Your Happy Hour - The Stack Series ~ "The Court of Gilded Iron" ft. Jeanna Joyce

Episode Date: May 31, 2026

Welcome to The Stack Series! ✨The Stack Series features new books and emerging authors sharing their stories, inspirations, and journeys with us. In this inspiring interview, author Jeanna Joyce shares her journey of writing her romantasy series, blending personal memoir with fantasy fiction. Discover how her life experiences, family drama, and love story shaped her books, and she shared with us her creative process and writing tips!Check out Jeanna and her book here.🎧 Stay tuned for stories that inspire, uplift, and spark your abundant life!The Stack Series is produced by swartkat.co - captured via riverside.fm & shared via rss.com.

Welcome back to another field session. We have these beautiful and very special field sessions that are part of the Fields podcast, and they are called the Stack Series. And the Stack Series is a series in which we uncover new authors, celebrate books. And today I have a really amazing privilege to chat to a new author. I'm so excited for her series of books. And we're going to chat about the first one today. and I want to welcome you first and foremost to the space,

Gianna Joyce, to the Fields podcast, to the Stack series, and say a big congratulations on your book. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure and it's wonderful to have you here. So I want to chat a little bit more about your journey and writing this. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I love fantasy. I know that you mentioned to me that this is a bit more of a memoir transmuted into fantasy.

so I'm very curious about that. But maybe you just want to take us a little bit of a journey of how you got to writing the book, where did the idea come from? So the idea for this book came about in like a perfect storm of ways, right? So I am a reading teacher, so I gift books to people for like Christmas and stuff like that. So my family is really large and that's like the funnest thing. And like from September to December, I'm just buying books. And it's so much fun.

And my youngest brother is like a prolific reader. And so finding books for him is always the challenge. And so two years in a row, I thought I had found him the best book ever. And I wrapped it and I gave it to him. And he opened it up. And he had already not only read the book, but the entire series that the book belonged to. And so I had that like in the back of my head. And then I've been wanting to write fantasy for a long time.

When I was in high school, my grandma and I like wrote a fantasy book together. And when she passed away, it kind of just got thrown into a box. And it's all messed up. And it's like 10 different versions that are all mixed up together. and then it was given to me and it was like, here, you're the only person who can fix this because you helped write it. And so that box has actually been traveling with me for like 19 years. I think that's how long it's been. And I've never done anything with that book. And so I wanted to work on it, but that seemed really overwhelming. And so I thought, I'll just read some fantasy and then I'll

think about that book. So I started to like read fantasy. And I got really discouraged because it felt like after like 15 books in, I had just read the same book like over and over and over again just with different characters. But it kind of just felt the same. And so I had this book that I previously written. I had my brother. I had this like want for more from fantasy. And then you just top that off with a lot of family drama. And it was like the perfect writing.

here, here's like a platter of all the ingredients you need. And so I sat down and I started to write and I wrote for like ferociously. I mean, I would stay up all night. I was writing every chance I got. And on Christmas Eve, I printed the first manuscript and it was 235 pages at that point. And I thought, oh, this is such a cute little book. And I wrapped it up and gave it to my brother for Christmas. Like, here, here's the book you've never read. And then I'm a teacher, so I had like two weeks after that where I kind of was just, it's winter, it's gross outside.

I wasn't doing anything. So I thought, oh, I'm going to add to that book. And so by the end of Christmas break, I had added another like two hundred. hundred pages to the book I had already written and I had almost completed a second book. And so the writing went really fast because, like I said, there's a lot of family drama and trauma. So what I did is I took everything that was going on in my life and I put it into this book. I wrapped my family members and the drama and all of that into like this pretty fantasy world. And it had helped me like work through a lot of that. And so then the second book came along and it was kind of the same thing. My husband's a recovering alcoholics. So that second book was kind of like our journey into that. So it's a lot darker and deeper than the first one. And that's and it just kind of like snowballed from there. And because I was writing about myself and my family and the things I'd lived through, it just. And it just kind of like snowballed from there. And because I was writing about myself and my family and the things I'd lived through, it.

