About AJ Riall | World of Joy's Scribe

I’m Joy Riall, and I am a creative junkie who so happens to be a mom first! As well as a chronic project lover, and someone who has always believed that everyone loves a story, you just have to find your genre!

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I love to learn new things, and I notice people. I notice and keep mental notes of the little things they do, the things they don’t say, and the moments that probably seem insignificant to everyone else. Those are usually the moments that stick with me.

 

I’m also a bit of a contradiction. I’m practical and creative. Independent but deeply sentimental. I can spend a day solving problems, organizing chaos, or figuring out how something is built, and then still have the energy to stay up far too late because two fictional people have decided they need to have a conversation.

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I love humor, especially the kind that comes from ordinary life going slightly sideways. I love small towns, old houses, history, the Pacific Northwest, people who show up for one another, and characters who are imperfect enough to feel real.

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My family is at the center of who I am. Being a mom has shaped the way I see love, change, resilience, and all the strange seasons life takes me through. Family and friends are my biggest cheerleaders when it comes to writing, which makes pursuing this dream mean even more.

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Life has taught me that starting over doesn’t belong exclusively to the young. Side quests in life ensure that you reach a point where the life you imagined looks completely different from the one you had to pivot to. At least that is what happened to me. Though the path was challenging, and... at times terrifying, I have found that I grew and pushed right through it. I found that I finally had the freedom to decide what was best for me.

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This belief finds its way into my stories.

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I write about people finding home, love, friendship, purpose, and themselves, usually with some laughter, awkwardness, stubbornness, real life, and maybe... just a little bit of magic or problem-solving mixed in.

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I don’t have everything figured out, but as a pantser, that’s how I expect my stories to play out anyway.