Welcome to my Second Acts Series
I’m happy to welcome author and illustrator Joanna Vander Vlugt. Today, Joanna shares her new release, Spy Girls.
Here’s Joanna!
Briefly describe your first act.
I spent 34 years working as a Supreme Court Assistant in the prosecutor’s office (Crown Counsel Office) in Nanaimo and Victoria, BC. I then worked at the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. I began writing when I was 25 while working full-time raising two small children. I had three short stories published during that time. After approximately 10 years of writing and many rejection letters, I stopped. I had studied to become a personal trainer and fitness instructor, and I couldn’t do it all. I’d like to stress that at that time, I believed I would never write again. My friends would ask me, “Have you done any writing lately?” I would say, “No. It’s not my priority.”
What triggered the need for change?
I believe if you’re a creative person, even if you stop being creative, it will resurface. My mom used to say to me, “The creativity is bubbling inside you.” I created art as a teenager. I had stopped creating art when I entered the workforce. Jump ahead 30 years and my mom has been moved into a care home, I began creating art again and selling motorcycle illustrations. My mom was my biggest supporter. I still hadn’t started writing. Six months after my mom passed, I thought about the manuscript I had written 20 years ago. I pulled it out and thought if the story was “salvageable,” I would re-write it and self-publish. The cool thing about reading that manuscript was even though I had written it, I had forgotten who was the murderer. I was reading it as a reader, not as the writer. That manuscript turned into The Unravelling, which was a Canadian Book Club Awards Finalist. A month after that book was published, I had the idea for Dealer’s Child, the second novel in this series, which was also a finalist in the Canadian Book Club Awards. My art then inspired my writing and my characters, and my writing inspired my art. That is why my heroines ride motorcycles.
Where are you now?
My third novel in my Jade & Sage series, Spy Girls, is coming out March 16, 2024. I am writing novels that I never thought I would write. I’m finishing up the first draft of a time travel, giving my characters, Jade and Sage, a break before I write the fourth book in the Jade Thyme thriller series. I’m also retired so I’m able to write full-time and pursue art projects, such as creating illustrations for a graphic novel.
Do you have advice for anyone planning to pursue a second act?
I’m living proof of that cliché, “never say never.” I never thought I would write again. I never thought I’d create art again. I’m doing both. If you are writing and working full-time, you are not alone. When I worked full-time, I’d write during my lunch hours. What I didn’t expect, after working 34 years for the government, was how I floundered when I retired. I needed to figure out my writing schedule. For so many years I dreamed about being a full-time writer. I was now at that stage in my life and I didn’t know what to do. I realized that I needed to treat my writing as a job. When that realization clicked, I had my writing routine figured out. My two dogs know at 9:00 am, when I have my coffee in my hands and walk down the hall, it’s time to head to the office where they’ll find their dog beds.
Any affirmations or quotations you wish to share?
I try every night before I fall asleep to say thank you and be grateful. To quote my mother, “We have a roof over our heads and food on the table.” When it comes to writing and the publishing industry, the one rule which needs to be stitched on a pillow is, “do not compare.” Everyone’s writing journey is unique. Appreciate recognition, be it big or small, and keep writing the stories you want to read.
Blurb
A CIA action officer is released from prison. A Chief Justice is murdered, and the Law Society is scrutinizing Jade Thyme’s conduct. Jade’s life can’t get much worse until she is coerced into finding an elusive double agent. Tangled in lies and political agendas, high speed chases and sticky bombs, can Jade outplay a dangerous Russian assassin before her own life is terminated?
Excerpt
Adam recognized the mob boss, who was in town for business when he was arrested in an after-hours nightclub. This was the mobster’s second assault in two weeks, and he was now being held in custody until his bail hearing. Adam stepped away from the table when he saw the red box on a cabinet.
Was it . . . her? He flipped the lid and pulled out cotton. Teeth. Upper and lower jaw, gold-plated. Crap. Katriona had been here. Maybe he should show the teeth to Elyssia? Get his point across as to who they were messing with.
The door opened. Elyssia’s voice was now at gunshot decibels. “We are through!” Dressed in a sparkling purple mini-dress, white fur shawl and purple ostrich feather stilettos, she pulled wheeled luggage behind her.
Jan followed. “Elyssia, listen. It’s a bad time right—”
“When isn’t it a bad time, Jan? Every other woman comes before me. It’s not like I’m a three dressed up as a nine. I’m a nine. More than a nine, a Goddamn ten. And you treat me like crap.”
Adam looked up. He had heard that lyric, three dressed up as a nine. Where? When?
“These are dangerous—”
“We’re through.”
She marched onto the porch. The fur shawl slipped, landing on the pavement, exposing a Prince tattoo on her left shoulder.
She stopped, her legs straddling two steps.
“Your shawl,” Jan said, holding it out to her.
She grabbed it and clicked out of sight.
Jan closed the door and returned to the main living area. He rubbed his hands over his face. “Give me a minute.”
“Trooper.”
“Excuse me?”
“The rock band Trooper wrote and sang that song, 3 Dressed Up as a 9. My dad listened to them all the time.”
“Glad you’re tripping down memory lane at my expense, but we’ve got bigger issues.” Jan disappeared into another room.
Links
BookBub | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Instagram | Podcast |
Amazon Buy Link
Joanne Guidoccio 