I am proof that “it’s never too late.” Maybe you remember Grandma Moses who began painting folk art in earnest when she was 78 years old and enjoyed a successful career for the next twenty years. She and I have a common bond. Without being specific I’ll just say I’m seventy-something and thrilled to be publishing my first novel in December 2019, which is further evidence that it’s never too late.
I grew up in Ames, Iowa, a small Midwestern college town, secure in a loving family and community. I could ride my bike to the school yard on Saturday and play softball late into the afternoon. Or walk to a campus town restaurant after school with girlfriends for a lime coke and a plate of French fries. My parents stretched the family budget to include piano and dance lessons for me and my older sister. I still entertain a fantasy of appearing on Dancing with the Stars for Grandmas. By junior high, my friends and I viewed all our school teachers as old maids who required us to conjugate verbs in Latin class and recite passages from Longfellow in front of our classmates. My senior year in high school one of those teachers ignited a spark in World Lit class that led me to choose English as a major in college. A few years later while studying twentieth century Europe I discovered history was a second love, almost as great as English.
Each summer our family embarked on the highlight of the year—a trip to visit our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Utah. It was like stepping into another world from the prairie of Iowa into the rugged beauty of the Wasatch Mountains that rose near my grandparent’s farm. It was here I first heard my immigrant grandparents speak Italian and refer to the “old country.” It was here I heard the stories of their rough and tumble life in the coal mining town of Cumberland, Wyoming, their first home in America. Over the summers my point of view grew from a youngster to a teen who discovered what family was all about.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and have had small projects published over the years. But write a novel? Moving about the world during my husband’s Air Force career while raising our children took all my attention and energy. I look back fondly on those years. Now in retirement the things that are important have come sharply into focus—preserving family history, learning how the past has shaped who we are, and searching our collective history for stories of the heart and sharing them in fiction. My husband and I reside in the Sunflower State of Kansas and spend our summers on an idyllic lake in Brown County Indiana where I love to kayak on quiet mornings. I sing with two choral groups, research our family tree when I have the gumption, finished sewing my third quilt, try to grow flowers every summer, and love reading books that stay with me long after I’ve finished them. Our son lives in San Antonio, our daughter in Zionsville, IN with their respective families. We are blessed beyond measure.
Time gives us perspective. I now feel compelled to tell stories about those who’ve sacrificed so others would have a better life, to whom we owe a debt. My grandparents were ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and their stories of the coal mining town stayed with me. In telling their story I’ve come to realize the world was and is full of such people, whose stories we should tell. Everyday courage, everyday sacrifice, everyday determination, everyday faith and love are worthy of sharing and showing us the way forward. I hope you agree.
Official Bio
Jane Coletti Perry grew up in a small Midwestern college town. With a degree in English and a love of history, she has written a memoir, “Finding Sarah Jane,” published in Patchwork Path: Treasure Box, and her articles have been appeared in The Best Times, a suburban Kansas City periodical. She has a passion for preserving family history, learning how the past has shaped who we are, and searching our collective history for stories of the heart and sharing them in fiction. Jane and her husband have two children and five grandchildren. They have lived throughout the United States and England, where she has sung in church choirs, symphony choruses, and women’s ensembles. She loves celebrating anything with the family and kayaking at their summer lake house. Her fantasy is to be on Dancing with the Stars for Grandmas. Marcello’s Promise is her first novel. Her short story “Lila’s Song” won Women Writing the West LAURA Award 2021. Jane is a member of Women Writing the West and Wyoming Writers, Inc.