Joya Goffney is the dazzling novelist of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl from Texas. Her work centers around Black identity, romance and other young adult trials and triumphs. She is also a kind, communicative author who has answered my emails and allowed me to interview her for this here blog. So please enjoy as she talks about her writer journey, favorite parts, inspiration and a hint at what’s coming next for her third book.

First, let’s start with your writer’s journey. You have a B.A. in
psychology and studied Black sociology before losing your job during
COVID. How did these fields contribute or guide you into writing?

Psychology influences my writing a great deal. I tend to use a well-known scale in Black psychology on all of my characters to assess where they are in the development of their Black identity. Doing so also helps me to plan overall character development throughout my stories. 

After getting my degree, I took the first job I could get—as an administrative assistant at a car dealership. I hated it, for the most part, thus, writing and reading became my escapes. And my hatred for my day job really motivated me to do what I had to do in order to get published. I worked in the car industry for years before finally getting a book deal. I lost my job after getting the deal, so I was lucky enough to have book money coming in during 2020.

Both of your books stem from things you have experienced,
especially Quinn and Carter’s romance mirroring your own with
long-term BF Blake, is writing what you know a means of catharsis,
connecting with readers or a little bit of both or not at all

It’s definitely a little bit of both. As a writer, I want readers to be able to connect and relate to my characters—and for my characters to come off as “real.” It sounds counter-intuitive, but the best way to do this is by being as specific as possible. I find that mirroring my real-life experiences allows me to infuse so much more raw emotion that readers can relate to. 

And, yes, it is also very cathartic. Trauma can be a silent passenger in our lives, so silent that we forget that it’s riding with us. Writing about my past experiences helps me to explore and analyze and heal from them. I highly recommend. 

You have added parts of yourself and your experience to Quinn and
Monique, in which ways are you different? Or do they reflect how you
want to be?

When I write, I give my characters pieces of my heart—in order to bring them to life. And for the most part, those pieces of my heart tend to be my fears. I give them my fear to see how they might go about facing said fear, because I’m not brave enough to face it on my own. It’s like… fan fiction of my own life. Quinn and Monique’s stories portray how I would have liked to handle racism from my friends in high school (Quinn), and how I would have liked to approach vaginismus (Monique).  

Your book summaries indicate your novels are fun romantic YA, which
they are, but you do not only deal with romantic issues and
communication. You weave in many important personal topics into the
narrative like Black identity, colorism, sexual health, religious
values, aging loved ones etc.
Did you set out to include these topics to make a well-rounded novel
or did it come naturally as part of Quinn and Monique’s stories?

Personally, books/movies/stories that are solely about a romantic development feel lacking to me. My favorite movies are those where the romance is subtle for most of the plot but ends up taking your breath away by the end. That’s what I try to do with my books. Except, I like to turn the chemistry and the heat up a few notches, because romance is ultimately my favorite part of any and every story.

Ugly Cry dives into the enemies to lovers trope while Confessions
has a “look past the first impressions” romance, what other tropes do
you want to tackle in your next books?

My next YA romance uses the best friends to lovers trope. And after that, I can’t wait to explore forced proximity tropes—those are super fun. Neighbors and coworkers and school project partners! Such a fun way to get the fire started. 

You spend a good amount of time delving into Carter and Reggie’s
backgrounds, making them sympathetic and swoon-worthy. Is it hard to
put all that in since you have to fit in through Quinn/Monique’s
perspective and can’t get in their POVs?

It is difficult, and it’s always something I have to work on during edits, but it’s super important that my love interests aren’t just there to give my girls butterflies. Carter and Reggie are whole people with complicated pasts and hopes for the future that at some point didn’t include Quinn or Monique. Sometimes I forget to round them out, but once I do, it really adds to the romance and the overall development of the book.

Favorite scene from each book?

This is a difficult question, and my answer changes all the time. I think my favorite scene from Ugly Cry is the late night phone call between Carter and Quinn, when she finally tells him what happened between her and Destany. My favorite scene from Confessions is when Reggie is working on the deck with Monique’s dad, while Monique is “secretly” reading erotica—so funny!

Toughest part or character when writing?

Generally, the toughest part of writing for me is completing a first draft. It used to not be so hard, but now that the standards are set for me and my books, all I want is to reach perfection on my first try. It never works and it slows me down in the end. It’s a curse, but I’m working on it.

So behind the scenes, were there scenes or changes that didn’t make
it to the final draft?

For sure! One thing about me, when I get edits back, I am notorious for changing basically everything—but I promise the changes only make the story stronger. As much as criticism hurts, I can admit (and I’ve learned this about myself) that I’m really good at using criticism to create a stronger, better product. I appreciate every piece of feedback my editors give me, even if it rips me to shreds lol.

Goal for each book when readers read them?

My goals change with each book, I think. But mostly, my goal is for anyone going through what my characters are going through—I hope they feel seen and heard and understood. There’s nothing more powerful than knowing that you are not alone in a situation. 

With Ugly Cry, I hoped to empower Black girls who may have been in the early stages of their Black identity to stand up for themselves and to love the part of themselves that their white friends may not understand or even appreciate. And with Confessions, I simply wanted to bring awareness to vaginismus—to give girls suffering from it the word they’ve been searching for.

When you set out to write your next book, did you feel pressure to
set it apart?

Not at all. I think I naturally do this. Once I finish a book, I move on to the next idea in my idea journal, and my ideas tend to be quite different from one another. But I guess we’ll see, down the line, if my writing starts to get formulaic. I apologize in advance!

If you’re allowed to spill, what are you writing or planning to write next?

My next book is a best friends to lovers romance that is centered around familial relationships and the trauma that can be passed down from generation to generation. That’s all I can say at this point! Hope you enjoy 😊

You can find out more about Joya on her website: https://www.joyagoffney.com/ and be on look at for her books at stores and libraries. Give them a read, it is well worth it.