An Interview with author Joanna Monahan, Episode 58
- Donna Carbone
- Oct 29
- 2 min read
Joanna Monahan lives in North Carolina with her husband, children, and two distracting cats.
Before she began writing, Joanna worked a variety of jobs, including marketing, professional
organizing, and setting up book fairs. She enjoys theater, baseball, and bookmarking recipes she will never make. A child of the 80s, she regrets that she no longer receives pizza coupons in exchange for reading.
You can find her at joannamonahan.com talking about books, writing, and all things GenX or on
Instagram where she regularly torments her characters by participating in fiction writing
Challenges.
Joanna is a proud member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, the North Carolina
Writers’ Network and the Author’s Guild.
About the Book: SOMETHING BETTER is a coming-of-(middle-) age tale of love, family, and
the dangers of attending your high school reunion. It was published in June 2023 by Blue Ink
Press.
SHOW NOTES:
Something Better
Synopis
Inspiration
Gen Xer & Musical references
“Every villain is the hero of their own story” & complex protagonist
Welcome to Blooms, release date April 2026
Synopsis
Inspiration
Possible series
Writing and things learned the hard way
Writing process & schedule
Personal branding
Community & the WFWA
Book cover creation
Current WIP
Trivia
The title SOMETHING BETTER comes from the song “Start a War” by The National. The first lines are: “We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more.”
Joanna’s favorite authors are Beverly Cleary and Jan Karon. Her love of the Mitford series was part of the reason her family chose to relocate to North Carolina from Colorado in 2015.
SOURCES & LINKS
Instagram: @joannamonahanauthor
Authors Talking Bookish https://www.authorstalkingbookish.com
Hope Gibbs, author of Where the Grass Grows Blue https://www.authorhopegibbs.com/
Donna Norman-Carbone, author of All That is Sacred & Of Lies and Honey https://www.donnanormancarbone.com
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