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December 2023: Janet Muirhead Hill
“I began to see out of the eyes of animals”
She walked with her husband through the lovely woods, a nice break from housework for a change. The peace was broken by the distress call of some animal. She hurried in search of the cries for help. But her husband, right behind her, pulled her away. No, it’s a skunk. You’ll get sprayed. No, she said, It needs help. Her elbow flew into the man’s face as she broke from his grip. On hands and knees she approached the beautiful creature, its leg held tightly in the teeth of a trap nearly twice its size. Soothingly she spoke to the animal, whose eyes met hers in a pleading cry. She promised not to hurt him, and reached slowly for the release. Sprung free, the skunk, eyes full of gratitude, put its paw and her hand, then turned and ran into the woods.
Hill writes from her rural Montana home which she shares with her husband, two cats, and two ponies. She writes for the joy of writing as she learns about life and herself through the characters in her novels and in the random poetry she occasionally pens. www.janetmuirheadhill.com
Every year I set a reading goal and hope to beat it, and every year I wish I had a list of books that would suck me in or teach me something or leave me feeling excited for the next read. And every year I read the “Best of” lists and hope for the best. So here’s one more!
These were my top 20 favorite books read in 2023 (not necessarily published in 2023!). Enjoy!
I’ve also created a Bookshop account to make finding these easier (although some of them were not available there) and to (hopefully) get a small kickback if you decide to purchase any of these there. As always, thanks for reading and cheers to 2024!
As a quick – how’d you come to these twenty? – well, I took my list of everything I read in 2023, deleted anything I didn’t rate 5 stars, then deleted anything that was specific to writing (I read quite a few craft books this year) and then I cheated and made The Thursday Murder Club Series a selection when it’s really four books LOL. Then I listed them in alphabetical order by author first name because that was the easiest way to order them with the info I had to work with (an export from The StoryGraph).
2023 came on stunningly beautifully cold. The river was so frozen the deer were walking across it. The ice fishing, I’m told, was fantastic. And I watched a webinar with Author’s Publish in which Emily Harstone essentially said, it takes ten rejections to get one acceptance, which birthed my #100RejectionsChallenge
I began furiously writing, editing, and creating short stories and essays I could submit for publication. (As it stands currently, I have thirty-eight pieces out for submission, I’ve received fifty-three rejections, and I’ve had four acceptances).
In May I created a Patreon account and attended my first writing retreat with Laura Munson and Haven. It wouldn’t be long before I’d begin the Montana Arts Council Montana Artrepreneur Program (MAP), attend the Authors of the Flathead Writers Conference, and Writing By Writers Manuscript Boot-Camp, rounding out a year of meeting other writers and artists and encouraging me in this audacious undertaking.
I sent my first piece for publication in June, nearly six months after I started my Challenge. I got my first rejection in July and my first acceptance in September. In the six months I’ve been submitting I’ve had four pieces published in three outlets.
October was insanely busy, marking one year I’ve been writing a monthly column for The Sanders County Ledger called Whatcha Readin’. I gave my first writing presentation and was asked by multiple people to turn it into a series of talks (the best feedback ever!). And I started recording monthly 2-minute book talk videos for my local Thompson Falls Public Library.
I saw a Facebook meme today where the poster was asking people to sum up 2023 with one word. My word would have to be “Unexpected.” If you’d told me in January of 2023 that by December I’d be an internationally published writer, that I’d have met famous writers like Laura Munson, Chris La Tray, Mark T. Sullivan, Gina Frangello, Pam Houston, Antonya Nelson, and Antoine Wilson I would have smiled, laughed, thanked you for lying to me. I still can’t believe it. It’s like this young bull moose that sauntered onto our property in May: Unexpected. Surprising? Yes. Wonderful? Absolutely. And mostly, thoroughly, unexpected.
I’m closing out 2023 by finishing edits on my memoir so that I can begin querying agents in the New Year. It has been an insane year and I’m so grateful to you all for joining me. I hope/suspect it’s only the very beginning of a fabulous ride….
Paper Dragon, the literary journal for Drexel University’s MFA program, has published my creative nonfiction essay Friendship Sting. Please check it out here. Enjoy!
As part of my work with the Montana Arts Council’s MAP Certification, I needed to create a short video about myself and my art. It’s not too late for me to make additions/changes/edits, so please let me know what you think.
Sunday Dutro, Author - Official Site 