About Me
I’m the classic writer — an introvert who articulates better through my fingertips than out if my mouth. I didn’t know that in my earlier days. It took many years to discover.
I made a personal vow to help support the dreams and talents of any kid who crosses my path, starting with my grandchildren.
JJ Carroll
The story of
JJ Carroll
I wrote my first story in seventh grade. It was a school assignment but I threw myself into it. We had to read our finished stories aloud in class and I remember all the other kids wrote about 2 paragraphs. I was sure to get an A+ because I wrote 14 pages.
I call it my big “Ralphie” moment because I got a C+ and all the kids laughed at me. (Clearly I missed something important about the assignment.)
It was the last time I wrote a story until I was nearly 40 years old. Once I rediscovered the writer inside me, I made a personal vow to help support the dreams and talents of any kid who crosses my path, starting with my grandchildren.
Storyline
- 19??
Born the middle child of a middle child in a time when girls were not expected to “be” anything except a wife and mother. (I excelled at that!)
- 1997
My husband received an interesting package unearthing a few family skeletons. I thought, “this would make a great novel.” So I attempted to write it. (The story I wrote totally sucked! But I learned how much I enjoyed the process and tried again.)
- 1999
I first got the inspiration for Displaced while walking with my husband. Excersize really does unlock creativity.
- 2004
Finally finished writing Displaced on Halloween Night. I was writing the final climactic scene but <ding dong> Argh!! I had to keep answering the door for trick-or-treaters! (I call it my As Good As it Gets <movie starring Jack Nicholson> moment.)
- 2007
Still trying to sell my book and amassed over 100 rejection letters. So I quit my day job and became a freelance writer so I could work part time while focusing on my author career.
- 2012
My corporate freelance business had taken off WAY better than my author career, and Fortune 100 clients were coming out of the woodwork looking for me. The money was amazing and I forgot all about my fiction projects.
- 2014
Okay, bragging here… I won a national award for translating an incredibly boring 16-bage legal mumbo jumbo “consumer protection” piece that had no hope of protecting consumers because you needed a lawyer to translate it. Well, I did that and turned it into an inviting brochure that actually explained insurance in simple terms so readers could stop being afraid of what they were buying.
I also wrote and published a very successful book on corporate freelancing (although I had to take it down when the pandemic changed the freelance platform and industry so much that the book required changes. I did not republish.)
- 2019 - 2020
Got breast cancer. Then got better. All is well.
- Today
After a cancer scare, I learned that dreams are more important than money. So I dusted off my Displaced manuscript and rewrote it into first person/present tense (because I loved Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) and got it out to the world. I am now working on my next goal of 5 books in one year. Wish me luck!