Janet Hayward Burnham, who studied creative writing and art at Columbia University, is not new at the writing game. She is a long time author who first began to see her work in print in 1970 in Vermont Life magazine. Since then, she has published countless articles as well as a number of books for young adults, which she characterizes as "sweet romances" set in rural areas.

Among these is "Love in the Mountains," about a young woman who buys a house in Vermont and falls in love with a writer, and "Love Takes a Country Road," about a young widow with two children who moves to a house she inherits in Vermont, and ends up falling in love and marrying a game warden. Both books were published in Great Britain and subsequently translated into Norwegian and Swedish for sale in Scandinavia.

As an author, Burnham often uses pseudonyms, such as Cathryn Hathaway and Jesse Mina Scott, although her books printed through the My Little Jessie Press will carry her true name, Janet Hayward Burnham.

A trained artist, Burnham illustrates her own work. Although "Jeremy the Puny" only carries a few of her black and white line drawings, the My Little Jessie Press’ next publication will be a picture book full of Burnham’s richly colored and minutely detailed artwork. That book, "The Dragoness Mess," is for an even younger audience (pre-kindergarten to six years old).

Burnham functions as volunteer adviser and literary agent for the "Mud Season Writers," a group of aspiring authors who have been meeting in Bethel, VT. every couple of weeks for the past few years.