BIO
Joy is an author and freelance literary professional who has been working in the industry for over a decade, including ghostwriting novels for a USA Today bestselling author. She formats print and e-books, edits children's books, and provides coaching and networking assistance for other professional writers.
Several of her short stories have appeared in anthologies with bestselling authors published by Wordfire Press and Prolific Ink. Joy has received several awards, including the Silver Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest and Honorable Mention in the YA fiction category of the 92nd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition for Linebacker Beauty Queen.
When she is not writing, Joy works as a weight training and kickboxing instructor in Saint Paul, MN.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Linebacker Beauty Queen
Nothing terrifies sixteen-year-old Eve more than turning into her divorced, alcoholic mother and living a miserable life of regret and broken dreams. Eve has one goal: get out of this podunk Oklahoma town that will shove her into a mold she’ll never fit. Unfortunately, her mother is equally committed to sabotaging any attempt Eve makes toward independence.
Just when Eve believes nothing can stop her from kicking ass all the way to college, she’s sidelined by rejection after rejection for basketball scholarships. Never one to quit before the final whistle, Eve needs a Hail Mary, and she finds it in football. Since her mom will never let Eve endanger herself on the football field, Eve schemes her way onto the roster, distracting her mother by entering a statewide beauty pageant as a backup plan.
Eve’s perfect plot quickly devolves into a balancing act that requires lying to her mother, her teammates, her friends, and herself. The more she divides herself into boxes to make everyone happy, the more things go awry, leading Eve to the ultimate realization that she’ll never thrive like she hopes to unless she embraces herself first.
LINEBACKER BEAUTY QUEEN is a young adult novel based on Joy's senior year experience playing high school football & winning Miss Teenage Oklahoma.
FEATURED
Check out Joy's appearance on The History of Sex podcast discussing gender roles, identification, and why she has decided to write this story now.
