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Highland Instructor Has Book Published

published May 7, 2015Highland Instructor Has Book Published

Highland Instructor Has Book Published

Janet Stotts, published as Janet Jenkins-Stotts, has been an educator at Highland Community College since 1999, and has written a novel, The Orchid Garden.  The Orchid Garden is loosely based on the adoption of Chinese girls. In 2002, Stotts accompanied her daughter, who was adopting a little girl, to China. Stotts went along to assist in the process and bring home a granddaughter. That granddaughter was 11 months old at the time and is now 13 years old.

According to Stotts, the writing of the novel “was really a fluke”.  The book started when the National Novel Writers Month organization solicited writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Stotts took on that challenge and submitted a part of what was to become the novel, completed the competition, and received a certificate. After that, she was encouraged enough to finish this first novel.

At the College, in addition to College English I and II, Stotts has taught Anthropology, American Literature, Creative Writing, and Public Speaking.  As a writer, she is a member of the Kansas Authors Club and Kansas Writers Inc. She has also participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a national event hosted by the Topeka Public Library called Community Novels. The premise is laid out and one or two characters are named, then several writers each write a chapter using the previous chapter and characters to write the next chapter and complete a novel. She has participated in this event twice.

Prior to teaching at the College, Stotts spent 10 years at the Kansas State Board of Education where she was responsible for the Adult Education and GED Programs.  When she isn’t writing or gardening, she is having fun with her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Stotts will retire from her adjunct teaching position in May.

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