Joy Walker grew up in Indiana as the youngest of six children. She developed an early love of reading as her parents filled the Walker home with unconditional love and books (mostly from the library.) Her early years were filled with hours of sitting on her mother’s and her sisters’ laps as they read. They would lovingly oblige as she begged them to read the same books again and again . . . and again. Think, Chicken Little and Mr. Pine’s Mixed-Up Signs. Joy can never repay her sisters for their patience. Once able to read on her own, she read every book from the school library her sister Cathy recommended, which included the blue hardback biographies of famous successful people, and everything Beverly Cleary and Laura Ingalls Wilder. While Joy remained blissfully unaware that other families in the 60s and 70s did not share one bathroom with eight family members, she knew reading and lifelong learning were a priority in the family. Her mother never put a price on education.

Joy’s earliest memories of writing began when she won the Young Author’s Award for her school in the third and fourth grades. Hearing a real author speak to a gaggle of aspiring writers sparked the beginning of her lifelong dream to become a teacher and an author. After retiring from a 30-year career teaching physical education to elementary children, it was time to begin her second career. In 2018, she bought a motor home and embarked on a quest to ride her bike in all 50 states and write about her travels. Finding Joy in the West, the first in a series of books written to inspire others to get out there and find their JOY is now available.