About Joan Hall

About Joan

Joan Upton Hall taught English for twenty-eight years. During that career, she was editor and cartoonist for a teacher newsletter, The RRAFT Report, which won state and national awards. Now a full-time freelance writer, she instructs creative writing classes, speaks at writers' conferences, is the North Texas representative for ByLine magazine, and serves for the San Gabriel Writers' League of Georgetown as Writers' Liaison, and is an active member of the Writers' League of Texas (WLT).

She operates a private consulting service, listed with WLT, and wrote her self-editing manual, Rx for your Writing Ills, from the experience. The booklet's explanations, examples, sample formats, and illustrations have helped hundreds of students, clients, and workshop participants.

Being a columnist keeps her hopping. Her monthly column, "Demystifying Writers' Demons," appears in several writer newsletters. For over five years, she and Janet Kilgore shared the humor column, "Hall & Kilgore," carried by the Williamson County Sun. Joan has now switched to a monthly travel column called "Roam with Joan." Look for samples of these short pieces in books, etc.

Her articles and short stories, even some light verse, have appeared in publications ranging as far away as Minnesota.

Photo courtesy of J. The most recent of these are: an article in Texas Highways magazine (Dec., 2003) and a short story in the Haunted Encounter series. She is working on her third futuristic suspense novel.

Grand Old Texas Theaters that Won't Quit, her first Texana book, co-authored with Stacey Hasbrook, was released in January 2002 through Republic of Texas Press. To follow it, she is writing Old Texas Jails Reformed to New Uses (working title), scheduled for release in 2003.

In the summer of 2003, Joan made her debut as a futuristic suspense novelist with Arturo el Rey. This introduces a series in which King Arthur, along with some of his friends and enemies, is reincarnated in a plague-decimated world. Joan also published 50 Writers' Tips, compiled from past issues of her column, Demystifying Writers' Demons.

Joan conceived the idea for fellow writers in San Gabriel Writers' League to write a group of short one-act plays parodying well-known literary works. The League sponsored it and the Georgetown Palace Theatre produced a quartet of the plays in June, 2003. It was so successful the Palace has asked for a second Madcap Classics in June, 2004, and SGWL is once again backing the project. Performance dates for Madcap Classics '04, along with contact information, will be available soon.

Joan says: "Before I could write, I scribbled stories on a Big Chief tablet, then retold the stories to anyone who would listen. I've never quit, but nowadays other people can read my words."

The greatest blessing of Joan’s life is her family. Here Don and Joan stand with their kids: son David Hall with his wife Rindy Fox (next to Joan); daughter Diane with her husband Ronny Klingbeil (far right). Granddaughters occupy the car (from driver’s seat clockwise) Ashley, Emily, Tobi, and Hailey.

Don (retired school counselor), who supports Joan’s writing habit, couldn’t leave out his "baby," the Triumph Spitfire convertible.
David (engineer) and Rindy (social work) live in Austin, Texas with their daughter Tobi.
Diane (teacher) and Ronny (engineer) live in Wylie, Texas (near Dallas) with their daughters: Ashley, Emily, and Hailey
Surprisingly, Joan’s many pets were too camera shy for this particular photo.

Contact Joan at:

30 Wildwood Dr. #21; Georgetown, TX 78633

jmuhall@aol.com

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