Articles written by Janet Doggett

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About me - Janet Doggett

I've just completed a crisis-themed book of essays called "The Stones Will Cry Out: Essays on Crisis" and I've begun work on a novel - my first.

I have a master's degree in creative writing from Texas Tech University and a bachelor's in journalism from Texas

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Creative Writing > Essays Essays: Parenting: 1 of 39

I live in the land of green applesauce and blue butter. It is a place from which I fly nightly on a yellow-lipsticked horse named Tulip with my two trusty sidekicks through azure clouds. We travel to faraway lands like Falicornia and Oklamyhoma. Sometimes we stay home and work diligently, my pint-sized assistants and I, to p...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Pay attention: 7 of 28

Fear of the Fish Head Kids They look at me blank-eyed, frog-eyes Gray-dead fish heads, Ask me to repeat the assignment, step-by-step, I freeze; I can't speak. A dozen hands with pens poised, Hovering near brilliance or defeat. I am the judge, a sometimes friend? Executioner. The weight of it frightens me. That one so pure wi...
Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Suicide: 46 of 134

The day that Brad blew his brains out was the day that Neva learned the power of the words, "I love you." Always, up until that point, she thought of those words as just that words. Things that can't hurt you. They were kids. They were dating, but love? Sure, if he wanted her to say it, yes, okay, she loved him. "But do you ...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Loss of innocence: 15 of 36

Chapter One December It was winter in West Texas, which meant instead of snow and cider, sledding and sipping, the children laid about indoors in the carpet sunbeams, watching Disney reruns and dunking store-bought treats into frosty mugs of whole milk. Summer always smelled to Nicole like hot railroad tracks, the sun meltin...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Death of a child: 5 of 10

Nicole blinks into the blinding light and tries to remember where she is, what she has been emptied of. "This is the hospital," Peggy says. "You are in the HOSPITAL." She says it loudly as if that will help it STICK. It all comes speeding back: Lloyd, dead. The baby, dead. He was 42. The baby was 17 weeks. He was a little bo...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Despair: 8 of 14

He ripped the note from his wife's trembling hands and shoves it past his chapped red lips and into his startled O-shaped mouth and began to chew. He swallowed noisily claiming he had no idea what she was talking about. "Are you crazy?" she asked, crying now. "You know good and well what I'm..." Jan Beth burst through the do...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Sin: 104 of 173

To play unencumbered a single day clean then home again, wet and dark, a hot bath drawn before dinner, His attentive touch: It's all right and I am again restored a child. This unholy desire of mine, cloaked in green awnings, yearnings shaded, made cool and dispersed like rivulets of rain, spooling down the drainpipe. I fall...
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: People in our lives: 29 of 42

It's odd, but you never expect these calls when they come, which is invariably around 3 a.m. on a weeknight. You answer in a hushed voice that won't wake your husband or your kids. As you draw the phone to your ear, you hear: "There is a victim in route to the children's hospital via ambulance. Hispanic. Female. The victim's...
Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Humor: 52 of 68

Betty Mae bent over the gas stove, turning the knob slightly to the right to ignite a blue flame. Keeping one eye on the cast-iron skillet, she reached to the left for an egg and to the right to grip the grime-covered canola oil. Cracking the eggs and humming, she thought to herself that Egg No. 3 looked quite pretty. "Just ...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Falling in love: 59 of 72

She just became aware of him. It was like one day he wasn't in her life and the next day he was her life. He didn't stand out in a crowd, being shorter than most. But his skin beneath the freckles was translucent like if she slit it open, she could easily crawl beneath. He was all muscle and grit, too. When he smiled, she co...