Obituary

MORRISTOWN, TN - Jane Chapel Bierce passed from this life April 22, 2012. Born November 28, 1940 in Oil City, Pennsylvania to Mildred Bunnell and Geo. Homer Chapel, both deceased.

Jane was a beloved mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, and committed wife. She is survived by her dear husband Kenneth R. Bierce; sister Dorothy J. Chapel Zimmerman; brother-in-law Paul Zimmerman, all of Jefferson City, TN. She is also survived by her three children, Lynnora J. Bierce and son-in-law Steven G. Livingston of Asheville; NC; Stephen R. Bierce of Jefferson City, TN; and Dana W. Bierce of Asheville, NC; and grandchildren Geneva G. Bierce-Wilson and Egan J. Bierce-Wilson of Asheville, NC. She is also survived by many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Jane Bierce was a romance writer and belonged to Romance Writers of America chapters in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, at some times serving in official capacities. She was among the first writers of that organization to pursue electronic publishing of novel-format fiction, and went on to co-found EPIC, one of the main electronic publishing creator and industry support groups today. She was also an avid quilter, graphical artist and gardener. Jane was a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and sometimes worked as a public school substitute teacher. She also coached girl’s baton twirling teams. She was a devoted member of Wesley’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Dumplin Valley.

A celebration of her life memorial service will be held at the church on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 11am. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the church for a flower garden in her honor. Jane’s Garden Fund--Wesley’s Chapel United Methodist Church, ℅ Pastor Sherry Seay, 842 Curry Road, Dandridge, TN 37725.

Sad News

This is Stephen Bierce.  It is my sad duty to inform you that Fribble, Jane Bierce, died early this afternoon from complications of her cancer treatment.  She was 71 years old and lived a very happy and honest life.

I was there when she passed and I'm still in shock.  She seemed to be beating her ailments and was active and engaged in life just a week before.  But this horrible turn came and blindsided us all in her family.

I'm going to be caring for all her online affairs related to her writing and her books.  You can contact me c/o sbierce (at) hotmail.com or through her e-mail address/account, which I will be leaving open for some time to come.

I'm afraid this place isn't going to be the same without her.  I miss her already.

Stephen Bierce

It's been a long time. . .

. . .since I've blogged. A lot has happened lately.

I've been informed that the cancer I had has come back with a vengence.

And it's my own fault.  I only endured two weeks of radiation and chemo.  My body didn't want to take any more of the thirty-mile drive to the hospital, lying on a slab for the ten minutes it took to get arranged for the procedure, the procedure itself and the time it took for the technicians to come back and help me get to my feet.

The chemo was a relative breeze. I used a pump that went 24/7. It weighed 2 pounds, but it was dead weight -- if you pardon the expression. The company that provided the thing was the problem. The man who was to deliver the first fluid tried to find us by GPS, and made me nearly miss my first radiation appointment. Then, at 11 o'clock on Saturday night, the pump sounded an alarm. I was not familiar with it enough to know how to turn the annoying beep off. I called the company, waited forever for someone to answer -- and that person didn't know what to do so held me on line for someone else -- who never answered. I finally did the one thing I could do -- I went to sleep and woke up every five minutes.  To this day, no one has called me back!

I was willing to keep going until the second Friday, when my mouth broke out in painful sores. I got a prescription for a medication from the doctor supervising my radiation. The stuff was horrible tasting but I figured if it healed my mouth with the speed promised, it would be worth it. Almost immediately I was visited with "the runs."

It was enough for me. I am not a quitter. I'm one of those persons who carries on doggedly even when everything looks hopeless. But I saw the wisdom of going over to the hospital and tell them I quit.

That was November 1, 2010. So here it is, sixteen months later, and the cancer is back, attacking me somewhere other than where the original cancer struck. I'm going to take the chemo again, with the pump if I can get it. I won't be taking radiation at this time.

Am I sorry I quit, and the cancer is back?  No! I've used those months to undate the last two of my book that have not gone into electronic media -- Black-Tie Affair -- is available from Desert Breeze Publishing, and when I am back in gear I will make the needed adjustments in Come Home to Love.

