Hey there! I'm Joanna Alonzo.
I’m a Christian author based in the Philippines, but I like to call myself a wandering homebody, because as much as I love the comforts of home, I’m definitely also a sojourner, both in the literal and figurative sense.
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Literally, I love flying to other places, but wherever I end up going, I’d honestly rather abide in whichever hovel I decide to call home while I’m there.
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Figuratively, I am just passing through, one breath that the winds of the world try to toss around, to and fro. Yet, in life’s calms and tempests, I have my constant. My prayer is for my course to remain steady, following my Savior wherever He leads.
I genuinely believe that I am following His leading by writing the stories that I write. (But no. I am by no means claiming that any of my work are divinely inspired. My stories are imperfect, just like I am. They exist by His grace. So do I.)
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.
– Psalm 19:14, NKJV –
Stories with Grit
By grit, I don’t mean graphic or gratuitous. Not at all! My stories are closed-door and relatively clean. What I mean is that my stories don’t shy away from the reality that we live in a fallen world with many broken people.
My stories are often described as raw, realistic, relevant, and relatable. I’d like to keep it that way, because I believe that fiction is most powerful when we find pieces of ourselves in the stories we read. That way we know we’re not alone, that there are others who struggle the same way we do.
Stories with Grace
We cannot stop in the struggle. As Christians, we know that we’ve been given grace to overcome. Yes, my stories portray sinful actions. They show the fallen nature of humanity, but I do not write my stories to wallow in the darkness. I write them to show that God can bring light even there.
Darkness cannot overcome light. In an age when we are bombarded with stories where villains are being treated as misunderstood antiheroes, I want to write stories that acknowledge the existence of darkness without forgetting the power of “Let there be light!”
Stories with Wonder
That brings us to wonder. I am of the mind that we serve a wondrous God, Whose image we reflect when we create.
You’ll find that a lot of my stories have a touch of the supernatural in them. It’s more subtle in some of my work, more emphasized in others, but a sense of wonder is at the core of who I am as a person and as a writer.
I never want to lose my childlike wonder, simply because our God is fascinating. Why wouldn’t we want to live a fascinated life? Why wouldn’t we want stories that reflect His wonder?
I want to write stories that acknowledge the existence of darkness without forgetting the power of “Let there be light!”
