Laura Jo Brunson, whose career spans journalism, strategic communications, and publishing, has written and edited everything from breaking news and feature stories to public information materials and book‑length projects, bringing a reporter’s eye and an editor’s precision to her fiction.
Brunson’s professional background includes roles as a reporter and lifestyle editor for a New York Times–owned weekly newspaper, copyeditor for The Florida Times-Union, and managing editor of the Jacksonville Business Journal. She later built a successful public relations career, developing campaigns and messaging for a wide range of clients and earning numerous local, state, and national honors, including the Silver Anvil Award for brand and reputation management. She also served ten years as a FEMA Reservist and research and writing specialist, translating complex, high‑stakes information into clear, accessible communication—experience that now informs the disaster‑response backdrop of her mystery fiction.
Writing under the name L.J. Provost, she focuses on mystery and other imaginative work. Under her legal name, Laura Jo Brunson, she co‑authored the local history book Legendary Locals of Jacksonville (Arcadia Publishing) and continues to work as a freelance writer and editor. She is the book review editor for The Pen Woman magazine of the National League of American Pen Women and serves on the editing cadre for Pen Women Press. Her novel, Thistle Nook Secrets, launches a mystery series in which murders unfold against the backdrop of her protagonist’s FEMA deployments. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside.
