Joy Thomas grew up in a Southeast Alaska fishing town where the rain rarely stopped, the salmonberries were free, and boots were non-negotiable. She holds degrees from the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of Washington. But it was Alaska’s unforgiving charm — where your worth was measured in king salmon and storytelling was practically a contact sport — that taught her how to tell it straight and make it matter.

After twenty years as a journalist, Joy now spins small-town stories full of mystery, heart, and a healthy dose of grit. Stay Salty, her debut novel and the first in the Spruce Cove Series, is set in a coastal town where secrets rise like the tide and the past has a habit of washing back ashore.

She now lives in the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area with her husband, their wonderfully chaotic blended family, and a beagle named Magnolia (after their backyard tree, which came first). She misses Alaska every time she sees a snake, and yes, that happens more than she’d like.