MoA&A Interview #18: Joyce Lamb

Hello, everyone! Welcome to July, and the Month of Artist and Author Interviews here on the website!

Today’s interview features one of the most fun women I’ve met this year: Joyce Lamb. You may know Joyce from USA Today’s “Happy Ever After” romance blog, or from her books that have garnered multiple RITA Award nominations (two this year!).

I had the pleasure of introducing Joyce at her panel for this year’s WRW Retreat, and in honor of her blog being called “Happy Ever After” in this, the the Year of the Fairy Tale, I took a chance and wrote her a fairy tale. (Friends told me she had a great sense of humor…which you’re about to experience.)

Thankfully, not only did she NOT send crows to peck out my liver, but she also added me to her roster of “author brains to pick for her articles” and agreed to contribute the following interview for this month’s celebration as well, for which I thank her so much.

Take it away, Joyce!

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Author or Artist?
Author.

Who are your professional role models?
So many! Nora Roberts, of course. I learned a lot about writing by studying her romantic suspense, especially character development and the way she puts a story together. Dean Koontz, too. I love the way he writes dialogue. From Susan Elizabeth Phillips, I learned that humor doesn’t have to be slapstick to be really funny.

What’s your favorite writing/sketching weather?
Gloomy and rainy. If it’s sunny and beautiful outside, then I have a really hard time concentrating. Of course, I have a hard time concentrating even when it’s gloomy and rainy, because that’s also perfect couch potato weather. It’s a wonder I get any writing done!

Set your current playlist/musical device to “shuffle all” and hit PLAY. What’s the first song that comes up?
When You’re Young (Acoustic Version) by 3 Doors Down.

If you could win any award, which would it be?
I certainly wouldn’t mind winning a RITA! However, I’d love to win the Nobel Peace Prize, because that would mean I’d done something really, really wonderful for the world. I’m not that selfless, so it’s going to happen, but you did say ANY award, right? : )

Would you rather have magical powers, or a spaceship?
Magical powers, please. Space just looks dark and dangerous: I’ve seen the Alien movies. And, hey, if I had magical powers, couldn’t I zap myself into space any time I wanted? Not that I would … those Alien movies really made an impression.

What was your favorite book as a child?
Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever. I loved that book! Probably because of the variety of stories and the fact that it was nice and thick, so I never got bored. Yes, I still have a very short attention span. I love that book so much that after I wore it out as a kid, I bought it again as an adult.

What thing do you wish you could go back in time and tell your 10-year-old self?
Don’t take yourself so seriously. Seriously, Joyce, knock it off. And smile, damn it. And when it comes time to cut the green or blue wire, cut the green one.

What’s your favorite constellation?
Cassiopeia. It looks to me like a very excited stick figure running across the sky.

What’s your favorite fairy tale?
Beauty and the Beast. My favorite interpretation is A Rose in Winter by Kathleen Woodiwiss. I also really enjoy the Disney version.

What thing are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of my friendships. I have an incredible circle of friends from high school, another amazing circle of writer friends and yet another lovely group of friends I’ve made through my journalism career. I have a pretty cool family, too. : ) And lest you think I’m a horrible mother for not saying my kids are what I’m most proud of: I don’t have any!

The Colin Harvey Memorial Question: Name 3 things on your List of Things to Do Before You Die.
I suppose I should make that list, huh? Three things that would be on it: Live in a house on the beach, visit the Grand Canyon and learn to play piano.

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Joyce’s Fairy Tale Bio, by Alethea Kontis: Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Joyce who loved tragedy so much that she tried to live a tragic life. So, naturally, she decided to write romance novels.

These novels went on to win multiple awards (like the Daphne and the HOLT Medallion). They finaled in Multiple RITAs (two this year!). She launched a blog for a certain little media outlet…and now everyone in the industry knows her name.

At the task of living tragically, Joyce Lamb FAILED MISERABLY. And so she was doomed to live, instead, Happy Ever After.