Joy, a Nova Scotian, graduated from high school at sixteen.  Too young for nursing college, she took a commercial course at the local school, Oxford Regional High School.  Achieving a high speed in shorthand, her instructor suggested court reporting.  She travelled to Halifax, and after testing, was hired as an Official Court Reporter at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.  She was the youngest practicing official court reporter in Canada at the age of seventeen years.  Although accepted into the nursing program at the Halifax Infirmary, she decided to remain in court reporting.  Her career took her to Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.   She later attended the University of Alberta, and in 1985 moved to Halifax, to study law at Dalhousie University.  She articled and worked for the Attorney General's Department.  She went into private practice in Nova Scotia, and eventually came to the west coast and practiced law in British Columbia. 

 

During her varied career in law, she always had a desire to write, and as a child had written poetry.  She was a Julia Cameron fan, and even as a busy lawyer, worked on her "morning pages".   She always knew that at some stage in her career, she would turn to the pen.  

 

She was environmentally poisoned in a sick building in Nova Scotia in 1990, and with great courage recovered, but was never the same.  It was at that time, that she came to a stark realization of how the water, air and food were gradually more contaminated.  

 

The practice of law, through a series of tragic events, accidents and illness, took its toll on her.  She had always had a deep connection to the land and its creatures.  At a time of her deepest pain, Fellowship emerged as a bright beam in the darkest night.  It served to heal her soul, and she believes that it will heal the souls of others who have lost hope or who are struggling with fear and gloom.

 

She has used the genre of fantasy/science fiction to raise social consciousness to understand that we are all part of a whole, that the earth is a living entity and of our interconnectedness to all life.

 

As "Fellowship" emerged, it took on a life of its own, and she with pen and note book in hand, wrote the words that flowed effortlessly.  As she immersed herself in the work, despite ongoing accidents, including two concussions, broken right hand and wrist, and two bouts of cancer, she continued to write.  She, along with Michael, was fighting her dragons!

 

Recognizing the incredible power of the mind, in 2012 she studied clinical hypnotherapy, and is now a licensed clinical hypnotherapist as well as a writer.

 

As she watches the earth being ravaged and destroyed environmentally, she believes that the time is right for the emergence of the "Fellowship".  There is a growing awareness and concern that so called "progress" at any cost is not what is in the best interests of our planet. 

 

As Athena says to Michael:  "From small things, great things come to pass. Never underestimate the power of one."