Joanne Brokaw describes herself as “a disorganized, addle-brained, Jesus-loving, dog training, tea-addicted” award-winning freelance writer, blogger and columnist who is also “a terrible housekeeper and equally bad cook”.
She’s spent the majority of her professional writing career covering entertainment and freelancing for dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites in the U.S. and Canada, including Christian Examiner Newspapers; Christian Voice Magazine; Brio/Breakaway Magazines; and Ozarks Christian News.
Her Gospel Soundcheck blog at Beliefnet.com has garnered attention from other publications, including the L.A. Times, ABCNews.com, and MTV.com, and earned her an Evangelical Press Association Award for Best Blog of 2009.
But after a year volunteering at a local animal shelter, she decided to refocus her creative energies to satisfy her insatiable curiosity about dog behavior and communication while helping people better understand how to care for and communicate with their pets.
While she still blogs about Christian music at Beliefnet.com and pens a slice of life column for Christian Voice Magazine, she now hosts www.BarkAroundTown.com, a blog about the Rochester, NY dog community, where she shares information about dogs, dog behavior, local dog news and more. She’s slated to soon take over the Heavenly Creatures blog at Patheos.com, where she’ll blog about animals, faith and spirituality.
Joanne has written for several animal-related publications, including the Fido Friendly blog and Rochester Animal Magazine (now called PetPalooza Extra), and has signed on to write for the new online magazine, Pup Culture.
Joanne also oversees her dog Bandit’s blog, www.dogvotional.com, where he “does dog stuff and then writes about it.” Bandit has also signed on to Pup Culture, where he’ll pen a monthly column about life from a dog’s perspective.
In addition to her volunteer time at the animal shelter, Joanne has also shadowed trainer Sherri Romig to learn more about positive training methods.
Joanne lives with three dogs, a cat, some chickens, and one very patient husband. You can read more about life at The Funny Farm on her personal blog, www.NotesFromTheFunnyFarm.com.