Exposed Conversations w/ E. N. Joy

E.N. Joy (Everybody Needs Joy)



E.N. Joy is the author of Me, Myself and Him, which was her debut work into the Christian Fiction genre. Formerly an Essence Magazine Bestselling secular author writing under the names Joylynn M. Jossel and JOY, when she decided to fully dedicate her life to Christ, that meant she had to fully dedicate her work as well. She made a conscious decision that whatever she penned from that point on had to glorify God and His kingdom.


Me, Myself & Him was released in March 2008 by E. N. Joy’s publisher, Urban Christian. E.N. Joy is also the editor of the anthologies titled Even Sinners Have Souls and Even Sinners Have Souls Too (part of the 3 book “Sinners Series”).


You can find this author’s children’s book titled The Secret Olivia Told Me, written under the name N. Joy, in bookstores now. The Secret Olivia Told Me received a Coretta Scott King Honors Award from the American Library Association in 2008. The book also went on tour with the Scholastics Book Fair in schools throughout the country.


E. N. Joy currently resides in Reynoldsburg, Ohio where she is currently working on her New Day Divas series. She’s also working on the final anthology in the “Sinners Series” titled Even Sinners Still Have Souls.


The “Sinners Series” includes some of Urban Lit’s most phenomenal authors such as Nikki Turner, K’Wan, Noire, Tysha, KiKi Swinson, Chunichi, Karen Williams and more. For the first time ever, these authors picked up their pens to write something outside of their norm; something that truly flowed from their spirits.


The New Day Divas series was incited by the CEO of E.N. Joy’s publisher, Carl Weber, but birthed by the Holy Spirit. God used Mr. Weber to pitch the idea to E.N. Joy; sort of plant the seed in her spirit, of which she prayed on and eventually the seed was watered and grew into a phenomenal five book series that she is sure will touch readers across the world.


“My goal and prayer with the New Day Divas series is to put an end to the Church Fiction versus Christian Fiction dilemma,” E.N. Joy states, “and find a divine medium that pleases both God and the readers.”


With book one, She Who Finds a Husband, launching the series February 2010, readers will agree that this project is one that definitely glorifies God in every aspect, but still manages to display in a godly manner that there are “Church Folks” (church fiction) and then there are “Christian Folk” (Christian fiction) and come Sunday morning, they all end up in the same place.


You can visit the author’s website at www.enjoywrites.com or email her at enjoywrites@aol.com.


Interview with E. N. Joy

What made you go from writing secular works under the names Joylynn M. Jossel and JOY, to writing Christian fiction and children’s work under the names E. N. Joy and N. Joy? That’s an easy one word answer; God. God has always been there keeping, watching over and protecting me, but it wasn’t until I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior did I acknowledge just how much God loves me. Now I live to glorify Him in everything I do, including my writing. So I’m now not only proud to be a Christian, but proud to be a Christian fiction author.

What was your first Christian fiction title? It’s titled Me, Myself and Him. It came out March 2008. It’s about a woman who is trying to live in the word while holding onto the hand of her live in boyfriend, who is in the world. When the story begins, neither the main character or her boyfriend are practicing Christians. The story shows the struggle between an unsaved couple, when one partner begins to fall in love with Jesus.

What was your first children’s story? My children’s’ story is titled The Secret Olivia Told Me. It was published September 2007. In February 2008, the American Library Association gave the book a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. Scholastics Books purchased the book club rights, and the book is on tour across the country at various schools for book fairs.



What is the difference, if any, between writing secular fiction and Christian fiction? There is a big difference. Now, instead of outlining and figuring out in which direction I want the story to go, I simply get in God’s word, get in God’s face, ask Him what He wants me to do, what He wants me to say, what He wants the message to be, then I take dictation from the Holy Spirit.

