Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to JoAnn Stringer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

JoAnn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Five years ago, an author friend of mine invited me to dinner. I figured we’d catch up about life and lament about writing. Boy was I wrong. This friend had met a woman who ran an organization that rescued people from s*x trafficking and helped them reintegrate into the world. They were searching for people from our state and our cities.
Note this was long before the movie The Sound of Freedom came out.
I was blown away. Of course I knew it happened, but had never looked too closely. Like many of us, for me ignorance was bliss. That night my friend destroyed my ignorance, and I’ll be forever grateful.
My friend said she wanted to join the fight, and asked me if I would be willing to write a book and contribute the proceeds to this organization.
Duh. Yes. When do you want it?
Our original idea was to write sweet romances, which I write under my pen name Karly Stratford, and donate the money.
Then, through a series of chance meetings and research, our mission changed. Sure, we could produce a set of romances that made money for organizations that fought trafficking, or we could write books that made a difference, maybe even saving someone from being lured away from their life and their homes in the first place.
We wanted to tell stories that would keep children safe, as well as help their parents understand the dangers their families constantly face.
At this point there were three of us, and we were a bit dumbfounded. How could we write books about human trafficking that weren’t filled with horrible content that teens would read?
After a few weeks, we came up with idea. If you remember the old 21 Jump Street, with Johnny Depp, you’ll know that young-looking cops got sent undercover into high schools to sniff out drug and theft rings. In the process they usually helped teens who were in trouble.
What if we used young trafficking survivors as our 21 Jump Street-type teams, and they went into high schools to help kids who are being targeted by predators? That way we could tell a story that would be familiar to teens, as well as explore a victim of trafficking after they’d gotten out.
It took a lot of work, praying, planning and coordinating, but in the end it all came together!
I’m not often public about my religious beliefs, but I certainly felt a divine hand holding mine more than once as I researched this brutal topic, planned my book, and then wrote it. There was plenty of opposition as we fought to get this project finished and out to the world.
I’ve written a lot of books, but I’m probably the proudest of #Lured.
This book was meant to make people a little bit uncomfortable, but it’s also supposed to give people a better understanding of the process predators use to lure people into their traps. The internet isn’t going anywhere, and the best defense against it is open communication with our children, other family members, and friends and as much knowledge as you can gather about the dangers that lurk behind the screen.
Since publishing this series, the other authors and I have given the books to an organization that specifically talks to kids about the dangers of the internet and trafficking. Right now the series is in the process of being rebranded and reprinted to match the rest of the material this organization is sending into schools.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Unlike many authors, I didn’t always want to be a writer. I went to college for drafting and spent almost twenty years working in the engineering departments for a number of different lighting manufacturers. Facing problems like how to get a light bulb out of a tiny wall sconce or how to get a twelve-foot chandelier through a six-foot door was my life for eight hours a day, and I loved it. I still love solving problems.
But somewhere in the middle of all of that engineering, I decided I wanted to change directions. I’d always loved reading, and I’d dabbled in telling stories, but only for fun.
Then, a friend of mine invited me to join her writing group.
This was the first step of my slippery slope into becoming an author.
A member of the aforementioned group told me about NanoWrimo, which is the challenge of writing a 50k novel in the month of November…because you’re insane.
Well, I did it. I wrote a craptastic fantasy novel—which will never see the light of day—that November, and once I knew I was actually capable of producing that many words that mostly made sense, I was off.
It took another five years, and a lot more craptastic stories, to complete a manuscript that I sent to agents. Two years later, my first book, New Sight, was published by a small press.
Since then I’ve written more than fifty books! (That still feels unreal to me.) My young adult novels and novellas feature characters you want to hang out with who I put into impossible situations that require stretching beyond their comfort zones to get out of.
I’m a bit of an action junkie, so most of my YA stories include fight scenes and fun action sequences. I’ve got a black belt in Shaolin Kenpo, and that only feeds the fire.
My latest romances are a set of curvy girl romcoms. Being a plus sized woman myself, I’ve had a blast writing about the real-life struggles of women who are bigger than a size ten. The books are full of heartwarming moments and hilarious situations.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

A few years ago, I saw a meme about this that illustrates how I feel perfectly. It asked why it was more common for a person to spend $10 on coffee each morning rather than buying a book. The coffee only lasts a few hours, but a good story can stay with you forever. I’m not knocking coffee, I love me my morning caffeine, but there’s a lesson there. If you want to support a creative, encourage them. You can do that through a message or a comment on social media, telling others about their work, or buying their stuff.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

A few months ago, I was signing books at a convention, and a woman stopped at my table and stared hard at one of my book covers. I gave her a moment before I asked, “Do you like to read?” (It’s an easy conversation starter.)
She looked up at me and, to my surprise, her eyes were glistening with tears.
I braced myself. Once in a while at a signing you end up talking to someone who needs a random friend who will listen.
That was not the case. This woman smiled and asked, “Are you Karly?”
I said yes.
She then proceeded to tell me how much she’d loved my curvy girl books. They had given her hope that she could find love, even though she wasn’t the ideal Hollywood size.
That was a breath of fresh air! To know that I’d actually inspired someone was amazing.
Another woman wrote in a review that because one of my characters was a glass blower she’d finally decided to sign up for a glass blowing class–something she’d been wanting to do for years.
This is the most rewarding thing for me. Knowing that something I’ve written has helped someone else is awesome.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://joannschneider.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorkarlystratford/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoannSchneiderAuthor/