I did something a little extra...

One thing about being an author that is such a dream come true, is holding your finished product in your hand. And like, a pretty copy. That dream has come true!

I have two events coming up and Igniting Fae Flames and Stars isn't quite ready for publication. I didn't want to show up to FanX without anything new, so I decided to do a pretty, special edition hardcover omnibus of the entire In Her Dreams series. 

It is BEAUTIFUL!

It's jacketed with the original cover art that is velvety to the touch, and I finally used the gorgeous artwork I've been sitting on for a couple of years for the naked hardback. It has plum-colored custom sprayed edges with white roses and damask endpapers.

It's also massive! Over 800 pages of the entire trilogy, plus the prequel short story First Dreamsin print publication for the first time!

Curious how to get your hands on one? 

Find me at these events:

Tooele Renaissance Faire - Tooele, Utah

September 18-19

FanX - Salt Lake City, Utah

September 24-26

My cover designer will be working on Igniting Fae Flames and Stars soon so I hope to be sharing that in a near-future email. I'm steadily writing it, getting into a good groove and I also hope to have it up for preorder soon, so watch for that! 😉

On a personal note, I've decided to homeschool my kids this year and it is going fantastic! They're grades five and seven and I've been assigning them books to read so I'm diving back into middle-grade books. It's been fun getting back to the books I read when I was a kid.

I'm in a much better place now than I was at the beginning of 2026 so hopefully you'll start hearing from me more often again.

And if you're curious about my non-fiction writing, I've started posting regularly again on my Substack about my kiddo. 

(The picture on this post is from the Cedar City Rennaissance Faire. I love dressing like a Queen!)

Wintering

This winter has been a season of wintering in the truest sense — not the cozy, picture-perfect kind, all curled up by the fire with a beloved book, but the kind where life forces you to slow down and turn inward.

Between a stretch of illness (the flu followed by pneumonia — 0/10, do not recommend 😅), I’ve also been navigating a difficult personal season that has taken a lot of time and emotional energy. It has reminded me that in certain seasons of life, survival and rest are more than enough.

Because of that, I didn’t make New Year’s resolutions this year.

Instead, I’m letting my “new year” begin with the first day of spring.

There’s something comforting about honoring the natural rhythm of things — the idea that growth doesn’t happen in the depths of winter, even when the world tells us it should. Wintering has been about tending the smallest sparks and trusting that beneath the surface, strength is still quietly building.

And there is a small spark of light ahead ✨
My big creative hope this year is to finish IGNITING FAE FLAMES AND SECRETS and have it in book form for FanX this September. Having something hopeful to move toward feels a bit like spotting the first green shoot after a long winter.

If you’re in your own season of wintering — or if you’re starting to feel the thaw — I’d love to hear from you. You can always hit reply and tell me what you’re hoping for this spring. I read every message, and hearing from you truly makes my day.

Thank you for being here, for reading, and for giving me the space to move at a human pace. 

It's been a while, hasn't it?

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Life has me juggling a few new adventures, but I'm still here. I'm still writing--though slowly--as I've adjusted to my new daily routine. 

When I began working at the elementary school, I thought it would take a couple of weeks to adjust before I'd be able to add other things back in (writing, VA work, etc.) but I was WRONG. I work in a classroom with special needs kids. Most are non-verbal and all have big challenges . The first few weeks I came home and just zoned out! I was so exhausted physically and mentally. But I love working with the kids!

It took some time before I was able to feel like I could function after work and even longer before I could begin writing again.

To be honest, I didn't want to write for a while. When I finally voiced that to some of my author besties, it broke the spell and my desire to write came back.

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You may recognize some of these faces…

 Once upon a time when the world shut down due to Covid, an author acquaintence suggested a bunch of us have a chat over zoom. I was terrified to chat over video with online aquaintences, but joined. That friendly call turned into a few more, which then turned into a mastermind group of thirteen author women (some of us were the hosts of the Reading Queens Podcast, you might remember if you've been here for a while), and we all became the best of friends.

We lived all over the world, so the chances of meeting all together in person seemed like an impossibilty.

Until we decided it wasn't.

Top (left to right): Clarissa Gosling, K.C. Cordell, Alison Ingleby, Charlie N. Holmberg, Kay L. Moody

Bottom (left to right): Rose Garcia, Hanna Sandvig, Kristin J. Dawson, Joanna Reeder, Stacey Trombley, Valia LInd, Abby J. Reed.

Twelve of the thirteen of us met in Colorado in August for the most incredible Queen's Retreat hosted by the amazing Abby J. Reed. We laughed, cried (I cried a lot), wrote stories, brainstormed, went shopping together, mastered escape rooms, and spotted dozens of shooting stars. 

