Story Worlds
Janessa writes novels that transpire in one of two worlds: Earth or Thervade. Bhel-Silvest, as a force that crosses both time and space, reaches multiple worlds.
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Earth​
Thervade
Bhel-Silvest
At this Elevation
When Satya sneaks into the Khumbu Valley of Nepal, famous for the trekking route to Mount Everest, he expects solitude. The entire valley has been evacuated and closed due to rinderpest, a cattle disease, but rumors about disappearances and murder run to the contrary. As a graduate student obsessed with folklore, Satya couldn't ask for more. By exploring the valley, he expects to craft the thesis project of a lifetime. What he doesn’t expect (or particularly want) is company.
Nicki and Jared are trouble from day one with their strained relationship. As two trekkers intent on reaching Everest Base Camp, their route overlaps with Satya's, creating an uneasy alliance that shifts from temporary to permanent when the group is waylaid in Namche Bazaar. It is the one place they shouldn't linger, and as each attempt to leave circles back in misfortune, tensions and self-interest escalate, crippling the very trust on which survival hinges. If folklore has taught Satya anything, it's this: the three of them are not alone.
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*Note: This novel has not been published.
A Bite this Deep
Nine years ago, Dresgar witnessed her family’s murder. The man responsible, tattooed in red across the knuckles, vanished without a trace.
Nine years ago, Dresgar struck a deal with a bitterbite—a dreaded tradesman of magic and merchandise—for help in pursuing her family’s killer. Instead, she became chained to his bidding deep within the northern city of Waergradt, locked into a mission as likely to kill her as free her. The resulting fallout forced both her and the bitterbite to flee, but in separate directions, and Dresgar never looked back.
Nine years seem long ago until Dresgar encounters a stranger with red knuckles, reminding her that blood justice runs deep in the north. Confronted by a history of violence and promises, she demands answers, yet isn’t prepared for her entire past to come knocking.
Folk wisdom says that a bitterbite never forgets and should never be trusted, but circumstance can create strange bedfellows. In Dresgar’s case, a mutual appetite for revenge might make for the strangest ones yet.
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*Note: This novel has not been published.
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An Intimacy of Bones / A Tithing of Pain
Prophecy claims that the key to divinity will appear beneath a star alignment—something stupid like that. Headhunter Inof Dorr merely wants paid in guiding several mages north to the ruins where they hope to obtain the key. Instead, they find monsters and piss in a crone’s beer. In the fallout, Inof cuts his losses to work for the local clanhead, who offers easier gold for killing a solo mage named Idane.
Idane Victrell, apprentice mage, has high academic ambitions. She too chased prophecy north, determined to prove her worth, but the other mages ditched her in town with the locals. She’s present when, on the night of the star alignment, the clanhead’s wife dies in labor. She’s present when the resulting child is sentenced to death, and with her trip already in shambles, she upends her plans by absconding with the doomed infant.
This is where the story begins, with a failed journey, a stolen child, and a crone who is angered by the mages and headhunter alike for trespassing where they don’t belong, for a prophecy whose distortions and unknowns imperil them all. Worse, the crone swaps Idane and Inof’s bones as punishment, creating a link that gnaws on their respective lives and the futures they assumed. Nor can they avoid prophecy when the child thrust between them was borne on the unluckiest of nights and invites scrutiny.
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​Unspooling prophecy's riddle is no option when its calls to mages as ambitious as Idane and killers as ruthless as Inof. Whether or not they can work together and survive is another matter.
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*Note: This duology has not been published.