like just poured out of me like a book that had been waiting just for me to say okay i'm going to write it so that's how it came to be in the world wow that's really well first of all a funny like like you said mix of things to come together and inspire it always fascinates me how what inspires us and what is what are the kind of the circumstances that get us to being creative and often it is like a mix of things but it also very much a yearning from inside to release a lot of things. Like you said, it's expressing for you, how you felt. And do you feel like lighter now that you've done that? I do. It was probably a whole lot cheaper than therapy could be. And I got to work through like some of the darkest moments, but I also got to relive some

of the best moments as well. Like I didn't, I didn't just let the drama and the trauma lead, you know, while I was uncovering that and unpacking that, those good moments kind of snuck in as well. And we're like, but wait, don't forget about us. We had some good times here. Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah, you also go on a journey. And I think any author, I mean, writing a book is a journey by itself going through the whole process of writing and then editing well, but the internal journey is so worth the while, I feel. And when I was reading kind of like your genre, it, you know, saying that it is dark fantasy, weaving tales of shadows, starlight, and fated bonds. I love that. I feel like it's really inspiring to read through. I'd love for you to tell us a

little bit more about the protagonist in the story. So in the first book, we meet Adeline. And actually, in the beginning, we meet Lunaria. So the first two pages, you meet Lunaria. She's a child. She's rushing. The one thing about the book is I wrote it in order. Like, I, The way it's written is the way it came out of me. And so the prologue is actually my mom and my biological dad split when we were six years old when I was six. And my mom kind of just like took us girls and left. And we had my cake mix because it was my birthday and we had two cabbage patch dolls. And that's all we had.

And we just ran. So that is what the prolog is, is that moment of my life. because that did start what the rest of the book is about. Because my mom, when she took us girls, she remarried and had my brothers, so three brothers. And when she did that, we came together as a family. And so, like, we, it was before internets and stuff like that. So we kind of just changed our names to our stepdad's name. And I started calling him dad.

and we kind of like, there was this new identity that was formed for me. I was only six at the time. And I still saw my biological dad. So there was this split in my life where I was really two different people. And so that's how the book, why she's split. So when we meet Lunaria in the prolog, but then we don't see her the rest of the book. And then, so Adeline is our main female character. She's 30 years old.

Everyone around her is married, has their bond, has magic. She doesn't have magic. She can't ride dragons. Her family can. But her, her mom, and her sister are different. They are part of the Eilaren race, which is the race that has no magic. And so because of that, they can't bond with dragons. Their bonds with, like, another fay is, like, not really there.

her sister does find like someone to fall in love with and they have this cute little life and everything. But she's 30 and she's basically her mom's companion. And which was I did not get married till after I was 30. So that was really my role in the family. I may have been the oldest child, but I was treated like the youngest in a lot of ways because I didn't have like that partner and stuff like that in my life to make me. So that's kind of how Adeline came to be. And I kind of worked through that weird family dynamic in the book. And really, she just longs to ride dragons. She wants that same bond that she sees the people around her having. It's not that she wants magic. She doesn't want power. She just wants the freedom of being able to fly. And then our main male character enters as

well. And really, as the story goes, which one is the protagonist really kind of gets muddy, because in book one, she's more the protagonist. In book two, it's more about his story. So it's kind of like together they work this story out. He comes into her life at 30, and he's the most feared, like, warrior in the entire realm. She doesn't see that. that in him. She doesn't see that from him at all. And when I sat down and was writing, and because I'm a reading teacher and an English teacher, I realized I wasn't following like the plot structure that people expect in a book. I was writing from my heart and I was writing the events as they came to my brain. Like, oh, this is what it felt like when this happened.

and how do I put that into into the story? And for the first book, especially, almost every decision was, if I was in this situation, what would I do? If my husband was in this situation, what do I think he would do? So that's kind of like how it rolled out in the whole process. And I really do think that I captured myself at that time when I was 30, when I was still in this weird family dynamic. My husband came into my life when I was 30, and it changed that dynamic. I was, it changed everything. And that also is a real, a real moment.

My husband was my biological dad's next door neighbor when I was growing up. So when I would go to California every summer, he was my best friend. We hung out. We swam in his pool. He was my first boyfriend. He was the first boy I kissed. And that, I mean, was in 1990s. And in 1996, my dad and I had like this falling out and I never went back out there.

And so no internet, long distance phone calls were expensive. So we kind of lost track of each other. I always kept in contact with his stepmom and stuff like that when I was 30 and kind of just down and feeling like sad in my life. I reached out or I looked on Facebook and I found him and he was going through his divorce. And two months later, he gave up everything in California and moved to Iowa. And we've been together for 16 years in our life again. And so that's why she was 30, because that is when my life changed and he came back into it. And we were both broken in different ways.

