About Jo

Jo Schaffer Layton was born and raised in the California Bay Area in a huge, creative family. She is a YA novelist, speaker, screenwriter, works in film production and is a Taekwondo black belt.

She is author of the Stanley and Hazel trilogy and Badlands.

She's a founding member of Operation Literacy and co-founder of StoryCon, the ultimate experience for young storytellers, educators, and book lovers of all ages, combining the fun of a national book festival with the education and guidance of a serious writer’s conference. She and a crew of local and international bestselling authors present writing workshops to hundreds of attendees at the Utah-based conference as well as hundreds of others worldwide who view the conference online.

Jo loves being involved in anything that promotes literacy and family. She is passionate about community, travel, books, music, healthy eating, classic films and martial arts. Her brain is always spinning new ideas for books and sometimes she even gets around to blogging.

Jo is mom to three strapping sons and two fun bonus kiddos. She lives in Texas with her hunky tattooed husband.