories Thunderstruck, Steganophonic Streetlife and Cthulu 2000. Share his strange experiences in his series of 40 flash fiction stories entitled, Curious Tales.

Sample them for FREE at: https://amzn.to/41v2DNv

Autumn Unvarnished

Autumn IRL

Science has lost its magic since the covid. Academe has lost its magic since the wokeism. I fall  back into the era of Christianity and alchemy where nature and its connection to human emotion is magic, a gift from God… but life ain’t just a bowl of cherries.

Take me where it is real.

https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

“Magical Realism”

I could never get “magical realism” until I spent too many years around the Rub al Khali–the Empty Quarter.

Then I met CJ. He was obsessed. About? I couldn’t figure it out–magical realism or the Empty Quarter.

He wrote: “How to beat, tame, survive–the Empty Quarter–life–magical realism?

Only by imagination.”

CJ tried…and got beat.

It all started in Morocco, Tangier Gardens, then KSA, Egypt and finally, the Empty Quarter.

Landscape and CJ

20,000 feet or on the ground…

Where are the plants?
Where are the plants?

In Tangier Gardens, CJ learns about landscapes, gardens and plants. Landscapes are mysterious because they harbor weirdness as he learned from Bree and he sensed from his West Africa experiences.

In Yenbo Palms, CJ once again gets wind of unusual things in the landscape, this time in the deserts of Arabia.

These stories are not for, or about tourists. They are about the expatriate who never dreamt of leaving home. They are about a person who is, like most of us, inspired by the beautiful and endlessly varied landscape. 

He loved landscape so much he studied it in college and earned a degree in landscape architecture. But what he learned in school didn’t prepare him for the expatriate landscapes that perplexed him. Arcane landscapes? Could there be such a thing?

CJ chases nature, its landscape and plants to their existential roots. He describes his interactions with cultures, landscapes, gardens and plants of the world—where the unexpected and downright strange become daily facts of life.

Tangier Gardens, buy it now on Amazonhttps://amzn.to/3HLrtyv