This spring my story “Driving Lessons” won Bronze Award for Family Travel in the First Annual Solas Awards sponsored by Travelers Tales.
If you missed “Driving Lessons” the first time, read it on the Travelers Tale site by clicking here for “Janet Riehl’s Flying Carpet Tales”.
Their tagline for the story is “The lessons of […]

A metrolink ride from the St. Louis airport and a longish walk with my luggage took me back to my apartment around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, shifting from the Southwest to the Midwest. My homecoming was like an enjammed rhyme in a poem with news of a friend in the hospital for heart surgery and […]

I’m flying home to St. Louis today, heart filled with the Southwest. I’ve been able to visit dear friends from New Mexico days, spend time with my 96-year-old Cousin Lyle, and travel to a new part of New Mexico (Mountainaire) and make new friends as part of the poetry workshop and the Poets & Writers […]

Here are some learnings that come from the conclusion of Nancy Connally’s Critiquing Case Study:
For those giving feedback:
1) Critique the story, not the person.
2) Critique the story on the page that person is writing, not the story in your head that you want written.

For those receiving feedback:
3) Have the intestinal fortitude to tell the story […]

Nancy Connally tells how she balanced out the negative critique by learning from the wisdom of an on-line writing village…including finding out that even exceptionally gifted writers must learn how to cope with folks who don’t take to their work. –JGR
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Later that day, I checked in with a writers group I belong to (Women Writing […]

Nancy Connally’s 3-day case study of some recent critiques and her response to them sheds light on several important issues in the process of giving and receiving feedback on our writing. Today, Day One, she tells of a negative critique she received from a person of stature and how that proved destructive in several major […]

Today, Guest Blogger Janet Muirhead Hill, author of the Miranda and Starlight series of six books and Danny’s Dragon, a story of wartime loss concludes her Riehl series on “Overcoming Rejection and the the Writing Life.” Quite inspiring, no? Janet, thank you for being one of the other Janet’s in the world and sharing your […]

Guest Blogger Janet Muirhead Hill, author of the Miranda and Starlight series of six books and Danny’s Dragon, a story of wartime loss continues her series of Riehlife blog posts on Overcoming Rejection and the Writing Life. Tomorrow she’ll discuss “How to Separate Our Personhood from Our Work When Receiving and Using Criticism.”–JGR
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Monica Wood says […]

Guest blogger Janet Muirhead Hill, author of the Miranda and Starlight series of six books and Danny’s Dragon, a story of wartime loss, is a member of Women Writing the West. As a seasoned writer she’s a good resource to give advice on how to use criticism and spring back from rejection. As a companion […]

Last summer Dale Harris attended my talk “Show Me the Way to Go Home” at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico and invited me to be a featured reader forthe 2007 Poets and Writers Picnic. I was only too happy to say “Yes!” (Click here to read my talk “Show Me the Way […]