tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89709100047855318702024-03-14T00:34:06.589-06:00Kid's True FictionTelling the truth through fictional characters in made-up stories about what it means to be human in our every-day worldJanet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-47106258569901190962015-09-28T12:22:00.001-06:002015-09-28T12:23:16.345-06:00The Lost Books: Found. The Culprit: Identified. As I prepared to publish a different post, today, I noticed the last one I posted, Tell me, please. Most people are honest, aren't they? and am compelled to reveal the outcome of the search for the lost (stolen?) books before I go on. I publish this explanation with joy—that my faith in humanity is restored, and chagrin—at having to admit that I, and I alone, am the guilty party.
The Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-60434030784644078982015-08-23T06:37:00.000-06:002015-08-23T06:37:22.439-06:00Tell me, please. Most people are honest, aren't they?Because I find it so hard to believe that anyone, especially in the small and lovely town of Ennis, Montana, would deliberately steal an item out of the back of a car, it has taken me this long to admit that someone did. The compact disks for eighteen audio books for the late Joan Bochmann's novel Absaroka, mentioned in my previous post, were indeed lifted from the trunk of my car as we were Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-73345695694200878252015-08-11T03:47:00.001-06:002015-08-11T03:49:41.572-06:00The mystery of the disappearing audio CDsWhen I sold the last audio book, four CDs of the magic voice of Scott Tanner reading Joan Bochmann's novel, Absaroka, I ordered more, hoping to have them here by my next book sale at the Madison Valley Arts Festival in downtown Ennis, Montana. They didn't get here on Friday, as I'd hoped, but there was still opportunity if they came the next day. From the festival venue on Saturday, I called my Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-77656103281925798512015-07-05T05:33:00.001-06:002015-08-12T03:35:01.288-06:00Taking Stock and confessing my weaknesses, by Janet Muirhead Hill
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{font-family:"MS 明朝";Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-84922207722044748772014-11-15T11:20:00.000-07:002014-11-16T18:51:12.537-07:00Gunshot Wound, a true story as told to Janet Muirhead HillI heard this story many times from both my mother and my grandmother.
That is my Uncle Gene in the middle, and it's me he is holding. Left to right:
Sonja Elkins, Gayle Elkins, Gary Elkins, Gene Elkins, Janet Muirhead, Evan Elkins, Duane Muirhead, Joan Muirhead.
The winter day was bitter cold. Grandpa, Clarence Claud Elkins, was at the homestead near Milner with all of his Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-3131361503525448442014-11-14T05:25:00.000-07:002014-11-14T05:25:11.651-07:00Yampa Crossing: an Elkins family story. Dorothy Dale (Elkins) Muirhead was born on this day 100 years ago, November 14, 1914. She was the fourth child of C. C. Elkins and Maude (Luekens) Elkins. This picture was taken not long after her father died in a military hospital in Hot Springs, SD. He was never in very good health after fighting in the Spanish-American war, where, according to family legend, he was shot with a poison Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-47700264732102217162014-10-16T07:48:00.003-06:002014-10-16T07:48:57.223-06:00Authors and sensitivity to criticismI've noticed that some, maybe many, authors suffer from Enissophobia, or fear of criticism. Every critical word about their writing, no matter how constructive or kindly given, feels to them as a knife in their side—a personal attack that cuts deeply—or as one author said, "like cutting off my thumb."
What is it about us writers that makes us so vulnerable that we suffer extreme anxiety Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-23894268521650117972014-02-10T03:53:00.001-07:002014-02-10T03:53:22.825-07:00Flash Fiction
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}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times; }p.Noparagraphstyle, Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-64062121256710988272014-02-01T10:42:00.002-07:002014-02-01T11:41:35.947-07:00On Writing True Fiction For years, ever since the first writing workshop I conducted, I've called the kind of writing I do "True Fiction."
What does that mean exactly? It's the kind of fiction in which the character—or the muse via the characters—dictates the course of the story, as opposed to fiction in which the plot is carefully outlined according to formulaic rules. It's literary fiction vs. genre fiction. It's Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-77738874577952258722013-11-29T09:08:00.002-07:002013-11-29T18:29:56.751-07:00How odd—wildlife attached to the underbelly of my car. When I was parked along the street at my niece's house day before yesterday, someone asked me, "What are you dragging?" I didn't know what she was talking about until she pointed out what looked like a big piece of meat hanging from the back axle. And, as it turns out, that is what it was.
When I was driving through Wyoming in the wee hours Wednesday morning, I saw huge blood stains on the Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-50715301764999017032013-08-18T18:56:00.002-06:002013-08-18T19:00:08.384-06:00Melancholy Day"There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass" (Charles Kuralt).
Do you ever have days like that? Maybe everyone does at times, usually because of living in a time other than the present. Not always of course, but regretting the past or worrying about the future causes unnecessary pain.
