Joan grew up in Chicago, studied voice at Northwestern University, and then moved to Minnesota, where she finished her degree at Metropolitan State University, changing her major to the arts and including anything and everything to help her with her writing. She lives in Inver Grove Heights, a suburb of St. Paul and has been writing for years. She uses all the arts-music, art and writing-in her books by way of her characters. She joined RWA and then KOD and its critique group, Lethaladies, in 2005. She also is a member of the Hearts through History chapter and its critique group, HHRWcritters,...