Joseph Jarrett

    Welcome to the Messy Middle!

    Step into the world and the life of your new favorite author. Take a look around and get to know me, my work, and the millions of emotions and thoughts I feel on a daily basis.

    • The Emotional Roller Coaster of Creating Something

      Part of my mission and this online discourse I do is to share what I have learned from my experiences in this life. It never occurred to me that I should share how emotionally taxing it can be to do something vulnerable, creative, and risky. I guess you could say most people just chalk it…

    • What Success Means to Me as a Writer

      Okay, look, I know this sounds like such a Corporate America topic of conversation. And truth be told, I did learn this question from a job interview. I think it is something that can be relatable in any sense, though. It does not only relate to KPIs and dollar signs.             When I started writing…

    • Books That Helped Shape Me as a Person and as a Writer: Top 3 Edition

      By now, you all know that I love to give credit to the artwork that is rooted in my soul. Usually, you see me paying homage to music, but not today. In today’s edition, I am going to do a deep dive into some books (both fictional and non-fictional) that hold a piece of my…

    • Hi, Joseph: An Open Letter of Advice to My Younger Self

      Hi, darling kid. It’s me. It’s you, but way more experienced and heavier set. I just wanted to pop in and let you know that we’re doing pretty darn good. Well, for the most part. We need to have a chat about some stuff, okay? I have a list of things that I have been…

    • The Chaos of Cover Art Designs

      Now I am just about the farthest thing from a visual artist. I can write endlessly, day after day. But if you asked me to draw something, I’d probably have my five-year-old niece do it because she would do a heck of a lot better than I could. As a kid and a pre-teen, I…

    • Why I Used My Real Name

      Last week, I gave my explanation as to why I kept the real identities of the people in Mishaps & Mistakes hidden under false names. Today, I’m going to explain why I kept MY name on the cover. It isn’t nearly as dramatic as you’d probably expect it to be, especially since this is me…

    • It’s Hard to Say: Balancing the Truth and Privacy

      I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to determine what was okay to put in Mishaps & Mistakes and what was totally unacceptable. Even now, over three months after I released it, these thoughts plague me. Did I say too much? Did I not say enough? Will this person hate me…

    • Behind the Title: Why I Picked Mishaps & Mistakes

      You would think that finding the title to your life’s story would be oh so easy. Wrong. I had spent months thinking of a title, changing my working title on a nearly daily basis. I wanted to be absolutely positive that I had the right words to describe how I’ve lived my life, how I…

    • How Mishaps & Mistakes Came to Be

                  Throughout the entire process of writing and releasing Mishaps & Mistakes, there was one question in particular that kept coming up, “Why are you writing this book?” There were lots of other questions that usually followed this one, but I don’t even have an accurate count as to how often it was asked. So,…

    • The Playlist Behind My Memoir

                  While Chapter Nineteen, “Melodies as a Means of Escapism,” does a wonderful job of detailing how music saved me, there’s always more to the story. Music is truly a facet of who I am. It is easily my favorite topic and it serves as my way to feel my emotions in a deeply safe…

    • Hi, Friend! Let’s Connect!

      I cannot even begin to tell you how much your support means to me. By reading my writing and connecting with me online, you are actively helping me achieve some of my wildest dreams. Since middle school, I always wanted to be a publish writer. And here I am. Isn’t that something? It may have…