Janet Nichols Lynch, born and raised in Sacramento, California, is the author of seven books.  Her upcoming titles are Chest Pains, a mainstream novel from Bridge Works, February 2009, and Messed Up, a young adult novel from Holiday House, April 2009. Her works include the young adult novel Peace is a Four-letter Word (Heyday Books 2005), a short story collection, Where Words Leave Off Music Begins (iUniverse, 2004), two nonfiction books about music for young readers, American Music Makers: An Introduction to American Composers (Walker, 1990) and Women Music Makers:  An Introduction to Women Composers (Walker, 1992), and the juvenile novel Casey Wooster’s Pet Care Service (Atheneum, 1993). 

        In 1984 Janet’s first published short story appeared in The New Yorker, and since then her fiction has been included in Seventeen, The San Joaquin Review, The Baltimore Review, Confrontation, Writer’s Forum, and the anthology of California writers Highway 99:  a Literary Journey through California’s Great Central Valley.  For the past eleven years, Janet has read her fiction on Valley Public Radio’s (KVPR, Fresno and KVPX Bakersfield FM 89.3)Valley Writers Read, hosted by Franz Weinschenk.

          Janet received a B.A. in Music from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Music Degree in Piano from Arizona State University, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, where she was the 2003 Outstanding Thesis Award Nominee for the College of Arts and Humanities.  She has taught music at De Anza College and Skyline College and music and English at College of the Sequoias; currently she teaches English at El Diamante High school.  She competes in marathons and triathlons, and once rode her bike from Phoenix, AZ to Washington, D.C.  She lives in Visalia with her husband, Timothy, and their college-age children, Caitlin and Sean.

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