More than two months later, I'm still riding the high from that incredible week.

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Despite being so busy with a new job, I did attend FanX in Salt Lake City in September. It was so fun to see some familar faces and connect with readers!

I'm hoping to do one more event this year. I'll share details when I know more!

The Siren Prophecy Special Editions

I've decided to make a career pivot...

For many years, writing has been my "full-time" gig. Actually, my full time job has been my kids, but I haven't had a "day job" since I was pregnant with my youngest (who just turned nine). But a lot of my time has been spent writing and building my author career.

 Literature and writing have always been my passion so I've decided to go back to school and get my teaching degree. I have an English degree, so I plan to get my masters and teach English in a secondary classroom. Teaching has always been a dream and I'm now in a season of my life where it's a good time to pursue it.

I have no intention to quit writing.

But I'll be working in an elementary school part-time beginning next month to help with bills and I'll be starting my classes soon after. With my changing schedule, my writing time will be limited for the near future.

I plan to finish Igniting Fae Flames and Stars as soon as possible--before I begin my masters program.

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The Siren Prophecy is getting special editions!

Follow our Kickstarter <— to be notified upon launch.

The Dream...

Have you ever gone through a transitional time in your life where you feel like the path you're on isn't the best one? Or that it isn't working like you wanted? Or that even though it's you're dream, there are some things that are more important?

I've been in the publishing world for more than seven years and it has changed me in ways I never could have imagined. The connections I've made and the things I've pushed myself to do--stepping far out of my comfort zone--has had such an incredible impact on my life. 

Long story short--once upon a time I learned that making connections in the publishing industry was essential. It was a painfully terrifying truth. Step by step, I did it. Pushing myself into scary situations. From my first writing conference, to publishing a book, to my first book signing, then connecting with authors online and over Zoom during the pandemic. Then came the podcast. I could have said I wouldn't do it. I didn't have to do it. Talking on a podcast was such a scary thing. But I did it and by doing it, interviews weren't so terrifying anymore either. 

I could go on. There's more, but I'll stop there. 

Earlier this year I was running all my 2024 numbers--royalties, book sales, expenses, etc. In doing this, I realized that for the first year since I began publishing in 2018, my author business didn't perform at a loss. I made more in royalties and book sales than I ever had and I made a tiny profit. 

But in looking at my family expenses with my husband, my tiny profit with my books isn't enough. With the economy and our personal situation, I need to find a way to bring in more income. 

Here's the part that ties into my question at the top. Writing books and doing this author thing full time is my DREAM. It's a dream that has proven to be even more amazing than I could have imagined as a nine-year old girl who wanted to be an author. But my family needs me. 

So I took a few weeks to mourn this working out the way I want. After talking with a dear friend, I'm working on a solution* that would allow me to still have time for my writing while doing other work to help pay the bills (and still have time for my kids and family). 

I pray it works. If it does, you won't see much change around here. I'll still send out regular newsletters. I'll still be writing and posting on Ream. I'll still be at book events and book signings. 

I'm still sad that this isn't exactly how I wanted things to turn out (make enough so my husband can leave his 9-5 and sell real estate full time), but I'm hopeful. I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone again and I hope that I can look back in seven years and be thankful for this next chapter.

I hope you'll join me!

I've been working on some things for several weeks and now it's time to tell you about the changes and begin implementing them. I'm very excited about these plans, but it means some things will be changing here on my blog.

I love writing these posts and connecting with all of you. However, my time is very limited. I'm a mother of three young kids--one who has special needs--and I need to pivot and use my time and energy more wisely. 

That doesn't mean I won't be writing weekly posts. In fact, I hope to write more thoughtful posts each week. But that writing will in my Ream community. (I will likely post snippets here).

What you can expect from me , is a monthly post with brief updates of my writing, upcoming events, occasional giveaways, book promotions, and recommendations. (You'll likely hear from me more often around book releases, Kickstarters, etc.) 

I want to make Ream my homebase--the place where readers and I can connect with each other. (And readers can connect with other readers!)

It means that I will be sharing more and doing more there, but it also means that I won't be sharing as much with free followers. I understand that not everyone can support a writer, but please understand that I need to do what's best for me and my family. 

My tiers are changing soon, but they'll look like this on April 1st and start at just $1/month. (Use the code: 1SWEETREEDER in the Sweet Reeder tier to get $1/month for 6 months)

Do you love social media? 👍 Or hate it? 👎

Do you follow me on Instagram or Facebook? If you do, you might've noticed I've been very MIA on both of those for the past several months. I tried to get back into it a few weeks ago, but then fell off again. 

