Name, Age, and State: Joyce Magnin, one year older than I was last year and I live in Pennsylvania—a very nice state.

Job-title: Author, teacher

Web/blog site URL: Joycemagnin.com

Give us your job description in 25 words or less. I get to work in my jammies and write stories about some interesting people and usually their dogs.

Describe a typical workday. Typical? Always starts with coffee. I watch the news to grab sports and weather. I play with my cat. Get my son off to school. Then I sit at my computer and do whatever is next. I work on two or three writing projects at a time so I work on edits for a while and then work on writing my newest novel. I write blog posts, answer email. Drink more coffee. Procrastinate on Facebook, play with my cat. Then I write some more and go to my other job. Right now I also work part-time as a classroom assistant in a primary grade school. It’s fun. Then I come home and it’s back to writing. By about seven o’clock I’m done for the day and read or play a video game.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? Oh goodness, I never ever wanted to do anything else. I was in the third grade when I decided I was going to be a writer. I was wordstruck very young. I think I was reading when I was three years old. I remember reading the back of my father’s newspaper as he read it. I always loved stories and books and words and language.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? Yep. Emily Dickinson, Hemmingway, Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Marvel Comics and so many, many others.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? Truthfully, you don’t NEED a college degree to be a writer. But it helps. The best training is just plain old life---life and reading other authors—that’s the best. You also need to learn to observe—that’s the writer’s tool.

What do you love most about your job? Words. Stringing words together. Learning new things. Talking to other writers and getting to work at home is pretty sweet also. But mostly I love it when I get a letter from someone who has read one of my books—it still blows me away.

What one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? That’s easy—all the cyber stuff. I would love it if someone could keep all my statuses updated, write and post my blogs, twitter for me etcetera. I would love a cyber assistant.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? Read. Read. And then Read some more. Write. Write and Write some more. Don’t be fearful of your words. Just let your ideas flow. See what’s there.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? Oh, goodness in so many ways. Besides my skill with words, I believe God has also gifted me to teach. I thoroughly enjoy teaching others, kids and adults about writing and the joys of story.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? Ha, I play video games. Yep. I’m a Grandma to three little boys and I have my own Xbox 360. I enjoy RPGs mostly but also puzzle games. I also like needle arts and of course, reading. I like to watch baseball and football.

Joyce's latest book is, "Carrying Mason."