For me, this evening, the problem seems to be a mixture of past, future, and present. Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-44181048031806938872013-08-13T09:11:00.002-06:002013-08-13T09:11:19.913-06:00Middle ChildWho knew there was such a thing as Middle Child's Day. There is, and it's today (well, actually yesterday, August 12. I just heard about it today.) You can read about it here. I thought it funny because I'm a middle child. "The middlest," I like to say.) Only in my case, at least in retrospect, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. I wrote a poem to my siblings at Christmas time a year or so ago. I Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-20710267965962746082013-05-20T10:56:00.001-06:002013-05-20T10:56:26.112-06:00THE HISTORY OF A BOOK by guest blogger, Joan Bochmann (Written in February 2012)
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. This is probably the best known first line of any novel ever written. I
have pretty much forgotten the story Dickens was beginning with this
line, but the words seem to describe some of the roller coaster rides I
have been on since mid-December. January 2012 brought a virtual torrent
of good news, bad news, euphoria and dread. I Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-37657796530615499442013-03-09T13:35:00.000-07:002013-03-09T13:57:46.331-07:00It's okay—no, it's imperative—to write poorly.When writing anything, fiction, essay, memoir, or reports, if you have to write perfectly, making no mistakes, if your "boss" which is usually a voice inside your head, insists that your work be perfect, you'll likely give up before you start. That's why the Writing True Fiction workshop begins with "Freedom to Write Badly".
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Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-39471308686978850022013-03-07T18:42:00.001-07:002013-03-07T18:42:16.292-07:00Writing True Fiction.As I gear up to present workshops again on how to write "true fiction" I thought it would be a good thing to define what I mean by that. What is true fiction, anyway? I can explain by sharing the Introduction to my "Writing True Fiction Workshop." So, here is what it means to me, including quotes from great authors who inspired me.
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Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-24613298594134940722012-12-19T05:46:00.001-07:002012-12-19T05:46:55.905-07:00My next novel—finally namedMy next novel has been a long time coming. Having undergone many rewrites, it has been ready for a while, but has been difficult to name. I've finally settled on a title and it will be published early next year. The three titles in contention have been "The Body in the Freezer" which sounds like a murder mystery. It's not, although there is a body in the freezer that plagues the dreams of our Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-22172697836857082162012-12-15T18:01:00.000-07:002012-12-15T18:01:20.153-07:00 Confused by the Massacre in Connecticut
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{Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-88761551861420720112012-10-12T06:42:00.001-06:002012-10-12T06:42:18.683-06:00Preserve writing time: a poem by Janet Muirhead HillOh, the distractions a writer can findWhen novel ideas don't spring to the mind.Better to sit in the chair and thinkThan to leave the room for another hot drink. Writing gets done when you stay at a task Not going for coffee or even a flaskSorting paper clips or posting on lineShould not be a part of one's writing time. Be true to your designated creative hourBy keeping it sacred, giving it Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-53253758694348283302012-10-05T11:50:00.000-06:002012-10-06T09:42:32.302-06:00Ten YearsBy this time ten years ago, Raven Publishing, a small commercial press, had two books in print. They are the middle-grade novels, Miranda and Starlight, and its sequel, Starlight's Courage, by author and Raven's cofounder, Janet Muirhead Hill. The next two years produced four more books in the Miranda and Starlight series and a second large printing of Miranda and Starlight—all of this with help Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-46386049688113833042012-09-15T13:20:00.000-06:002012-09-15T13:23:23.908-06:00My sister, my friendHere I am, sitting in the Longmont, CO hospital, while my sister sleeps. Joan Bochmann, bearing up under yet another assault on her body, keeps on demonstrating her faith, courage, and grace as we await the results of tests to define the extent and seriousness of a blockage (another growing tumor?) in her GI track. She endures the pain and discomfort, confusion and debilitation that Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-71114727125782344582012-02-14T06:18:00.003-07:002012-02-14T08:09:44.137-07:00"What If?"—A Most Useful Writing ToolOccasionally, the characters that lead the stories I write come to a halt, peering in every direction, confounded. Or they stand still, staring blankly into space, unable to move—and I experience the dreaded writers' block. My muse has abandoned me. But, rather than sitting and wracking my empty brain for something to write, I know what to do.The remedy for my ailment is to draw a tool from my Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-5650818344979773982012-02-12T10:34:00.005-07:002012-02-14T06:18:34.619-07:00Daily " tudu"(to do) listI love it when I hear rhymes in my head. Sometimes I write them down. This one has become my daily to-do list. Let me explain how it works—at least how I am applying it today.Schedule for each day:Something new, something old,Something quiet, something boldSomething selfish, something kind,Something strengthening the mind.Something new: write a portion of my new novel first thing every Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-73941811471097597792012-02-09T04:52:00.003-07:002012-02-09T04:55:28.399-07:00A planned schedule is important, a daily writing habit, essential.The more I have to do and the more varied the projects demanding my attention become, the more I realize the importance of a plan of action. Being a morning person, I reserve the earliest morning hours of each day for creative writing time. Or, at least that is the plan. However when other duties are on my mind, it's easy to skip the writing, "just for today," and jump right into the Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8970910004785531870.post-48716926932594040612011-12-13T08:04:00.003-07:002011-12-13T10:52:09.712-07:00HOW LONG MUST TWINS BE SEPARATED BEFORE THEY FORGET?HOW LONG MUST TWINS BE SEPARATED BEFORE THEY FORGET?Two new novels follow the separate lives of twins whose parents thought it possible.The twins are fraternal, a boy and a girl, with very different personalities. What could be more natural when Mom and Dad divorce than for Mom to keep the girl and for Dad to take the boy? “And never the twain shall meet” is the parents’ decision for the Janet Muirhead Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180825440903874294noreply@blogger.com0