And so this book, it really shows like the way we healed, the way we healed each other, the way we healed ourselves. And because it's, it's really one story that was so long, it has to be six books. And so because I didn't follow like that traditional plot structure, what I did. did make sure that I did is somewhat follow the hero's journey. So the first book is really just that introduction to her ordinary life and then her first call to action. And that's all you get. Like you're like, that's it. That's the book. And then we move into the second book where she starts to face her trials. So, wow. I, you can't maybe see this, but I actually like, I'm crying a lot.

Because I think that this is such a relatable and I want to use the word story, but it's not a story, it's your life, you know. And so the fact that you could weave that into fantasy and first, you know, kind of yield through that. And I'm so happy that you guys could reconnect again. I think I'm such a romantic at heart. So it's just beautiful.

What I believe is that books and film and media are ways of one expressing, but also for the reader or the audience to know they're not alone in their own journey. And so when people are reading that, you know, we allow ourselves to believe magic. We allow ourselves to believe in what's possible in the world of fantasy, in books and things like that. So first I want to say thank you for writing your story and, yeah, for sharing that with the world, because that is a brave thing to do. And I can imagine it came with its own challenges of facing.

Oh, he did. It came with its own tears. and laughter and all of that. Well, that's beautiful. And so whereabouts in the publication process are we now? So when people look online, what are they seeing and what are they expecting next? So at this point, the first book has been released. It's on Amazon and it is available hardcover paperback.

Also, ebook on Amazon. So first book is out. second book is in some editing. It got really long. There was a lot of feelings in the second book, and it ended up being 713 pages. I want to make it more the size of the first book, which was about 530 and so um it is in some some tough editing at the at the moment because when you're writing about your own life it's really hard to cut like yeah even one word changes the whole feeling of the moment and so it's hard to choose which words really can go and which ones really need to stay so that's where we're at. Book 3 and book 4 are in

they're in somewhat polished drafts. They are very close to what I want for their last iteration. Book 2 is also or book 3 is also a little long and might need to be shortened a little bit. And then book 4 is actually one of my ones that I came out of me just almost perfect. And so I'm like, I think this one is great. Now I thought that one about the second

book as well. So we'll see by the time I get to like the deep editing purposes of four if I have to cut or add to it. Book five is all in my head. It's there. I know exactly how I want it to come out. But with me being in the editing process, it's hard to write that far ahead when I'm like stuck in book two's edits. So I haven't put that one on paper yet. And then the sixth book is another one that is it lives in my head completely, but it is going to be a very large war, which is something I have never experienced being part of. So that one is, I know the emotions that go into it. I know the moments of my life that go into it. And where I'm at with that one is how do I wrap that into like this fantasy war that's going to take place. And then, weirdly, there is a book that isn't even in the

series that has already been written because when I got done with book four, the way I have it, I realized that, well, actually, I realized part way through book three, but at the end of book four, one of my side characters pushed his way to the front of the book. And he decided he also wanted to be a main character. And so he decided that in book three and book four, he is very much a main character. And in order to like honor him as a main character, I had to like decide where he was coming from. And so I stopped everything to write his book.

And I thought it would be like a novella. I thought, oh, I'll just write a novella about him and how I got like, how did he push his way to the front, right? And that novella is now like 500 pages. So it's not going to be a novella. But he will get his own book, but it has to come out after books three because it has some spoilers for the other stuff. Yeah. Wow. You are so busy. Like you are just writing away. I mean, how do you find time for everything? And like what is your like writing procedure? Procedure. Okay. So I write. right way differently than most people write. I'm the oldest of five kids. So I grew up telling stories.

I'm also like a gen Xer. So like I grew up watching my siblings a lot. And so like in order to like entertain, I told stories and really like elaborate stories. And I and I grew up writing. Like my grandma was really, really big on like reading and writing. And like I said, her and I wrote together. But telling stories. comes very naturally to me. So what I do is I set up my computer, turn on a word document, and I set it like wherever my house needs to be clean. It's the weird thing. So if I'm in my kitchen, I put it on my kitchen island and I hit the dictate button. And as I am doing something else, I tell the story the way I want it to happen. I've recorded myself a couple of times. I've recorded myself a couple of times doing it because I was making like a TikTok video or something like that. And so not only am I like cleaning the house, but because I'm very expressive with my hands, I'm building a universe. I look like one of those weird people to have like that computer in front of them where they can move things

