Judi Stoa

As one of eight kids growing up in the Stoa family in Fargo, ND in the 1960s, Judi Stoa learned early to create havoc and stories. Her brothers taught her to play football; her sisters taught her to pluck her eyebrows; she taught herself to ride a unicycle.

Stoa graduated from North Dakota State University with a B.S. in business and communications. During her 37-year career, she chose positions and corporations that supported her value to see and bring out the best in herself and others. In 2018, she retired as the communications director at a global technology company to return full-time to creating havoc and stories.

In Stoa's "The Cousins at Long Lake Mysteries" series, the fictional stories center on places, people and events in the Fargo, North Dakota and Vergas, Minnesota areas. The lead characters—inspired by the author’s actual nieces—are strong, witty, optimistic teens who look for and bring out the best in themselves and others. Since beginning the series in 2009, Stoa has matured the characters and advanced the complexity of the plots and writing about at the pace of her nieces’ aging. The books contain “Ask-a-Cuz” sections that provide readers with more information on real people, history, environment, and technology mentioned in the stories. Early books geared for younger readers include pages on which readers can sketch what they read.

For more information, visit Judi Stoa Books website at https://judistoa.wixsite.com/website. Or order all Stoa’s books right now at https://www.amazon.com:

• The Mystery of the Laughing Loon (for readers 6 and above)

• The Mystery of the Sunken Viking Ship (for readers 8 and above)

• The Mystery of the Flying Ghost (for readers 10 and above)

• The Curse of the Loony Days Talent Show (for readers 12 and above)

• The Mystery of the Absolute Power Plant (for readers 14 and above)

In addition to her mystery series, Stoa publishes the "Donchyaknow Life Lessons" blog (https://judistoa.wixsite.com/website/blog-donchyaknow-life-lessons) in which she takes a humorous stroll down memory lane to share life lessons to help readers see and bring out the best in themselves and others.

Stoa lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with her wife Kathleen. They spend about a third of their time at their lake home on Long Lake, near Vergas, MN. By the way, she can still ride a unicycle, but her eyebrows don’t need much plucking.