We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joy Brannan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joy , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
From a small age to young adult hood, I’ve always had a passion to write stories and poetry. My mom saw this talent in me and start keeping all of my writings in a storage bin. We would occasionally take out that storage bin and read my writings. I amazed myself to see how talented I was as a young child. Of course we thought, it’s a no brainer I would be an author or a journalist right after college right? But sometimes life just doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would. When I began working, I was far from my passion. Years down the line I became an elementary school teacher. As a teacher, you’re reading books to children everyday and you’re teaching them how to write different kinds of literary genres. One day it dawned on me, why am I not writing? How can I use my talent in the field of work I’m in now? It became very clear to me to take a risk and start writing children’s books. At first I didn’t know what type of children’s books I would write but I knew I wanted my books to be different. I finally came up with an idea to write short inspirational stories and ending the story with a poem that kids can relate to today. Finding an illustrator on my own was work but I eventually found an illustrator who works wonders. Now that the illustrator was on my team, my next step was how would I publish my books? Well, I decided to publish my own books with Amazon and Barnes & Nobles. Yes, self publish is more work on yourself because you’re doing all of your own marketing but it is less cost efficient. Paying a publishing company can be costly but it saves you from doing all the legwork. I don’t regret the risks I’ve taken so far because it helped me learn things about being an author. I’m proud to say I have two books published right now, titled Sunshine and Different. I know I still have a lot to learn because my writing doesn’t stop here.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m originally from Jacksonville, FL but became a Georgia resident in my early twenties. I’ve always had a passion to write stories and I’m so happy I took the risk to start writing again. I have two children’s books published on Amazon titled Sunshine and Different. My book titled Sunshine can be found at Barnes&Nobles printed hardcover.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
What’s most rewarding about my work as a a children’s author is that my stories inspire young minds. Not only are children inspired but they can relate to my stories and see the positive outcome or have confidence in who they are. Many children struggle with how to come up with solutions when dealing with issues at school with other children, differences, race, etc… Reading at different schools, children have come to me and said my stories helped them think about positive ways to handle certain situations or how it made them think about being more confident. Although my books are elementary level, lessons can be learned by all ages.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being a teacher I see a lot of situations children encounter. When I’ve visited schools to read my books, I’ve had kids say they were able to relate. They’ll tell me something they learned and how they can use what they’ve learned in real life. That’s very rewarding to me. My goal is to continue to write realistic fiction stories that inspire all children in some type of way. In the near future I would like my books to be in schools that can be used by counselors and teachers to promote zero tolerance with bullying, confidence, being new kid in town, social skills etc..
Contact Info:
- Instagram: mella_fl_81