Traces the life and achievements of the twentieth-century African American novelist, whose early life was shaped by a strict grandmother who had been a slave, an illiterate father, and a mother educated as a schoolteacher.
For ten years, Joyce has been writing nonfiction books for various publishers. But one day, her daughter asked whatever happened to the dream of being a fiction writer, the author of one of her own stories. That question hit a nerve.
Joyce had studied creative writing in college, had attended many writing conferences, and even had won a scholarship to a month-long residence at a writers' retreat. What indeed had happened to that dream?
So last year, Joyce began protecting her writing time so that she always made room for her own creativity. After all, she also taught creative writing, and it was time that she followed her own advice. In August 2009, Joyce's first short story was published. In December, her second short story won honorable mention in a Glimmer Train writing contest. And by the end of summer 2010, Joyce plans to have her first novel sent on its way to some lucky publisher. The novel has been a lot of fun to write. The story is set in Hawaii, in a small village on the Big Island where Joyce lived for seven years. The three female characters came to Joyce in a dream and have lived in her imagination ever since.
The short stories will continue flowing out into the world as will a second novel that Joyce plans to begin next fall about a mysterious Native American man who falls in love while searching for his roots.
Joyce lives in the Pacific Northwest on top of a hill that often gets snowed on while the land around her remains green. Her daughter, a pianist and singer/songwriter, lives with her. They share long walks through the woods every morning with their dogs. Then they all come home and hunker down to their own creative work. Joyce retires to the computer, her daughter to the piano, and the dogs, well, they retire to their dreams.
