I write autofiction in the literary fiction category. The Landscape Architect series explores landscape and culture from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Bosphorus, from North Africa to the Middle East. The protagonist is an American landscape architect who never wanted to leave home; but life had other plans for him—over 30 years an expatriate in the sands —the Sahara, the Empty Quarter, everywhere in between and around all the edges. He had his hands full and his future… read for yourself.Sometimes life takes us down roads to places we never wanted to be. It all starts here. Culture and landscape make a stew for our protagonist, Christopher Janus. Living in Tangier, 2000, Christopher Janus, CJ, explored northern Morocco. But his geographic explorations were not the entire story. Unlike CJ had ever imagined, that geography throbbed with a much larger pulse beat--that of the northwest Africa landscape. Travel with Christopher Janus, CJ, to the exotic city of Tangier in 2000, and explore the unique culture, landscape, and environment of northwest Africa. CJ is an American born in the Midwest and raised in New Mexico who finds his muse in the landscape. In Tangier, a town with sandy beaches and a historical pedestrian district, CJ gets more than he bargained for, and he must use his knowledge of music, literature, and the fine arts to discover the secrets of this strange and mystical landscape. Through 44 curious tales, CJ highlights the strangeness of this landscape and the lessons he learned. With Andalusian legacies, languorous gardens, Moroccan markets, and ancient medinas, this book is a journey for the armchair traveler. This paperback includes 10 full color maps and illustrations. ✅ Catherine Kelly, Literary Specialist writes: ★★★★★ STARS Curious Tales does something that travel writing and literary fiction both aspire to and rarely achieve simultaneously: it makes a place feel like a state of mind.   Tangier in 2000 is rendered here not as a destination to be described but as a landscape to be inhabited—the Andalusian legacies, the languorous gardens, the ancient medinas, the Moroccan markets —all of it carrying a pulse beat larger than mere geography.   Christopher Janus is exactly the right kind of protagonist for this kind of book: a man who never wanted to leave home and ended up spending thirty years in the sands, which means every observation he makes is filtered through the particular lens of someone who is genuinely present in a place while never entirely belonging to it. That tension between immersion and displacement, between expertise and outsider-ness is what gives the autofiction form its specific power here.   The forty-four curious tales structure is a brilliant formal choice because it mirrors the way a place is actually discovered: not in a single narrative arc but in accumulated fragments, each one illuminating something the previous ones left in shadow. For the reader who has ever stood in a landscape and felt it throbbing with something larger than its surface, Curious Tales will feel like being understood. ✅ J. Cedric Watkins-Zamoa Productions writes: ★★★★★ STARS This is a tonic for the curious , for those like me who would delve beyond the surface knowing there is more than meets the eye at first glance. Here is mystery untangled by the author,  nature and nurture's relevance explained through the eyes and ears of the main character as he persists in his search.   Overall,  Curious Tales  for me was a cleverly wefted and woven exploration of our attachment to plants and people, while simultaneously being an exploration of the consequences of our detachment from them. And for those who are fortunate enough to be familiar with the North African realm of Morocco, this is essential reading.   ✅ Jeremy Mayhew writes: ★★★★★ STARS   The format is excellent. I really enjoyed reading each piece. The pieces build into a detailed portrayal of CJ's development and of the Moroccan landscape itself.   This was a very enjoyable and rewarding read!