We met Joanie Lindenmeyer through a mutual friend.
Before that introduction, Joanie had been living her life with her wife, Carol, and jotting down their stories in a notebook. Their life together was an adventure. Every morning, they said to each other:
“It’s a new day. Never been lived before.”
After Carol died, Joanie took that notebook to her prayer corner. The response she received from Carol in heaven—and from Jesus—was clear:
“Yes, you should write the book of love!”
After our introductions on Zoom, Joanie signed up for Elizabeth’s six-month coaching program. The outline for the book came quickly. Stories about Joanie and Carol meeting as nuns, falling in love, and building a life together over the next 40 years poured out of her.
Joanie had carried these stories for years. Now, she was ready to shape them into a book.
From Coaching to Publication
Writing a memoir is not simply a matter of remembering what happened. A writer must decide which moments belong in the story, how they connect, and what they mean.
Through coaching, Joanie began organizing her memories into a narrative. Elizabeth helped her identify the emotional heart of the book and create a structure that would guide readers through Joanie and Carol’s extraordinary life together.
Coaching is not about taking over someone else’s story. It is about helping a writer hear her own voice more clearly.
For Joanie, the process required vulnerability, persistence, and the courage to revisit joyful, painful, funny, and deeply personal memories.
And one year later, Nun Better: An Amazing Love Story was published.
A Book Launch, a Book Tour, and a Pair of Pink-Laced Nikes
Joanie celebrated the publication of Nun Better with a launch party at Wild Rivers Pizza in Brookings, Oregon.
Then she hit the road.
Joanie traveled to bookstores, events, and Pride festivals, sharing her story with readers and putting so many miles on her car—and on her signature pink-laced Nikes—that she eventually had to replace both!
Pride festivals became a natural and joyful home for Nun Better.
At each event, the book became part of a much larger affirmation: LGBTQ+ stories belong in bookstores, libraries, festivals, families, churches, and public life.
Some readers were drawn to the love story. Others connected with Joanie’s journey through faith, identity, loss, and personal freedom. Many were inspired by the courage it took for Joanie and Carol to leave religious life, follow their hearts, and build a loving partnership that lasted four decades.
Each conversation reminded us why representation matters.
A book can create community, and Nun Better did exactly that.
Joanie Kept Going
Publishing the book was only the beginning.
Joanie recorded the audiobook of Nun Better, allowing listeners to hear the story in her own voice. She started a weekly podcast called Joyously Free and continued reaching people through conversations about love, faith, grief, healing, and living joyously free.
She and Elizabeth also published two more books together: Joyously Free: Stories & Tips for LGBTQ+ People, Parents and Allies and Healing Religious Hurts: Stories & Tips to Find Love and Peace.
Joanie did not simply publish one book and stop. She continued creating, speaking, traveling, connecting, and touching hearts.
At that point, it might have seemed that only one thing was missing.
A film.
And now that is happening, too.
When Joanie’s Story Became Wowzer
The next extraordinary chapter in Joanie’s journey is Wowzer, a short film inspired by her life and story.
Moving from a book to a film requires an entirely different kind of storytelling. A filmmaker must use images, voices, music, and carefully selected moments to communicate the heart of a much larger story.
Wowzer: In Joanie Lindenmeyer’s Own Words is a film by Michael Gorse. Wowzer is Joanie’s story but it not a movie of Nun Better. We’re open to that!
You can watch the four-minute trailer here.
The film debuts at the Wild Rivers Film Festival 2026 in Brookings, Oregon.
It is her life, her memories, her love for Carol, and her willingness to share their story that give the film its meaning.
That is something worth celebrating.
Wowzer Goes to the Film Festivals
The film-festival journey has brought a new kind of excitement.
A story that once existed in Joanie’s memories—and in a notebook filled with stories about Carol—became a manuscript, a published book, an audiobook, a podcast, and now a film being viewed and recognized by new audiences.
You can listen to a conversation about how Joanie and Michael Gorse met here.
Film festivals offer Joanie’s story an opportunity to reach people who may not yet have discovered Nun Better.
The recognition is exciting not only because of the honor itself, but because it confirms that Joanie and Carol’s deeply personal love story continues to resonate in new forms.
And now Joanie’s story has reached the film-festival screen.
The Courage to Begin
Joanie could not have predicted every stage of this adventure when she first carried her notebook into her prayer corner.
She did not know that her stories would become a published memoir. She did not know she would travel thousands of miles sharing the book, record an audiobook, host a podcast, publish two additional books, or see her life portrayed on film.
She simply knew there was a story asking to be told.
That is why the first step matters so much.
A story does not have to arrive fully formed. It can begin as a memory, a conversation, a notebook, or an idea that has been waiting quietly for years.
With coaching, encouragement, revision, and persistence, that idea can become something real.
Sometimes it can travel farther than the writer ever imagined.
Celebrating Joanie’s Amazing Journey
At Two Sisters Writing & Publishing, we are proud to have been part of the journey of Nun Better: An Amazing Love Story.
We celebrate Joanie’s willingness to share her life, her commitment to the writing process, and her determination to keep finding new ways to tell this beautiful story.
We celebrate the book launch, the miles traveled, the Pride festivals, the pink-laced Nikes, the audiobook, the podcast, the additional books, and now the film-festival journey of Wowzer.
Who knows: maybe a Netflix series is the next adventure!
Catherine M. Greenspan is an acclaimed author, editor, and co-founder of Two Sisters Writing & Publishing. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Writing from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, and has earned a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages via the University of Cambridge. A past recipient of writing grants from the Sierra Arts Foundation and the Nevada Arts Council, Catherine has built an impressive career as a freelance writer and editor, with credits spanning cover stories, features, book reviews, and an interview with Nobel Prize–winning playwright Wole Soyinka. She is the author of the beloved Young Adult series The Veronica Series, and together with her sister Elizabeth Ann Atkins has written and published over 60 books — championing diverse voices and empowering writers around the world.