There are miracles. I'm going to be working toward one.  But as a writer, I've accomplished more than I ever dreamed I would.

Thoughts On Life, Death, and Carrying On

I was listening to John Feinstein on NPR Fresh Air this noon and he closed his interview with the remembrance of how sports helped him get over the death of his mother.

It brought back a memory to me. When I had my first majorette corps, I had to go to the home of one of the members the day after her step-father had died. The girl's mother was beside herself trying to decide whether to go to the high school football game her son was playing in, concerned what people would think of her.

"Is your son going to play?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said firmly, as though they had discussed it.

"Then you have to be there," I said, thinking to myself how I would feel if one of the girls in the corps would have a problem and a parent not be there.

She nodded.

I think that was when the Bible verse "Let the dead bury the dead" became meaningful to me.

Just a thought.   

Alert for all WRITERS!

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard something disturbing that I thought my fellow writers need to know about.

People who sit still for long periods of time -- this sounds like every writer I know! -- need to get up and move around about every hour. I believe this. Why? Because one of the dangers we are courting by sitting for hours after hour is colorectal cancer.

In August of last year I went through surgery for this monster! It is a life-changing event. Now fourteen months later I have come to terms with the changes it brought and am back to writing, not just copying and editing old work. One of the least of my problems is dealing with loss of memory that I blame on having four instances of general anesthia.

The onset of colorectal cancer can easily be dismised as hemeroids -- the o.t.c. remedies actually work to mask the problem. But if you have the symptoms, it's best to go through the colonoscopy to identify the real problem.

Recovery takes patience and good backup caregivers. My husband, children and the members of the my church have been very supportive.

So, here is my advice: Get a one-hour timer  and set it for 55 minutes before you start to write. When it sounds, get up and move for five minutes (be honest!) before you go back to work. Walk, go outside and check out your neighborhood. MOVE!  (I'm starting to take yoga lessons but anything will help.)

Fight the monster BEFORE he shows up. 

It's been a LONG time!

Can you believe that I've been too busy for several months to post anything on blogspot? Trust me, I have.
Once I got well enough to focus on what had to be done, I got to work on copying BLACK-TIE AFFAIR into my computer so I could find a new home for it. It was, at first, a chore. BT-A came out in 1992, followed closely by COME HOME TO LOVE, and since I have changed computers twice, I no longer had files on them when I got the release form back from Kensington/Zebra.

Would you believe that the evening of the day I finished retyping BT-A, I was reading my emails and found that Desert Breeze Publishing needed a MS stat! to cover for an author who was too ill to work on the editing of her book. I sent BT-A the next day and it was accepted so fast I got a crick in my neck.

After the few editing changes were made, I caught my breath and began feeding COME HOME TO LOVE into the computer. I finished that MS yesterday (94,000+ words) and will get it off as soon as I can. The plus for me in that job was that Thorndike put out a Large Print edition for libraries and sent me one.

BLACK-TIE AFFAIR will be released  Friday -- this Friday. I'm stoked. It is pure fiction. I used a college library to check my facts -- it's glitz, glamor, high society, low society, and Florida. It's just a fun read -- as it was a fun write!

COME HOME TO LOVE is a fictionalization of my experience with my eyes which led to partial blindness, woven into just about every problem a respectable heroine can face these days.  I hope it might be out soon.

Like I said, I'm BACK!

A Done Deal

When last I blogged, I mentioned BLACK-TIE AFFAIR being picked up by Desert
Breeze Publishing. Well, contracts went back and forth, the MS was updated and proofed, and went back to sunny Florida -- where it started out in the first place.

Now son Stephen and I are working on the promo stuff.

I have one problem. Having had so much anethesia last year has wiped out a whole bunch of my memory, long term, short term, whatever. If it weren't for Stephen, I'd be in real trouble.

Some people think you should kick kids out of the nest when then become adults. That's pretty much a 20th Century thing.  I'm not about to let go of a the kid who has helped me with research, chauffered me thither and yon and been a plotting board for low these many years.

So now I'm going to take a deep breath and get on with promo. After I walk around the yard a time or two. . .