So I will describe our guest today in Taboo words and you know your job people...

1. A sucker for good action flix, she gives a good choke slam to all the cliche Knight in Shining Armor stories.

2.She is in a love hate relationship with ice cream and has a toy poodle.

3. Has an obsession of greeting her readers with weird ways of saying hello.

4. Is found wherever the WiFi is available.

Oh yes, you are right it is our beloved joymoment

Me: Hey!

Joy: Wacka doodle!

Me: Uhmm... What?

Joy: Sorry, you know that obsession...

Me: Ohhh yeah! Of course I do know.
<whispering> What did I tell you guys?

Anyway, let's start the interview.

Me: Tell us something about yourself.

Joy: I am Joy Jenkins. I grew up in an artistic family of ten. We were the type of family who wrote our own plays and musicals and put them on in the backyard.

Me: Ok that tells us about your writing.

How did you get the motivation to write?

Joy: My sister Grace was actually the one who got me into writing and the one who has kept me in my writing. She started writing a story for a friend of mine who was on his Mormon mission and that inspired me to write as well. Now the moment I've finished a chapter I send it off to her and she's the first one who reads it.

Me: A huge thanks to Grace for doing that.
How did you get to know about Wattpad?

Joy: Grace was the one who knew about Wattpad way back in 2011. It wasn't until we started really writing books in 2016 that we decided to post our work on the site.

Me: Grace, I love you! Seriously!
It is said that books are somehow related to us. Is it true in your case?

Joy: Hahaha, yes and no. My characters are bigger than life type people and I'm not. But they do have bits of me in them. Elliot has a bit of my insecurities, Gigi has my love of horses, Amelia has my love of the Flash. Those are just pieces but on the whole my characters are very much their own people. ☺️

Me: ☺️☺️
Ok, I seriously want to know this. How do you manage your busy schedule along with writing?

Joy: Habit. I've made of habit out of writing an hour a day so even if my days are crazy I still find the time to do it.

Me: Ohh man... I am going to try this. I miss writing on Wattpad. 😣
Who is your favorite writer on and off Wattpad?

Joy: My favorite writer is
Claire-Merle. She's amazing and her writing is simply stunning.

Me: So I am going to tag her here so she gets to know how much we love her. Claire-Merle We love you ♥️♥️

Tell us something fun and something distinctive about you.

Joy: Fun? I dance while I cook because I don't like to cook and so to make the whole experience better, I dance.

Distinctive? I had eye vision problems when I was little and so I didn't really get into reading until fifth grade. I read the Clique series and it was the first time I ever knew that reading was a fun thing instead of a challenge as it had always been.

Me: Dancing and Cooking... Haha that's too relatable. I do that every time I have to cook 😄😄
Now my mom doesn't lets me cook because she gets annoyed by me dancing. 😑

If you had to suggest one of your books to be read by a new comer on Wattpad, which one would it be and why?

Joy: A Secret Service. It's the one that everyone always comes back to. It's teen fiction with a bit of action so it's a good mix to get people engaged.

Me: Donovan. 🤤🤤😍😍
Uhmm... Sorry... Got a bit distracted there.

If you have to recommend someone else's book which one would you recommend?

Joy: The Shadow Weaver by Claire-Merle. It's beautiful with wonderful characters!

Me: But it's not available on Wattpad as it has been published. 😣
Anyway, congrats Claire and we loved the book. 😊😊

Any tip for the new writers.

Joy: Read and write. And I mean read the classics, they might not be your cup of tea but you will learn so much from reading them. And then write, I learned more from actually writing a book than I did from reading one about how to write a book. Though those books are valuable to read as well.

Me: That's some good tip.
Now let's move to you book.
Wattpad has a plethora of cliche romantic stories where the girl has to be saved by the guy everytime. How did you decide to give the readers something very different?

Joy: I wrote Carter for me. That sounds funny but it's true. I wanted a book where the girl didn't need to be saved. A book where she could work along side the guy to help save the day. I wasn't thinking about how people would read it, I was thinking about how I wanted to write it.

Me: Carter is mood! And Donovan 😍
Sorry...
Did you feel that the readers won't have a good reaction to 'A Secret Service' considering it is against the normal Knight in a shining armor image of guys?

