Janet Ann Collins

Photo © Bob Burkhart.

Janet Ann Collins always wanted to be a writer, always wrote, and majored in English in college, but she didn't begin seriously trying to get published until about 15 years ago. A friend told her about a library reference book called The Writer's Market so she looked at it, wrote down some possibilities, and had her first story published by the second editor she sent it to.

How easy!

Then she started getting rejections and discovered she still had a lot to learn.

After reading books and attending conferences to hone her skills Collins began writing regular feature articles for a small Bay Area newspaper and her work has also appeared in many other publications. She is the author of a play for kids and actually won a poetry contest even though she doesn't consider herself a poet. Sometimes she even speaks at writers' conferences.

Collins has yet to achieve her dream of becoming the author of fiction books for kids but she's working on it.