| On Thursday, January 8th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Janet Muirhead Hill, a children’s author and writing coach about True Fiction. Janet is the author of eight published True Fiction novels for young readers. Additionally she is a publisher, speaker, and writing workshop leader. She educated us on what True Fiction is and how it differs from popular escapist fiction. The keys lie in the emotional lives of the characters and choosing a character-driven approach (rather than plot-driven). We learned how writers can draw on their own past experiences as part of the driving creative process emotionally. |  |
| When Janet, grew up on a cattle ranch in the Yampa River Valley in the Colorado Rockies, her greatest love was for horses and children. Her childhood dreams were not to become a writer or publisher, but to own a horse ranch and to have lots of kids. Janet began her writing career when her children were small by submitting short stories to magazines and had several published. Her 3rd novel Miranda and Starlight, began a series of six books, all published within a three year period by her own company, Raven Publishing, which publishes other authors as well. She has published another novel she wrote called, Danny’s Dragon. It is about the stages of grief and healing, seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy who lost his father in the war. A newly released book, Kyleah’s Tree, is the beginning of a trilogy about twins that were separated at 4 years of age by divorce.Janet’s education has included several years at Montana State Univer sity in various disciplines, including English writing. She also completed two writing courses, (two years each) from the Children’s Institute of Literature. She presently divides her time between publishing, family, and writing, from rural Montana where she lives with her husband. She also presents interactive workshops on “Writing True Fiction and other genres” |
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