A graduate of Northwestern University and Loyola University, JC Conrad-Ellis worked in corporate America before embarking on a journey as a writer.  After years spent providing free, unsolicited & privately held proofreading services on all of the periodicals, magazines and books that she reads, she decided to stop playing armchair critic and get in the game of writing.    She chose to write young adult fiction in order to provide a literary voice that her two young daughters could relate to as well as girls in the mainstream culture.  She was influenced by a love of reading that blossomed as a teenager as she read the teenage stories written by Judy Blume.  As a black girl, she devoured novels such as Deenie and Are You There God It's Me, Margaret? with no concern that the main characters did not share her ethnic make-up.  She was also influenced by the truth telling fiction writing ability of Terry McMillan and the late Bebe Moore Campbell whose writing always contains themes to which the reader can easily relate.  Her dream is that her writing will bridge the chasm between African American young adult fiction and mainstream young adult fiction and spark real life discussions about race and themes that young girls all share, the way that The Cosby Show and the Hip Hop music genre has been embraced by all races and cultures.  She is proud to share that she is the fourth generation of college graduates in her family, and benefitted immensely from the influence of the high academic expectations placed on her as a youth.   A Christian, she prays that the themes of love, friendship, betrayal, conflict, family secrets,  body image, shame, hope, acceptance and forgiveness transcend racial barriers and resonant positively with young readers around the globe.   

Boys, Beauty & Betrayal