Monday, December 2, 2013

Pitch Wars Author Bio!

I am SO excited to have thrown my hat into the ring for Pitch Wars this year! Jumping on the #PimpMyBio bandwagon as well, so here goes:

I've been writing since I was six years old. I entered lots of writing contests as a kid and submitted to the (small) pool of magazines that accepted children's stories back in the day. I got published in Stone Soup when I was thirteen, and won fourth place and an honorable mention, respectively, in the Written and Illustrated By… competition when I was fourteen and fifteen.

Since 2005, I've written almost six full novels and parts of three others.

My Pitch War submission is a novel I first drafted in January of 2010, and it took about six weeks to write. I creeped myself out in several parts whilst writing it, which I took to be a good sign.

I have a lot of favorite books, but if pressed I'd say my favorite is Return of the King. I adore Jane Austen, I love George Eliot's Middlemarch, and I'm completely obsessed with Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series (I need the next book NOW!!). A few years ago, I got to (briefly) meet Gail Carson Levine at a book talk, and she signed my copy of Ella Enchanted, which made my not-really-all-that-inner-twelve-year-old VERY happy.

I've been teaching piano lessons for almost fifteen years, and have a 6' 1" Yamaha grand named Prince Imrahil in the living room of the apartment I share with my awesome husband. It's not as crowded as you might think. :-)

I love seasons, rain, and trees, and I live in Gilbert, Arizona, which unfortunately has none of those things. Bring me to a rainy green forest and I'll be your friend for life. Fill that forest with black currant tea and Oreo cookies and books and cats, and we'll be BEST friends for life.

Also, I have an adorable kitty named Bertram:



Oh, and once I went to Edinburgh and found the TARDIS:


I think that about sums it up. :-)

Onward to the Pitch Wars!!!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks Joanna!Good luck to you as well!!

Katie O'Shea said...

*waves hello!* Thanks for your comment! Good to meet you! I also think that Jane Austen is the best ;) Best of luck to you too!

Leila said...

Thank you and good luck to you as well!

Wendy Spinale said...

Good luck to you! I have my fingers crossed!

Chris said...

I definitely agree that creeping yourself out while writing is a good sign--experiencing a little of that with my current work-in-progress. Best of luck with Pitch Wars! You certainly seem well prepared for it.

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

Thanks for all the well wishes!! :-)

Suzi said...

I would love to have a grand piano. Maybe if I did, I'd play more. Or maybe it'd just sit there like our non-grand piano does. :)

Good luck in Pitch Wars.

E.G. Moore said...

Nice to meet you! Would love to network with you via twitter and blogs. What novel did you submit for pitchwars? Best wishes for your pitchwars endeavor!

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

That would be great! I'm @gamwyn on twitter, feel free to follow and I'll do the same!!

Danielle Pajak said...

Awesome bio. I hadn't realized you had met the author of Ella Enchanted! That is so awesome! It kind of reminds me of how I felt at the Phoenix Comicon this past year. I got to hear two of my favorite Star Wars authors from when I was 16 talk about writing in the fantasy genre (you would have loved it actually). My inner-sixteen-year-old self was very happy about that. Haha. Anyway, lovely post and I really adore that picture of Bertram! What a sweet thing to see whilst writing! ;) Oh, also, your comment about Megan Whalen Turner's next Queen's Thief series, totally agree. Needs to happen!!! Haha.