Janet Alcorn

Janet Alcorn

Suspense | Horror | Romance

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  • Home
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • About
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Janet Alcorn
  • Featured,  Short Stories

    “A Christmas Duet” is published in Harmony Magazine

    April 5, 2022 /
    Cover of 2022 issue of Harmony Magazine

    My short creative nonfiction piece about my mother’s last Christmas, “A Christmas Duet,” was just published in Harmony Magazine! I wrote the first draft right after visiting my mother on Christmas Day 2018. After a little revision and a lot of tears, I’m thrilled that this story has found a home. Harmony Magazine is a visual arts and literary journal published annually by the Medical Humanities department of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Issues are available free online. You can find my story in the 2022 issue beginning on page 12. Note that it’s written under my real name, so now y’all know my not-so-secret identity. What’s “A…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Part of cover image for Deathlehem 2022 holiday horror anthology showing skeletal monster in Santa suit sticking clawed fingers into Santa's eyes

    Holiday horror short story published in Deathlehem anthology!

    December 31, 2022

    My short story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” is published!

    December 27, 2021
    Promo image for my interview on an episode of the Mysterious Goings On podcast called "Janet Alcorn on Writing Your Own Destiny." Available at www.mgopod.com and on Apple Podcasts. Air date: November 29, 2023. Episode length: 54 minutes, 8 seconds.

    Writing Your Own Destiny (interview on the Mysterious Goings-On podcast)

    December 10, 2023
  • IWSG,  Writing

    I’m co-hosting the IWSG blog hop! (#IWSG)

    March 1, 2022 /
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    I’m so excited to be co-hosting the Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop, along with Pat Garcia, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence! It’s my first time co-hosting any kind of blog hop, so like I do with every other new experience, I’m going to overthink it and write 17 drafts until the post is perfect. Just kidding. I’m going to do what I actually do with new experiences: dive in and flail around and probably look like an idiot but have a great time doing it (come to think of it, that sentence sums up my writing career quite nicely). Wanna come along for the ride? I have cookies…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    6 tools that power my writing life

    July 3, 2024
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    No, I don’t want to live in a fictional world

    July 5, 2022
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    Cliffhanger endings: 3 reasons why they make readers mad

    December 4, 2024
  • IWSG,  Writing

    The importance of being influenced (#IWSG)

    February 2, 2022 /
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    The word, influencer, makes most of us think of self-absorbed wannabe celebrities sharing their carefully-curated lives on Instagram or Tik Tok. (Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.) But we all have influencers. From the time we’re born, the people in our lives shape us in all kinds of ways. One of the things I find both fascinating and terrifying is how a stray remark, a quick interaction, can have a profound effect on another human being. None of us fully understands the power we have over others just by going about our daily business. I’ve written on here a few times about how I got a late…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    How a 12th-grade English assignment convinced me I couldn’t write fiction

    September 4, 2024
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    The most inspiring feedback I’ve ever received

    May 7, 2026
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    My So-Called Writing Life: expectations vs. reality

    November 5, 2025
  • Arizona,  Blogging,  Photos,  Short Stories,  Weekend Coffee Share

    New story published, Organ Pipe Cactus trip, blog recap, recap, and New Years memes (Weekend Coffee Share #20)

    January 8, 2022 /
    Creosote, teddy bear cholla, ocotillo, and saguaros in foreground with rust-brown colored mountain in background in late afternoon light

    Happy New Year, friends! I hope everyone had wonderful winter holidays. And a big thanks to Natalie the Explorer intrepid hostess of the Weekend Coffee Share! Thanks, Natalie, for helping me connect to so many awesome bloggers like yourself. Writing News–my latest short story is published! My big writing news: My Christmas horror story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” has been published in the annual Deathlehem holiday horror anthology. See the linked post for deets. SQUEE!

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Dispatch from Up North, Part 2: Bootleg Lake, Arizona

    September 30, 2022

    A visit to Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona

    December 9, 2022

    Ironwood National Monument (Weekend Coffee Share #27)

    February 25, 2022
  • IWSG,  Writing

    When to start a writing career? The second best time is now (#IWSG)

    January 5, 2022 /
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese proverb This post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop, co-hosted this month by Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken. This month’s optional question is: What’s the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it? Before I get to this month’s question, I want to share some exciting news with my IWSG friends (and anyone else who missed my announcement last week): I’ve published another short story! It’s a Christmas horror story, published in this year’s Deathlehem anthology, The Colour…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    How to receive feedback on your writing without letting it crush your soul

    May 4, 2022
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    The most inspiring feedback I’ve ever received

    May 7, 2026
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    No, I don’t want to live in a fictional world

