WRITING

WRITE AWAY

Joelle Steele / Joelle Steele Enterprises

Olympia, Washington, U.S.A.

Doing The Write Thing Since 1974

ABOUT JOELLE STEELE

Joelle Steele entered the publishing field with the publication of her first article in 1973. Then, in the summer of 1975, after reading her poems at a poetry reading in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, she was approached by a publisher and, later that same year, her first illustrated chapbook of poetry was released. Also that same year, she became the creative director for a book publisher in San Mateo and simultaneously opened a recording studio in Portola Valley with a sound engineer. In 1976, Joelle had her first solo art exhibit in Burlingame, and a year later, she struck out on her own and became a freelance writer, editor, and illustrator with several publisher clients, including ARTLife, Sketch Artist, Recording Engineer/Producer, and Bay Area Musician (BAM).

In 1982, while working for a landscape company in southern California, Joelle landed her first major freelance illustration job, and in 1983, she started her own business serving the needs of the horticultural industry. From 1983 to 1994, she produced an internationally-circulated monthly newsletter/magazine for interior landscapers called The New Leaf Press. During this time period, she was also writing several advice columns and feature articles for many different magazines, and her short stories and poetry found homes on the pages of a wide variety of small press periodicals as well. Over the years, Joelle founded and published other monthly periodicals and began self-publishing her many books, expanded her legal contract forms business, assembled her clip art and stock photo collections onto CDs, and sold everything via her Web sites.

To date, Joelle's published credits include more than 30 books, almost 700 articles, several contributing chapters, 48 contracts and legal documents, and numerous short stories, poems, song lyrics, advertising jingles, spot illustrations, book and CD cover illustrations, clip art collections, and fine art paintings and photos. Her photos and illustrations have accompanied many of her written works, and her fine art has been exhibited off and on throughout California.

In November 2005, Joelle relocated to Lacey, Washington. She now digitally restores antique photographs, creates fine art paintings on canvas, and teaches writing, publishing, horticulture, genealogy, and a variety of other subjects through the extension departments of several colleges in the South Puget Sound area, including The Evergreen State College, Pierce College, Tacoma Community College, and South Puget Sound Community College. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Language Arts (a double major in English and Linguistics) and Vocational Certificates in Interior Design/Space Planning and Ornamental Horticulture. In addition, she has completed eight years of private art instruction and ten years of private music instruction.

Joelle's achievements include two honorable mentions for lyrics and two awards for industrial forms design, along with many other acknowledgments and certificates, including: Who's Who Historical Society, American Biographical Institute's 2000 Notable Women, Chromatology Exam II, Digital Photo Editing Proficiency, Professional Web Site Administrator Course, FrontPage Internet Administration Course, Professional Publishing Expert, Color Professional Short Course, Advanced Desktop Publishing, Adobe Advanced Photoshop Course, Desktop Publishing, Basic & Advanced Landscape Short Courses, Professional Horticulture Short Courses, Interior Landscape Maintenance Short Course, and Professional Landscape Design.