I used to post regularly on both and it was ‘easy’ to get content posted, but when life got busy, social media was the thing that had to go. And, unfortunately, I can't seem to get back into it.

If you're a follower or subscriber on my Ream, however, you know that I post there all the time. With the recent read a thon, there were posts nearly every single day for four weeks. 

I'm finding that I enjoy that platform mostly because I'm talking to people who want to be there and I'm not fighting the algorithm to reach people.

 I'm also regularly posting new chapters of Fae Thieves and Crowns on Ream. 

I don't think I'll ever be as active on social media as I used to be. I mean, never say never, but I don't see myself spending a lot of time there anymore so I can focus in other areas. (writing stories, and connecting with readers on Ream). 

As I finalize some things, I'll be making announcements. 

It's been (almost) seven years!

I'm coming up on seven years in the publishing world. Seven year ago, I was prepping for the release of my debut novel (which released in March 2018) and trying to get all the things in place. 

At the time, I had already spent more than a decade learning the craft and writing stories and novels, but I knew very little about the publishing world. I knew next to nothing about marketing and all the things it would take to find readers. I had just a small number of contacts in the business.

I have learned and grown so much since then. I've published twenty-two books! Many of those were co-written with others, but they're still mine. I'm a USA Today bestselling author. I was a Whitney Award Finalist. I've spoken on panels, been interviewed as a guest on many podcasts--even HOSTED one--and YouTube channels (my kids think I'm “YouTube famous," lol). I've gone to many successful and unsuccessful live events. I've had a Patreon subscription--now a Ream subscription and I had a successful Kickstarter last year. 

In these past seven years I've met so many wonderful people--both readers and writers. I've taken courses and gone to conferences. I'm constantly learning. And I put my heart and soul into everyting.

Don't worry, this isn't goodbye. 

 But I'm prepping a new stage of my business and you'll see some changes. Once the Read a Thon is finished in my Ream group, I'll start making some announcements and inform you of the changes.

Thank you so much for being here!

—Joanna

I did a scary thing... (but if you don't read it, it's like it never happened)

Do you make goals this time of year? I love making goals throughout the year, but there's something so fun about making new goals after the craziness of the holidays are over. 

It's also when all of that stuff that was January Joanna's problems need to get done! I'm really glad I did a lot of staying home and hanging out with my family so that I can handle it all!

I used to hate January. It was always so bleak and dark with nothing to look forward to. I also deal with SAD. But as an adult, I love getting back into the routine--and starting new ones! And, we've had a mild winter so far. I've seen the sun a lot more than is typical for this time of year.

What you can expect from me this year:

This is a scary thing, but I want to share a few of the things I have planned this year. Some are confirmed, some are in the works with soft deadlines, and some are things I hope will happen.

• January 20 - February 20: In Her Dreams Read-a-thon ←Click here

  • Where: My Ream page. I already have some of the posts and quizzes ready to go!  The last one was so much fun and it's FREE to join and read and be eligible for prizes.

• Febuary 21-22: StoryCon ←Click here

  • Event in Salt Lake City, Utah

• March/April: Siren Prophecy Special Editions Kickstarter

  • The other Shifter Academy authors and I have some super fun things planned for this!

• Mid-July: Completion of Igniting Fae Flames and Stars

  • With my chapter schedule, IFFAS should be finished posting on Ream in mid-July. Perhaps slightly sooner.

• September: FanX 2025

  • Event in Salt Lake City, Utah (There are some snags with this that may prevent me from attending this year that are out of my control, but I'll let you know as it gets closer and when I know.)

• Fall/Winter 2025: Igniting Fae Flames and Stars Kickstarter

  • This date will depend on when the Siren Prophecy Kickstarter is fulfilled.

What do you think? Are you particularly excited about one (or more) of these things? Let me know!

New Years Announcements!

Happy New Year! I didn't mean to take such a long break before posting, but I had a lovely time with my family over the holidays. I hope yours were joyful too. 

If you're a follower on Ream, then you know I was posting on that platform over the holidays and shared some exciting things that I'll share with you now!

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Title Reveal

First… is a title reveal for book three of Fae Thieves and Crowns! After polling you, my lovely readers, and my readers on Ream… then thinking and thinking over several months… and lots of re-arranging words, I finally found the perfect title for this book! (Which is halfway written if you're curious 😉).

Here it is: Igniting Fae Flames and Stars

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Read a Thon

The other thing I announced in Ream over the holidays, is an upcoming Read A Thon in my Ream for all Followers (which is FREE)! This time, we're reading In Her Dreams!