About the Author

Dear Reader,

You can just imagine my delight that of all the books there are in this Great Big World you’ve picked this one—the first in the “Main Street Janes” Cozy History-Mystery series. It also just happens to be my first published novel, unless you count “An Experimental Novel entitled Palms of Victory,” which was, if memory serves, “A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies.” I’m proud to say that Palms of Victory (and yes, this was back in the day when the titles of books were underlined) won second place in the Cratis D. Williams Outstanding Thesis Award contest, bested only by a tome with a long fancy title which included the French word “Escrevisse” and basically amounted to “The Mating Habits of Crawdaddies.” It was with great humility, as you can well understand, that I gladly accepted the lesser prize in light of such a Lofty Achievement from the Biology Department. That’s LIFE, after all. 

But I digress.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading When I Grow Too Old to Dream as much as I enjoyed this fledgling attempt to encapsulate a lifetime spent listening to stories—some holy, some hilarious, all hearty—of the Small Town Appalachian Residents I’ve been privileged to know in the course of the three score and eleven years I’ve traipsed about this mortal coil. Like narrator Sally Jane, whom you will soon have the pleasure of meeting, my formative years were illuminated by a flashlight trained on a Nancy Drew book beneath my bed covers, which resulted in a life-long fascination for classic kiddy-lit, most particularly mysteries. I’m also rather fond of history and am proud to say (at the risk of tooting my own horn to excess) that of all 112 graduating seniors in the Class of 1971 at Powell Valley High School in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, I managed to capture the coveted History Award—no small task, that. Furthermore, I well-remember standing on a stool at my granny’s cook stove, lapping up her Culinary Genius whilst shrouded in a bibbed apron with cough drop- and Kleenex-filled pockets. And last, but certainly not least, you must know I’m incurably smitten by music and treasure the sentiment of a nursing home resident who once said to me, “Girl, you REEK of music.”

So there you have it, the motivation behind the “Main Street Janes” series: It’s pure-tee self-indulgence in my favorite things. And I’m hoping some of you will share my joy in stirring together the tasty ingredients of hometown stories, mystery, history, food, and music to see what might bubble up out of that pot. In the book, I’ve included an appendix entitled “What’s So…” which may be helpful in determining the historical perspective of this work of “faction.” In addition, there’s a second appendix of recipes for some of the dishes mentioned in the novel; more are available here on the website, as well as a soundtrack of songs featured in When I Grow Too Old to Dream, as covered by the vocal trio “Thistle Dew.” These goodies and lots more can be yours simply by visiting:

And oh, MY! What a treat to have you drop by! May all your days be “Main Street Janes” days.

Nancy Jane Giles was bred-and-buttered in Big Stone Gap, a small, historical, coal town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, in the year when ‘most everybody liked Ike. The siren call of higher education lured her from her mountain home to some dandy North Carolina schools—Saint Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Appalachian State University in Boone, where she somehow (as best she can recall) managed to eke out a Master’s Degree in Appalachian Studies. But it’s quite possible that the education she got from soaking up stories of the southwest VA, western NC, and upper east TN towns in which she’s lived the bulk of her 71 years has been of equal, if not greater, value.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to learn-by-doing, Nancy Jane has (among other things) taught school at every level, preschool through college, directed plays and choirs, been an Assisted Living Activities Director, led jams and taught oldtime string band classes, dispatched trucks, been a Director of Christian Education, operated a tearoom, written newspaper feature articles, been a Cultural Interpreter for a state park, spent one memorable summer as a paralegal, after which she decided that law school might not be for her, and waited more tables than you could shake a stick at. Her love for history, storytelling, and music was early on nurtured by her collusion with “The Tale Twisters” tandem storytellers, and currently finds a conduit in the Celtalachian trio “Thistle Dew” and the jazz duo “Tub Butter,” as well as in the writing of this, her first novel—an occurrence which will hopefully offer respite to her long-suffering friends who have strongly advised her to quit talking about writing a book and just DEW IT!

These days Nancy Jane can be found happily-ever-aftering with her husband Michael and their mutual best friend, a Silver Lab named Jazzy Blue Giles, in Johnson “Little City,” Tennessee.