Beth & Co. – With Joy Becker

I first met Joy Becker eight years ago at a class for young married people at our church. I have no take-aways from this other than it happened. Another Sunday, we chatted after church, and my take-away was that I liked her belt (and wished I could pull off fashion like that). Eventually, I became aware of the girl behind the belt, but we were each friended up with other people, and with only 24 hours in the day, our chats didn’t move beyond the 30-second mark for the next few years.

But then life in our small, transient college town kicked in, and all of our people left. Ever ones to rally, we took out our B-lists. Joy saw Beth at the same time Beth saw Joy, and we met up for what would become our new normal: chocolate chip pancakes and coffee at my kitchen table.

Joy’s mama named her right. I double-dog dare you to spend five minutes with this girl and not feel lighter. More hopeful about where you’re headed. And deeply grateful for Joy’s ear and counsel. Really, my only problem with her is that she ultimately left Oxford, too (Joy!), and she doesn’t blog enough to satisfy my creeping tendencies.

But today she’s blogging! About me. We dedicated our most recent breakfast to a little Q&A about writing, writing and mothering, and what it’s really like to be friends with a writer. Joy gives you the inside scoop on all that, plus she’s giving away two copies of Lu, plus there’s a free-n-pretty download of I Thess 5:24 (designed by Emily Perry of the Lu cover) for you to print, frame, and hang anywhere you like.

Head on over and then keep going back to read more of Joy’s blog. Every time she posts, I stop what I’m doing to read it. She’s a wonderful writer. And an even wonderful-er friend.