About Joe Muse

Joe Muse was born in East Tennessee, the fourth of five children. He became interested in science, comics, and sports at an early age. He attended a very country elementary school that could be the subject of a completely different book. Joe received a bachelor's degree in Environmental Health Science at East Tennessee State University. After college, he tried to break into his field, but that didn't work out for him. He married his lovely wife and moved to Chattanooga, where he became an insurance agent and financial advisor. He had two beautiful daughters and started attending Liberty Con, a local science and literary con. At first, he was mainly interested in the science panels, but curiosity and a love of reading pulled him into the writing panels. At one fateful panel, "Writing in the Dark", Joe found out he was a "Pantser", which is someone who writes by the seat of his pants, without outlining. He felt lied to by his English teachers, who told him he always had to outline first.

Joe decided to try writing as a hobby. He began by writing two books of short stories with his cousin. Then, while at another Liberty Con panel on humor, Joe conceived the idea for this series when his ADHD brain went off on one of its many tangents and imagined what could happen in a world where everyone got a power. Power, Peril, and Pandemonium! is the first book in his A Nerd's Guide to Surviving Middle School series. He plans on writing many more and branching outside of the middle grade genre in the future.