I’m Joyce Reid — author, gift curator, lifelong storyteller, and believer in the beauty of ordinary days.
I’ve been called an eclectic souvenir of a simpler time. I think that’s about right.
As a young bride I stood on the Capitol lawn during JFK’s inauguration and later had dinner with Eleanor Roosevelt. Not a bad beginning for a girl who would go on to push a stroller with two youngsters down the quiet streets of a small Northern California town, knock on doors, listen to neighbors, and become the first woman elected to City Council in that town.
Life has taken me many places since then.
Married to a forester with the Forest Service, my family lived in several small California towns before settling in the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona — where I have been ever since. While raising two daughters I began writing for national print magazines and eventually decided to publish my own. With nothing but determination and books from the local university library, I taught myself to launch a newspaper — Arizona Singles — which grew to statewide distribution. When the internet changed the industry I sold the paper. But I wasn’t quite finished.
Later, as a top-producing real estate agent, I began creating custom gift baskets for my clients. They were such a hit — and so much more fun than selling houses — that I founded Creative Gifts To Go, LLC, now thriving online at ShopCreativeGifts.com for over 32 years. I also published Gift Basket Insider, a digital magazine for the gift industry, for 13 years.
Through all of it, writing was never far behind.
For more than three decades I’ve built a life around creating things that help people feel understood, comforted, and connected. My writing and my work are shaped by the same belief: that kindness matters, that small gestures can change a day, and that it’s never too late to begin again.
After losing my husband of 63 years, I know this more deeply than ever. I sat with him in that quiet room and watched him leave, and everything I thought I understood about time changed in an instant. Each sunrise since has felt like an invitation — to live with purpose, curiosity, and heart. To stop saving things for someday.
So I wrote a novel. Then another. Then a series. Then two.
I now write cozy mysteries featuring older, wiser heroines who prove that life’s most meaningful chapters can begin at any age. I am the author of the Carriage House series and the Kindness Shop Mysteries, including Something Worth Keeping — a story about a woman who inherits a gift shop, finds unexpected belonging, and discovers that kindness, even in a small town, can be a powerful thing.
This website is my home base — a place where I share stories, reflections, lessons learned, and the things that make life richer and more bearable and occasionally funnier than expected.
I’m glad you found your way here. I hope you find something that makes you think, smile, or feel a little less alone.
— Joyce