If you’re coming to the See Jane Write 5th Anniversary Party tomorrow you should prepare yourself to meet a host of interesting female writers and bloggers. One of the most interesting women in the room will be poet, author, editor, and motivational speaker Joi Miner.
Joi says she’s been writing since she learned to hold a pen. In college she started sharing her poetry at open mic nights and she published her first collection of poetry, Graffitied Gypsy, when she was only 22. She has since published four poetry collections, two spoken word CDs, been included in several anthologies, and won awards at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the University of South Alabama.
In 2006 Joi co-founded Poetic Advisory, LLC. through which she’s taken on a number of creative pursuits including offering editing services to writers.
“Nowadays, anyone can write and publish a book,” Joi says. “There are some monstrously terribly written books out there, not just in regards to the storyline and character development, or lack thereof, but, and this is the most important thing, the grammar and spelling errors are off-putting. It’s gotten so bad that Amazon now offers warnings on these books with poor grammar and spelling. A good editor is like a fairy godmother. We find the holes in the story, help tighten everything up, and give a fresh set of eyes. Even the best writer is going to miss something because it’s their work; they have an emotional attachment to it. The editor reads the work as a reader. We think about the target market and how they will receive the work. We make it all polished and pretty, ready to be sent out into the world.”
Through Poetic Advisory, LLC Joi also help found the Annual Juneteenth Culturefest in Montgomery, AL in 2012 and produced and directed a year-long mini-tour of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf in 2013.
Joi later branched into fiction. Her debut novel, Vices, was released in 2014 by Nayberry Publications. Her newest novel, Side Piece Chronicles, which is Part 1 of a 3-book series, was released in 2015 by Shani Greene-Dowdell Presents.
“All of my writing is so me,” Joi says. “I have so many different sides and it’s reflected in my writing. My poetry is the more ‘to the point’ side of myself. My fiction — when I want to be more verbose. All of them come from my imagination, so they all just flow. It’s a gift and I embrace it because I see so many people who want to find their talent and their purpose who haven’t. I’m blessed to have found mine and in multiple genres. I don’t take it for granted.”
Joi is a domestic violence and sexual Assault survivor and advocate who teaches workshops on how to heal through writing.
“My writing skills are at the heart of my motivational speaking,” Joi says. “Writing is therapeutic and most of my speeches and workshops utilize writing as a form of self-expression. I create workbooks, share stories and even have my attendees create journals. It’s so rewarding to be able to use my gift, something that helped me when I needed healing and repair, to help others in their time of need.”
With everything that she has accomplished, Joi says the thing she is most proud of is her ability to actually achieve that work/life balance that seems to elude so many of us.
Joi, who’s a wife and mother of two, says people constantly ask her how she does it all.
“I tell them that I bargained with the Most High for 36-hour days,” Joi says with a laugh. “In reality, time management is key. I have to block off time to do each task and have managed to train myself to focus on just that task during that time.”
Poetic Advisory, LLC is a sponsor of the See Jane Write 5th Anniversary Party and Joi be giving away three door prizes at the event. She’s offering a free publishing consultation to an aspiring author, a free edit of up to three chapters of a writer’s first or next book, and a gift basket featuring homemade Shea Butter creams, black soap, candles, incense, and copies of her novels. Be sure to bring your business cards so you can enter to win this great prize!
This post is sponsored by Joi Miner and Poetic Advisory, LLC, but all opinions are my own.