Joy: No, I don't. Because you can love both. It doesn't have to be one way or the other. A girl can love the idea of a guy saving her. But a girl can also love the idea of saving herself. Honestly, I think we all do want both. We want to know that the guy would save us but doesn't have to because we did it ourselves.

Me: True.

Are you a fan of action movies or have you yourself taken some sort of training? Because the action sequences you wrote were too good... Almost cinematic.

Joy: I love action movies! I grew up with three older brothers and so action was one of the things I always watched. So when it came time to write those action sequences they had been sitting in my brain for ages.

Me: Now we need to have another interview just to discuss action movies.

Can we expect a Link and Maddie spin off? 🥺🥺 <Puppy dog eyes>

Joy: Nope. I'm not a huge spin-off person. I like writing a book and moving on. I think it's best to let Link be happy with Maddie and not try to poke into his life and make it worse by stirring up drama.

Me: Well... If you ever change your mind.

Also this question had been in my mind from soooo long... What is with the obsession of greeting your readers in the weirdest way possible? 😂

Joy: Hahaha! Honestly, I don't know. But for me I didn't want to constantly start an author's note with 'hi' that would be so boring! So I let my oddness come out and that what it produced, really weird greetings!

Me: Innovative!

Who was the inspiration for Carter?

Joy: It will sound funny but my mom. She's this amazingly brilliant woman who doesn't take crap from anyone and can see things about a person you would never guess. I simply gave her a Navy SEAL for a father and a background in hand-to-hand combat.

Me: I need to meet your mom.

What is your favourite genre in reading and that in writing?

Joy: I love Fantasy. I love seeing how a writer builds a world! Also it means the story usually revolves around some sort of adventure instead of normal drama. And fantasy is also one of my favorite genres to write as well, I just don't do it as often as I like.

Me: Nooo Joy... You had to say Action. Now I lost the bet. 😒😒

Among Haley, Carter, Isla, Kit and Lennon
a. Which one would you like to befriend?
b. Who is more like you?
c. Whose quality are you not fond of?

Joy:
A. Kit. She's so happy and wild, I feel like we would have some awesome adventures.

B. Haha can I say none of the above? I guess Carter if I had to answer because I did get a bit of my mom's strong personalty.

C. Haley. She judges people too hard. Yeah, she gets better at the end of the book but at the beginning she's judgmental and a bit of a downer.

Me: Good choices.

Choose one from each set and why
a. Kade and Edison
b. Donovan and Raif
c. Link and Jace.

Joy:
A. Kade. Because he truly does have a big heart and cares deeply for the people in his life.

B. Okay! That has to be one of the hardest questions ever! I love them both so much. But if I'm being honest it would be Donovan because Raif is a complete scoundrel and I'm not sure I could handle him. Donovan is a huge softie, he just wouldn't admit it.

C. JACE!! Because Jace is happy and wants the world to be a better place and we would get along so well. It also doesn't help that Jace got a bit of my smiley personalty.

Me: I knew you would choose Donovan 😍😍🤤

Can you tell us something about your upcoming works? Which genre can we expect?

Joy: Oh my gosh yes! So currently I have just posted a new story, A Pirate's Tale. It's fantasy type story about a girl named Isla (I-la) whose father died leaving her with a debt and a crew to command, and how she struggles to deal with the burden that's been placed on her. Did I mention she's also a pirate?

I'm thrilled with how the story is turning out and it's been a blast to be able to write fight scenes again!

Me: So this brings us to the end of the interview. Thank you Joy for being here. Loved your answers.

Joy: Thanks for sending this over! I love your questions they are so unique and I love how they were tailored to my work, makes it all the more fun to answer them! Thanks so much for doing this!
And also Salted caramel chocolate... Man that sounds yum!
Bye.

-----------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE

Mint chocolate chip ice cream!
Uhh what...? I don't think I can do this as nicely and weirdly as Joy can so I will stick to my usual.

Hey guys,
Hope you loved the interview.
This one is dedicated to roselady5 for suggesting Joymoment to us.

Give me some more suggestions.

Until then,
Love Love ♥️
A.S.