Interviews

Dear friends and readers,

I'm an Anglo-Hispanic writer who was born in Oklahoma; I now live in Washington State. I am the author of six books: A Three-Turtle Summer, As Brown As I Want: The Indianhead Diaries, Custer and His Naked Ladies, Bears in the Hibiscus, Boogie, Boots & Cherry Pie, and Free Pecan Pie and other Chick Stories.

The first three books, my Turtle Trilogy, were written in honor of a warm, close Hispanic family that wasn’t afraid to work hard and never forgot to laugh.

Two of my books were recently chosen to be included in Amazon’s WorldReader project that distributes Kindles loaded with textbooks and other reading materials to underprivileged children in Africa.

Currently, I'm working on a fantasy one-man show on Geronimo titled Friending Geronimo.

The Welfare Resort, a literary novella, is completed but not published.

 

Also in the works, I have a collection of children's stories, Mr. Hop's Garden, that is being illustrated by Sherri Bails, a member of the Washington State Watercolor Society. I hope to publish these stories on Kindle in 1013. Illustrations take time!

  

Something you should know if you are new to my books: many Hispanic writers have books with a political edge to them. You won’t find much of that here. Some other Hispanic writers write with a heavy seasoning of Hispanic culture. You won’t find that in my books either. My family came to the United States in the 1800s  to work and have a better life. We left everything at home except for our tortillas, our rosaries, and our love of laughter. Storytelling comes naturally to us; I’m carrying on the tradition. The only difference is I tell my stories in print.

 

I hope you enjoy my stories. I love to hear from my readers. You can contact me here:

 

JanelleMHooper@comcast.net

 

Many thanks,Janelle

 

Note: the little ceramics you see throughout the site are a part of my collection. They remind me of Oklahoma and make me smile.

Awards

For A Three-Turtle Summer:

• 2002 Bold Media Book Award, fiction

For As Brown As I Want, The Indianhead Diaries:

• 1999 Surrey Writing Contest, 1st place fiction
• 2004 Oklahoma Book Award finalist

and more...