    July 5, 2022
  • Writing

    2021: My year in writing

    January 1, 2022 /

    2021 was an eventful year in my writing career. I published some stories, made some progress, endured some frustration, and learned, learned, learned. Such is the life of a developing writer. I hope you’ll indulge me in a little year-end navel-gazing. I enjoy these kinds of posts from other writers, because it helps me see behind the curtain of their careers and get a more realistic understanding of what a year in a writer’s life can look like. And as I mentioned in my last year-end retrospective post (State of the blog and most popular posts of 2021), I find it helpful to do some annual stock-taking to evaluate my…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    The most unethical practice in publishing

    August 5, 2025
    The Etiquette of Voles by Karen McCoy

    My greatest fear as a writer–and a middle grade Victorian mystery

    May 6, 2025
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    Where my story ideas come from

    June 2, 2026
  • Blogging

    State of the blog and most popular posts of 2021

    December 30, 2021 /

    I’m one of those annoying people who enjoys taking stock at the end of the year. I like to twiddle the dials on the Wayback Machine and review my goals at the beginning of the year, the status of various aspects of my life back then, and see how far I’ve come. Sometimes it’s motivating, sometimes it’s disappointing, but it’s almost always surprising in some way. I’m usually too busy living life to track on exactly how far I’ve come or how much (or little) I’ve accomplished. So this will be the first of a few looking-back-on-the-year-that-was sort of posts. I hope you’ll pardon the public navel-gazing. First up: this…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Creosote, teddy bear cholla, ocotillo, and saguaros in foreground with rust-brown colored mountain in background in late afternoon light

    New story published, Organ Pipe Cactus trip, blog recap, recap, and New Years memes (Weekend Coffee Share #20)

    January 8, 2022

    2023 is off to a weird start

    January 15, 2023

    Celebrating 4 years in the IWSG

    September 5, 2023
  • Featured,  Short Stories

    My short story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” is published!

    December 27, 2021 /

    My Christmas horror story, “Woe is me, Poor Child, for Thee,” is published in the 2021 Deathlehem anthology! One foggy Christmas Eve, an ex-con mall Santa seeks camaraderie in a California Delta watering hole—and learns that the spirits of the season don’t always rest easy. Billy Foraker had it all: lovely family, big house in the ‘burbs, good job making good money. Then he lost it all and traded the American dream for a prison cell. Now he’s a free man again, trying to rebuild his life, but his past is still out there, waiting for him in the Delta tule fog. The Colour Out of Deathlehem contains 24 holiday…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Promo image for my interview on an episode of the Mysterious Goings On podcast called "Janet Alcorn on Writing Your Own Destiny." Available at www.mgopod.com and on Apple Podcasts. Air date: November 29, 2023. Episode length: 54 minutes, 8 seconds.

    Writing Your Own Destiny (interview on the Mysterious Goings-On podcast)

    December 10, 2023
    Cover of 2022 issue of Harmony Magazine

    “A Christmas Duet” is published in Harmony Magazine

    April 5, 2022
    Orange bridge like a smaller version of the Golden Gate disappearing into grey fog. Setting for my award-winning mystery short story, "Walk Me Home."

    Check out my award-winning mystery story, “Walk Me Home”

    December 21, 2022
  • IWSG,  Writing

    November: A month of stress and delight in writing (#IWSG)

    December 1, 2021 /
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    I just finished NaNoWriMo. For you non-writers (a/k/a normal people) out there, NaNoWriMo, affectionately known as NaNo, is National Novel-Writing Month, a worldwide phenomenon in which millions of writers try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Free investment tip: buy stock in coffee companies before November. Alcohol and cigarette companies too. But I digress. A subgroup of NaNo participants are known as NaNo Rebels. We bust our butts all month like the “regular” NaNos, but we do something other than write 50K words of a brand-new novel. In my case, I committed to spending as much time revising a previous NaNo project as it would have taken…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    Cover of Rattlesnake by C. Lee McKenzie

    An interview with author C. Lee McKenzie

    December 6, 2023
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    3 ways I’m finding my way back from a writing slump

    February 5, 2025
    Insecure Writer's Support Group badge

    6 tools that power my writing life

    July 3, 2024
  • Delta Dawn,  Weekend Coffee Share

    Delta Dawn won first place! (Weekend Coffee Share #14)

    November 12, 2021 /
    Arizona Authors Association logo and bookshelves

    Good morning, and happy Friday! I have big writing news to share with y’all, but first: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Have a seat, grab a treat, and let’s chat out in the garden on this gorgeous desert morning. Big writing news I’m excited to report that my second novel, a domestic suspense/thriller called Delta Dawn, won first place in the unpublished novel division of the Arizona Authors Association Annual Literary Contest! I still need to make substantial revisions before it will be ready to query, but I’m so excited that people actually liked it. I’m also grateful to the judges, who provided helpful…

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    Janet Alcorn

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    California Delta Part 1: Paradise Cut (+Books! and Memes!)

    January 22, 2023
    Vintage houseboat on slough tucked behind twisty branches

    How my novel, Delta Dawn, got its name (#IWSG)

    March 31, 2026
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