around, but there's actually nothing there. And so like I'll be like thinking about like the setup of the room is in my head and I'm putting people like where they belong. And so, when I write it comes out that way as well so when you read a chapter you know who's standing where what they're holding who they're by you can imagine everything like you walked into that room and so and that came from me like doing that while I was telling the story because it wasn't something I was writing it was I was telling it to someone and that's how each chapter was born and then I I do the the dialogue and and all of that. And then after that, I go in, I clean it up. I add the punctuation where it should be. I add words that I feel should go in there, clean up the dialogue, because that's

usually pretty messy when I dictate it. But that's how it actually comes out and it comes out so fast, because I can talk much faster than I can type. And so I can get pages written while cleaning my house. And that's, that is my writing process. And so the cleanup part happens like at night when like I'm just sitting on my couch and we're, we have something going on the TV that we're not really watching. We're just listening to anyway. And then I, I start editing and moving things around or, or doing that. So, so like a multitasking writer. That's amazing. Actually, you're giving me so much inspiration because in my own writings, I often feel like it's, when you don't always have the dedicated time, then you don't write. But if you can do it while you're busy doing life and

get through it, I mean, a lot of authors, I think, well, you know, wanting to be authors are probably going to listen and feel very inspired by the fact that you can create the time for it, even if you feel like you don't have that time. And I think we are, we all actually want to tell stories. I think that's so wonderful that you exercise that muscle when you were younger, not knowing probably you're going to end up writing this series. And so I have to ask, I'm curious about the book that you're writing with your grandmother and if you've looked at that again. I actually, I have pulled it out of the closet a couple times during this for a couple of different reasons. My writing is going to be different than most people are used to. the words I use, the language. And it's one of those things that like when I was in college and

stuff like that, I would turn in papers and people would be like, you just write differently. Like, and no one ever could put like that finger on it, but my professors were always like, it's just different. And so I always was like, it pushed me to like keep writing the way I write, but I could never figure out what it was. And when I was, Um, just finishing up like my college, um, for teaching degree. My professor that I had that was working with me like one on one was from Canada. And she asked me, she was like, are you Canadian? And I'm like, no, I'm not. Um, but my grandma was. And she was like, you write like a Canadian. She's like, Americans don't write this way. And so I was like, oh.

that's what's different because like you know spell check is always like flagging my writing and stuff like that and i you know and i'm like no i like it this way we're going to keep it that way and so i have pulled that book out a few times while writing more to center myself because that is the right the way i was taught to write the words the sentence structure the words my grandma was also like a huge Harlequin romance reader. And so, like, she was been reading, like, she had, like, shelves of Barbara Cartland. And so I've also gone out and, like, revamped my Barbara Cartland library because I've been reading her books since I was in the third grade. And so I pulled in all this stuff that really reminded me and my grandma. And so when I would write a scene and it would

feel off, it was usually because my language lit out of that register I was used to using and into something that people would be more expecting from a fantasy novel. And so that book has come out a couple times and every time I still just get frustrated because it's such a mess. Like I was looking, there is one scene that I know and it's actually the scene that started the whole book when we were writing it and I looked and I looked And I'm like, where is this? And I still can't find it. I know it's in there somewhere, but I really wanted it because of the description in it.

I really wanted to land into like how descriptive my grandma was. And I like how she taught me to be that way. Other scenes are good, but there was one I was really. It's the one. Yeah. It is the one I was really looking for. So. You know, that's such a special thing.

I think, you know, being able to create. together as souls who are in different ages, but coming together in that life, in the life, and obviously she's not here, but I know she's probably feeling all of this energy that you putting out there into the world, you know, so I really hope you can also get to creating beautiful mess from that book in the future. And I want to also ask you if you have any kind of words of wisdom for authors out there, people who are writing their books or wanting to what your process has been. Maybe you've you've captured some kind of game for yourself that you can share. So to anyone who is like

starting the process, the only thing I can do is like use like like how I maybe how I did it. I so once I started the actual process of writing and it may not work for everyone. It might just be like my way but my way might be what's like the door that people are looking for. I stopped reading other people's writing except for writing that is my own because I want to stay true to my voice when I write. And it's very easy. I mean, that's why we read, right? We read so we can learn how to write.

