About the Author

Joyce Elaine Jones, a Chicago resident, has spent most of her life in Chicago.  She was a creative child, making up stories before she could read and writing stories from age nine on.  As an elementary school teacher she frequently wrote plays for her students' performances at school and community venues.  Her first published work, a short story "Something New for Carol" appeared in a Ginn Basal Reader Series.  After retirement she devoted more consistent effort to her creative writing.

Her most recent work FOR SUCH A JOURNEY has been the basis for author visits in Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia and numberous public schools in Chicago.  Boys, especially, relate to its main character Thaddeus and his experience on the Underground Railroad.  The upcoming work PEACE EVER AFTER, is about a girl growing up in Chicago during World War II.

Joyce (Dr. Joyce E. Gay) is a nationally recognized educator with a doctorate in educational psychology who has taught at elementary and college levels.  She has also worked as a state gifted program consultant, coordinator at an elementary school for the gifted and school improvement specialist.

She is the parent of an adult son, Geoffrey, and has two dogs.