About J. E. Thomas

J. E. Thomas loves good books, great food, fun-loving pets and friendly people. She writes middle grade and YA books featuring those who have a lot to say—but don't often take center stage. 

CONTROL FREAKS is her first book. She's working on middle grade book #2 and her debut YA novel. Fun fact: She includes the name of at least one of her dogs in every story.

J.E. Thomas spent her early summers stuffing grocery bags with books at the local library, reading feverishly, then repeating the process week after week. So it's not surprising that she thinks books + imagination are the best streaming service around.  

J.E. is an award-winning writer with bachelor degrees in Mass Communications and Political Science, and a master’s degree in Public Communications. She began writing full-time in 2021. Prior to that, she had a long career in corporate, health care and education communications. She was also an award-winning freelance journalist, earning a Clarion Award for Article Writing from Women in Communications; a Gold Award for Feature Writing from the International Academy of Communications Arts & Sciences; a Silver Award for Writing from the Society of National Association Publications; and a Public Relations Professional of the Year Honor from the Colorado Association of Black Journalists, among others.

CONTROL FREAKS is her first book. She's working on middle grade book #2 and her debut YA novel. Fun fact: She includes the name of at least one of her dogs in every story.

A dedicated fan of teachers and librarians, J.E. believes educators are superheroes. CONTROL FREAKS is dedicated to women who changed her life by recognizing her potential and encouraging her to step out of the crowd, including Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's original Uhura, and Helen Yeager, her ninth grade English teacher.

I hope so! But it may be on Zoom, depending on where you are. 

It was so helpful! My editor read the first draft of my manuscript objectively then helped me understand what worked and what didn't. After that, I turned in another draft and we repeated the process.

Editing a book is really not that different than revising a report or term paper. If your goal is to make your work as good as possible, editing is well worth the time and effort. 

Most of my ideas come from something I experienced in real life. 

I didn't participate in a wacky STEAMS competition like Doug Zezzmer in CONTROL FREAKS, but when I told my parents that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, they were not happy. So I understood how Doug felt when his dad said he shouldn't/couldn't be an inventor. 

FanFic! I wrote a story about the original Star Trek series. It was published in a printed magazine; that's how long ago it was. Lucky for me, that was way before the internet. I was fortunate enough to meet most of the original Star Trek cast in person. They were so nice! Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), George Takei (Sulu) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) were particularly gracious. 

I sure do. But ... you guessed it! I may pop in via Zoom depending on location.  

Social media takes a lot of time, doesn't it? I decided to focus on a few platforms (links to Facebook and Instagram are below) and I try to post or check messages at least once per week. That's my goal, anyway! I don't always make it. And now that I've started writing two more books, my screen time is even more limited.

That quiet kid―the one in the corner with her nose in a book―that was me.

So much! I was very fortunate. Most of my teachers were AWESOME!