Joanne is an author, dramatist and film historian. Her Judy's Dead took first prize in the Writers Digest Stage Play competition, and The Suicide Angel is currently in feature film pre-production. Her film review column appeared in The Fire Island News (1998-2004). In progress is a non-fiction novel, Songs from Under the El: Memories of Life in the Dark. Ms. de Simone extends an invitation to major animated film studios to consider her young adults book, The Metro Cats: Life in the Core of the Big Apple. Drawn to writing about precarious situations, she blends irony with fantasy in her work, along with some subtle fatalistic flirting.