Joëlle started out life in Portland, Oregon as a talker, then a reader, eventually a writer, and by her teen years, the sirens of the stage were calling her name. With a BA in theatre, and absolutely no other marketable skills (not even waitressing), she got some headshots made and called herself an actress. Believe it or not, some people fell for it, and if you look really closely, and don’t blink, you can see her in movies like What The Bleep Do We Know?and The Temp. The desire to write remained strong though and in between acting gigs, she began to scribble down her first novel for teens (which permanently resides in a drawer). Aside from her stellar film career, she did have a very good run as Marina Galino in the Hey City Theater production of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, where she got to improvise to her heart’s content, dance like a madwoman every night in a hot pink dress, AND get paid for it! Check out her dancing skills by clicking on the video link below.

Click Here for Video

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As fulfilling as those roles were, she decided to make a career change. In an attempt to avoid getting a real job, Joëlle built a writing cabin and had some business cards printed up that said “writer” on them. Believe it or not, some people fell for that too (after about twenty years of really hard work), and now she is one. She eventually signed on with agent Michael Bourret at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. Her debut novel, Restoring Harmony, was long listed for the American Library Association’s Best New Young Adult Fiction 2010, and chosen as the Feature Title for Cincinnati’s Teen on the Same Page Festival 2012. Her second release, The Right & the Real also made ALA’s Best YA Fiction list for 2012, and is available now, both from Putnam. Her third novel, a YA published under the pen name J. M. Kelly called Speed of Life was hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as: a believable portrait of blue-collar teens struggling to make it work against tough odds and is a 2018 White Pine Nominee. Her first Middle Grade, A Month of Mondays was released March 7^th, 2017. She enjoys teaching writing workshops to writers of all ages. Visit her on the web at www.joelleanthony.com Follow her on Twitter @joellewrites

Check out her articles on writing and other topics.

She finally has her dream writing cabin. Check out the video.

My writing cabin

Pretty cool, eh?

This is me in my front yard feeding Buckaroo a carrot (I know now not to feed the deer as it’s not good for them, and also it’s a lot more dangerous than I first realized. But this is an old picture and I love it!).