Do you ever stray from what you think God is calling you to write? I try very hard to keep my mind clear; to make sure I’m in tune with the Holy Spirit when I’m writing. But I’m going to tell the truth and shame the devil; I’m human, so just like in every day life, when it comes to my writing, I do sometimes allow my flesh to rise up and do it’s own thing. I have written things that I thought the reader might want to read without consulting the true author. Do I get convicted for it? Yes, via readers’ emails and reviews…and some of them, unlike God, have no mercy. So I try my best to stick to ghostwriting…Holy Ghost writing that is.

What current projects are you working on? I have a series titled “The New Day Divas Series.” The first book of the five book series is titled She Who Finds A Husband (February 2010). The second book is titled Been There, Prayed That (June 2010). The third book is titled Love, Honor or Stray (December 2010). The other two will be released in 2011.

Is writing a full-time job for you? Yes, well, actually, I have two full-time jobs (three if you count taking care of my family). I write full-time and I edit full-time. I’m the acquisition editor for Urban Christian (www.urbanchristianonline.net). I’m also the editor for the “Sinner Series”, which includes the titles Even Sinners Have Souls (Nikki Turner, Noire, Chunichi), Even Sinners Have Souls Too (K’Wan, Michel Moore, Victor L. Martin) and Even Sinners STILL Have Souls (Kiki Swinson, Karen Williams, Brandi Johnson).

What was the pastor of New Day Temple of Faith thinking when approving the creation of the New Day Singles Ministry? Better yet, what were its members thinking when they joined?

Doreen, lovingly known as the Church Mother of New Day, thought that when she presented the idea of the ministry to the pastor, it could serve as a foundation to empower, encourage, and enlighten the church’s single members. But when only women join and Doreen learns that all these women want only one thing out of the ministry—help in finding a man—her mission goes astray.

She Who Finds a Husband is what you get when you combine some Divine, some Independent, some Virtuous, some Animated, and some Stoic personalities all in one setting—DIVAS! Dig into this soap opera in print as the women of New Day Temple of Faith Singles Ministry set flight to include men in their future, not realizing that the past is what’s keeping them bound.



She Who Finds A Husband

By E. N. Joy

An Excerpt


Deborah sat up rocking in her bed with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She couldn’t get rid of the pounding in her head, a pounding that was a result from crying all morning long.

“The Lord is my Shepard; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters…” Deborah had been reciting Palm 23 ever since early this morning when she decided not to go to church.

Fully dressed in her Sunday’s best, Deborah had every intention of going to New Day Temple of Faith to get her praise on when she awoke this morning. But that nagging voice in her head had chased her around the house while she got ready for church, and it kept hurling insults at her about being a phony and fake Christian hiding her sins. That voice had finally broken her down and convinced her that the last place a wretch like her needed to be was in church. The stench of her past sin would stink up the place.

Now here she sat, rocking back and forth like she belonged in a loony bin somewhere, reciting the same Bible verse over and over while staring off into a daze. She’d hoped that her voice would drown out the one that had been taunting her, but it had yet to work.

“That stupid Helen!” she ranted right in the middle of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. “I wish she were…I wish she would just…why did she ever have to step foot in New Day in the first place? That was my church! My church! And now here she comes tainting the life I’ve built there. Here she comes digging up the bones I’ve buried. How dare her. Who does she think she is?” Deborah despised the day that the Lord had made just a few months ago when Helen showed up at New Day.

By now Deborah was out of the bed pacing back and forth in anger. Somewhere between walking in the valley of the shadow of death and not fearing any evil, she’d decided to shift blame from herself to Helen. Never mind the actual act that she had committed four years ago, the act that Helen obviously had found pleasure in dangling over her head. Helen had no right to all but threaten to reveal her dirty little secret. It was Deborah’s secret. Who was Helen to try to take ownership?

Once again there was pounding. Deborah jumped back in bed in the same position, only this time she covered her ears with her hands in order to drown the pounding out.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” Deborah started again. Her lips were fixed on the scripture, but her mind was fixed back to the very day she had been reminded of the heap of dirt she’d swept under the rug.