{"id":131,"date":"2019-08-31T13:43:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T20:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janetcrum.wordpress.com\/?page_id=131"},"modified":"2023-01-14T12:15:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T19:15:03","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/headshot_website_201909.jpg?resize=246%2C262&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1229\" width=\"246\" height=\"262\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m a librarian who launched a lifelong dream by Googling, \u201chow to write a novel,\u201d on a slow afternoon at work (in the immortal words of Dave Barry, we are not making this up). That fateful afternoon happened almost a decade ago, but I&#8217;ve been writing since about 5th grade, when I decided that since Marcia Brady had a diary, I needed one too. I journaled through high school and college, filling cheap spiral notebooks with whiny angst about whatever rock star or classmate I was crushing on. Eventually I became an academic librarian and, under my legal name (which&#8211;spoiler alert&#8211;is not Janet Alcorn<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=131&amp;action=edit#footnote1\">1<\/a><\/sup>) wrote journal articles and even co-edited a real, actual, honest-to-goodness book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I&#8217;d always wanted to write fiction. I just never believed I could. A disastrous attempt at a short story in high school convinced me I had no talent, and I was enough of a sucker to believe that talent was inborn, and you had it or you didn&#8217;t, and I didn&#8217;t. And so I approached age 50 with one huge unfulfilled dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfulfilled dreams have a way of nagging at a person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my high school English teachers left a comment on one of my Facebook posts, encouraging me to write more. A colleague bought me a copy of Anne Lamott&#8217;s <em>Bird by Bird<\/em> and said I should write a novel. I read about how famous authors launched their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I kept dreaming. Till that slow afternoon at work, when I typed in the Google search that would change my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why yes, I am being overdramatic. I&#8217;m a writer. It&#8217;s kind of my thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since launching my writing career with a lame-ass Google search, I&#8217;ve published several short pieces, some of which have won awards. I&#8217;ve also drafted two novels, both of which are stuck in Revision Hell. See <a href=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/wip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">my Writing page<\/a> for details on all my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve made it this far, thank you. Thank you for visiting my site and taking the time to learn more about me. I hope you&#8217;ll stick around and join me as I live my dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why do I write under a pseudonym? Would you want to discuss some Very Important Academic Library Issue across a conference table from someone who had read one of your sex scenes? Yeah, didn&#8217;t think so.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a librarian who launched a lifelong dream by Googling, \u201chow to write a novel,\u201d on a slow afternoon at work (in the immortal words of Dave Barry, we are not making this up). That fateful afternoon happened almost a decade ago, but I&#8217;ve been writing since about 5th grade, when I decided that since Marcia Brady had a diary, I needed one too. I journaled through high school and college, filling cheap spiral notebooks with whiny angst about whatever rock star or classmate I was crushing on. Eventually I became an academic librarian and, under my legal name (which&#8211;spoiler alert&#8211;is not Janet Alcorn1) wrote journal articles and even co-edited a real, actual, honest-to-goodness book. But I&#8217;d always wanted to write fiction. I just never believed I could. A disastrous attempt at a short story in high school convinced me I had no talent, and I was enough of a sucker to believe that talent was inborn, and you had it or you didn&#8217;t, and I didn&#8217;t. And so I approached age 50 with one huge unfulfilled dream. Unfulfilled dreams have a way of nagging at a person. One of my high school English teachers left a comment on one of my Facebook posts, encouraging me to write more. A colleague bought me a copy of Anne Lamott&#8217;s Bird by Bird and said I should write a novel. I read about how famous authors launched their careers. And I kept dreaming. Till that slow afternoon at work, when I typed in the Google search that would change my life. Why yes, I am being overdramatic. I&#8217;m a writer. It&#8217;s kind of my thing. Since launching my writing career with a lame-ass Google search, I&#8217;ve published several short pieces, some of which have won awards. I&#8217;ve also drafted two novels, both of which are stuck in Revision Hell. See my Writing page for details on all my work. If you&#8217;ve made it this far, thank you. Thank you for visiting my site and taking the time to learn more about me. I hope you&#8217;ll stick around and join me as I live my dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-131","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>About Me - Janet Alcorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/about-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About Me - Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;m a librarian who launched a lifelong dream by Googling, \u201chow to write a novel,\u201d on a slow afternoon at work (in the immortal words of Dave Barry, we are not making this up). 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