An introduction:

 Joy V. Smith has been writing stories since she was a kid and made her own little books, complete with covers.  She went to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she received a BA in English--and probably spent more time writing than studying.  She spent her summers working at a dog kennel. (Writing and having a kennel of her own were her goals.) She continued writing--and later had a boarding kennel for a few years--but the hours were 24/7. Eventually, she closed down that business and remodeled the kennel into an antique shop, The Frog Pond, and started a newsletter, "Splish Splash." She wrote collecting and small press articles for that publication. She also wrote other articles--including interviews with editors, artists, and other writers--and short stories. The closest she came to writing long stories was writing sequels to her stories. Then she learned about NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The month was November and the goal for the month was 50,000 words, and in participating she learned more about focusing. She started writing novels then and won--finished--several novels over the years. Once she wrote those novels, she began submitting and submitting and submitting. There was a lot of editing to be done then... Joy owes a lot to her several patient editors.