The collected poetry of the author. Joy Hilsman Thomas was born in Atlanta, GA and grew up in the small town of Williston, South Carolina. Except for a four-year 'retirement' stint to Fripp Island, SC, she has lived in Aiken County since 1980. Two of her greatest passions are writing and photography. "I was 'taking pictures' at a very young age with my daddy's Brownie camera and writing poems on toilet paper with my mother's black eyebrow pencil at the age of five, getting in a lot of trouble for both. I most enjoy it when my photos pull passion and emotion from the subject and settle them into the viewer so there is communication between the two, continuing after the viewer has walked away." Joy exhibited photography at the Beaufort Art Association gallery in Beaufort, SC, and in the Art Association's several satellite galleries, Fripp Island POA offices, and Beaufort Memorial Hospital. She is a member of the S.C. Writer's Workshop, Aiken Whiskey Road chapter, has written and directed small plays for ACP's Hopeland Garden summer series, and for churches in the area. Her written work has appeared in a number of SCWW anthologies ... Horizon, Petigru Review, in Savannah and Aiken County Magazines, The Quill, Rockford Review, Anderie Press, WordSmith, Big Easy Sonnet, Writers Exchange, Poet's Page, California Quarterly, Flights of Fancy, Poetic Page Opus, Potato Eyes, Green River Writers, PoetWorks Press, and others.