Gregory Tarsiscis Janetka was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1982 and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago. He studied political science at American University in Washington D.C. for three years before realizing he wasn’t cut out for that world, and finished his degree at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Directionless, he moved to Orlando, Florida to pursue a childhood dream to work at Walt Disney World, which he soon realized he was no longer cut out for either. Ambling back to Chicagoland he continued doing what he had always done – write stories. Family illness took him back to Orlando and subsequently to Huntsville, Alabama. In 2015, he escaped to San Diego. After four years of sunny southern California, he returned to the land of his birth, where he drinks green tea, watches Australian soap operas, and writes whenever he can.
As for Janetka, the only constants throughout his youth were writing and his fear to show it to anyone. When he finally did in 2014, he was published in Every Writer, Foliate Oak, Flyover County Review and Deltona Howl. Since then he has had pieces in Gambling the Aisle, The Flash Fiction Press, The Journal of Microliterature, The Machinery, Scarlet Leaf Review, Rum Punch Press, Birch Gang Review, Heartwood, Gravel, Twisted Vine, Fictive Dream, Storgy, Five on the Fifth, Dime Show Review, Glass Mountain, Litbreak, Door Is A Jar, Backchannels, The Phoenix, Madcap Review, XRAY, Hawaii Pacific Review, Helix Literary Magazine, among others. He is currently looking for representation for his first novel.
In February 2023, he launched his own online vintage bookshop, Lost Generation Books.
Read his interview with the Scarlet Leaf Review (December 2016)
Watch his introduction video (October 2022)
Gregory T. Janetka can be found on the following sites:
Hopefully someday this house’ll disappear
and everything will be a giant field of grass and you’ll be there.
We’ll jump into a well together and be free.
Words will keep us together 
I just discovered you are following my blog “A Way With Words”. I am grateful you have tracked down my corner of the blogosphere and found my writing worthy of reading. I’ve perused some of your writing. I really like the look of your blog and you have a distinct voice I really appreciate. I will be following you as well. Perhaps one day we can meet for a virtual cup of tea (for you) and black coffee (for me) and conceive of the next Great American novel?
Hi there Greg,
Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogosphere and for following. Your support is greatly appreciated, Looking forward to seeing more from you 🙂
Eddie
Thanks for following ‘Shaking the Tree.’ I’m fascinated by your blogging journey and will be back to read more.
Absolutely. I love old family photos, doesn’t matter if they’re mine or not. While I’m certainly guilty of taking lots of throw away pictures with my phone, those old photos really meant something. Each was an event and each has a great story behind it. I feel like not enough people have a true appreciation of the past and everything that led to them being exactly where they are at the present moment. Knowing those stories gives so much more depth and meaning to the lives we’re living, a nourishing richness that can’t be had in any other way. Cheers~
Yeah. I love old photos too; I even bought a couple last weekend. Complete strangers and absolutely no way of ever finding out who the people are, but I can imagine so many stories around each photo. I’ve pinned them on the wall to remind me how photography captures our souls.
thank you for following my blog! happy that you like it 🙂 what an interesting blog you have! for sure will be back here 🙂
Absolutely! I would love to get to Siena someday. My sister got married there some years back but I was in school at the time and unable to go. It is stunningly beautiful in pictures, it has to be only more so in person.
This long trail of words stretching between us: is it keeping us together, or is it a demarcation of apartness?Hard to say, and maybe it doesn’t matter: that’s just the way the world is. Or the way I am? I confess to being thankful for distance.
Picking at your posts in desultory fashion — this day, that day — as if at a trail of breadcrumbs. Going….
It’s a valid question to be sure but in the end it’s up to us and the words we choose and our presentation of them. I choose togetherness, even if sometimes the way they come out results in distance. Ah, the trickiness of motivation vs. execution and reception. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you found something interesting. Or boring. Or anything that led to an emotional response. Cheers~
Thank you for following “A Way With Words.” I find great joy in writing and my joy is made more complete when people read what I’ve written. While I write primarily about faith & mental illness, I am always looking for new topics to address and stories to share. If you have anything you’d like to see, please let me know.
I pray you are blessed in your life and writing as you are a blessing to others.
Gratefully,
Tony Roberts
Thanks for following The Immortal Jukebox Gregory. I hope you have found lots to entertain you and perhaps made some discoveries. If you haven’t visited for some time check it out again! Good luck with your blog and your writing projects. Regards Thom.
Hi Thom! With packing and moving I haven’t done much online but when we get settled in I plan on spending more time on the blog again, as well as checking out other ones, including The Immortal Jukebox. Hope you’re well!
Hi Gregory! I’ve nominated you for the Blogger Recognition Award, here is the link: https://danicapiche.com/2017/02/22/blogger-recognition-award-writers-edition/
I hope you’ll enjoy it! If you’re unable to participate please accept this gesture of my appreciation. 🙂