About

Janet grew up in Sacramento, California. At age 11, she fell in love with the piano and told everyone she wanted to be pianist, a very challenging career. She didn’t seem to notice she was writing all the time—stories, poems, letters, and diary entries. She went off to college to study music. When her professor shook her hand and said, “Congratulations, you are a Master of Music,” she somehow felt that wasn’t enough. She needed a new goal. First, she took a much-deserved break, pedaling her bike 3,200 miles from Phoenix, AZ, to Washington, D.C. After her trip, she settled down to teach piano and try to become a published writer.

Janet had heard you’re supposed to write what you know about. Her first published articles were about cycling and appeared in Competitive Cycling, Bike World, Bicycling, Women’s Sports, and Young Athlete. It was fun to see her writing in print, but not quite as thrilling as she had hoped. Meanwhile, she continued to write poems and lots of them. She tried to get them published, but no one wanted them. She wrote over five hundred poems before she deemed herself a terrible poet and gave up on poetry.

Her favorite thing to read was stories and novels, so why not try writing fiction? Bad poetry, after all, is like bad violin playing, while bad fiction is only as bad as bad piano playing, not quite as excruciating. Writing what she knew about, Janet’s first characters were musicians. Her first published short story appeared in The New Yorker, August, 1984, and her novel, Chest Pains, is about musicians. Janet has also written nonfiction for young readers about music including American Music Makers: An Introduction to American Composers, Women Music Makers: An Introduction to Women Composers, and her most recent books, Elizabeth Warren: What It Takes to Run for President, Florence Price, American Composer and Clara Schumann, Pianist and Composer.

Janet continues a long career in education. She has taught piano most of her life. For thirteen years, she was an adjunct instructor of music and English at De Azna College, Skyline College, and College of the Sequoias, and for fifteen years she was an English and history teacher at Divisadero Middle School and El Diamante High School in Visalia. Again, she wrote what she knew—kids! Her eight middle grade and young adult novels include Messed Up, an ALA Quick-Pick for Reluctant Readers and a VOYA Top of the Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers; Racing California, a Society of School Librarians International Honor Book; My Beautiful Hippie; Wheel of Fire, Commie Pinko, and Peace is a Four-letter Word.

Janet graduated with a BA in Music from Cal State Sacramento, an MM in Piano from Arizona State, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. She lives in Visalia, California, with her husband, and they have two grown children and a grandson. Besides writing, playing the piano and riding her bike are still her favorite things to do.