We can learn how to communicate and also get those stories. But we learn so much about writing from reading. And so I've been very careful to stay away from anything that could influence my writing except for my own work. And that's the first thing I did. The other thing I did when I started writing is I just wrote like my world like my free time my brain entered that world. I have entered that world completely. I live there most of the time. And I had to in order to build a world that had magic and its own food and its own, I mean,

I don't even have humans in the book. So everything about the world is made up. So I had to figure out like that world and I had to live in it in order to feel that. And some people may not be that immersive, but in my brain I was there most of the time. And then the other thing is, is a lot of what does stop people is I don't have time for reading. If you have access to, or don't have time for writing. If you have access to a microphone, you have time to write. Because even just a stream of consciousness, the story could be lost in that. I will put on my notes app in my car and set my phone off to the side in the passenger seat

and I will dictate for a whole 20 minute drive or an hour drive. I just tell stories constantly. The more you can record your stories, whether it is sitting down and typing them or like dictating them, the story is in there somewhere and you'll find it. And the other, the, um, and when I, I did, and when I was writing, I wrote. Like, my world was about the world I've lived in. It was about writing. I would do the things I'm supposed to do in real life. And then it's back to writing. It really did, like, consume me. Until I, it really was like, those first four books had to come out.

Like, once I started, there was like this avalanche of, and because I was writing what I know, what I felt, what I experienced, that's how it came out. Once the story starts, it was just going to keep coming until I got to a point where I was like, okay, now what we're actually at is where do I go from now? I've hit the point of my life where it's like what, what is the next stuff? And that's why the book is like, we're at peace right now. So like that avalanche will come from you. Because of that, I didn't get on social media while I was writing, I didn't like do a lot of research into what it means to publish. I was just focusing on writing. I just wanted my story out of me. The other piece of advice I would give to people is

actually while you are writing, stay as far away from social media as you can. The reason for that is there is a lot of negativity in writer spaces online and that can really, it can destroy your momentum in a heartbeat because then you start thinking about the way you're writing. Your story is it's coming out and you or start overthinking that story. Let your story come out when you're in that revision stage. If you want to go and check out the social media side of it, do that. But know that it can be a very damaging place when you're trying to get that story out. And so I go through bouts of it, right?

like if I, if I, I'll create something really cool or like this weekend I was doing a book event. So I was on a lot of social media. But then it's like once you're there and you're posting a lot, you're seeing all that negativity as well. So then I was like, okay, I've done two days of this. I'm done. I'm going to go back to my editing and writing world and step away from it. And that I think is probably the biggest piece of advice because there's been a lot of times

in the writing journey in the last year where I've raised. internalize what I've been seeing on social media and it stopped me and like I had to think about like what I was writing you know like do I need to change my style writing do I need to you know to fit this box that people want it to fit in and I'm like I can't is it I can't that's amazing like advice thank you for all those points and I and I want to kind of echo the last one as well I feel like I use social media now in a very like strategic way but I'm not a scroller so I find if you get into there then it really can affect you yeah someone once said to me I said I wanted to write a story and they were like well just write it for you first you know and whoever will resonate with it will

resonate with it and it's great you know so I love that you've done that and it's really inspiring to hear all yeah how you've kind of just stepped into that universe you know I think it's really a beautiful thing to do and allow yourself to play in there and imagination is reality to me and being able to exist in that, you know, is wonderful. But thank you so much for sharing all of that. And I want to share just a really quick little blurb, if I may, from your book. And you wrote there that you kind of write to survive, you write to connect. Above all, you write to whisper to every wandering soul.

You are not alone. And I feel like that's such a message from the field space as well. We always end off saying, you know, we're in this crazy. journey of life together. And we're just really happy if people are reading more and enjoying that space. So thank you so much for sharing that your fields with the world. Yeah. Yeah. That is that is why we write and that is why we read, right? We read to not feel alone or to escape into a world that is different and gives us a break. And that's what I wanted. I wanted people to be able to resonate with the feelings of the book.

It may not be for everyone, but there is going to be that person out there who needed it, an oldest daughter, someone who's like lived through the partner's side of addiction. Those are the people that are going to feel a lot when they read it. Well, whoever's picking this up, please go check out the book, the series, the authors, Jana, thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you. Yeah, and just, you know, I hope you keep writing. I feel like I don't have to say it's just going to be pouring out of you anyway.

I feel like this world can't end. Amazing, amazing. And for those who are listening, happy reading. I hope you are happy and happily reading out there. And please let us know on the socials what is happening in your world. and we're really happy for you all to be feeling wondrous things and keep adding those books to the stack.