Joyce’s Bio

“(Prior to my 30s) no one ever taught me about setting goals, thinking positively or believing in myself, that seems like the Dark Ages to me now. In the past 13 years, I have learned that believing you can do something is only half the adventure … but what a wonderful adventure it led me on!”

Since we began producing books in 1994, I have had a bio on our website about my author/husband, J. Robert Whittle and his fascinating life then readers told me they wanted to know more about me! Perhaps it’s because they have come to realize that Robert can’t possibly do all this alone … yes, I am the hub of the wheel which has made our publishing company so successful. Just saying that is difficult because I am by nature a modest person who has never felt that comfortable in the limelight, although I have been tossed into it many times since my teens and survived! Today, I’m not only publisher, editor, webmaster, and author, but marketing director, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. So let’s see, what else can I tell you about myself.

My birth in Victoria, BC in 1945 made me a 3rd generation Victorian and a 6th generation Canadian. My mother was already a war widow so we lived with her aging parents and she worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company to support us all. The important part is really the fact that I was the daughter of an Air Force couple who had met during the middle of WW2. Mom and Dad met on the Canadian Prairies where they were part of the British Commonwealth Training Plan, but sadly Mom became a young war widow when my dad was killed overseas. Fortunately for me she was expecting a child (me), a common fate to many women as a result of the war.

I learned early the importance of family and my mother and step-father taught me a strong work ethic merely by example, for which I am eternally grateful. My first loves beginning as a young teen were books and music … especially singing. I married and moved to Duncan where I had two children, continuing to sing in choirs and taking voice lessons. I drove my young family crazy while I rehearsed my latest love … grand opera and the classics! As a single parent years later, I returned to live in Victoria where the next stage of my life was about to begin.

I am a perfect example of how life can take over on it’s own accord and guide you to a wonderful new beginning … within the next year I met Robert.

When Robert and I met we had no clue that he would become an author or that we were about to begin an amazing 30 year adventure. He began to write (read about his health scare and our first miracle that started his writing in Robert’s bio while recuperating from a surgery in 1994. I was so surprised by his writing talent, I decided I had to publish one of his 3 books and introduce him to the reading public. He was 65 and we had no clue what we would do if people bought the book!

The fact that this first book, Lizzie : Lethal Innocence (1998) became a Canadian bestselling novel through the support of mainly local readers at the James Bay Farmer’s Market, coffee shops and other places where Robert sold his books to interested readers, was absolutely unexpected and what we call our second miracle. Our next adventure had begun.

Thirteen years later, I am well used to my schedule as book editor and publisher, webmistress and marketing director, for our small but successful independent publishing company located in Victoria, BC. We named it Whitlands Publishing. We have 12 books to our combined credit and three audio books on CD, Lizzie: Lethal Innocence, and the Moonbeam Series. In 2005 we added Laughing Through Life, an autobiography on CD/MP3 containing Robert’s life stories which I directed and produced. I wear many hats in our organization and not one bit of it was planned, at least not for the first few years!!

We soon realized that selling books is such a competitive business it would become our labour of love which has certainly given a lot of pleasure to readers (according to reports we hear).

When I decided to publish that first historical novel in 1998, Robert did not believe he was a good writer, but very soon the accolades began rolling in and once he believed he became an unstoppable salesman!

There’s a lot more on this story of how Robert’s rotten leg and surgery started this process on his biography page.

Some Special Moments …

The Editing Process
My favourite job has always been the editing process but now it gets even better with me as Robert’s co-author. The success of our working partnership has been amazing and we have loved the experiences and friendships our writing career has brought us over the past 13 years. We’re often asked how we managed to survive the editing process … it was fairly simple … Robert soon came to realize from his readers’ comments that together WE were doing a fine job!!

Our Granddaughter’s help
As Robert’s editor and publisher for his first couple novels, I had found myself reading and editing the many children’s short stories he was writing for our granddaughter Shayla. I enjoyed them so much I turned one of them into our first book in the Moonbeam Series. A couple years later, being asked by so many kids to write another, I did, and added audio books. The fun of these books is that they feature three of our own grandchildren. Shayla was seven when she joined me in a recording studio and read her own part for the audio book of “3 on a Moonbeam” (Book Two). She did an excellent job and we had such fun … a wonderful experience and memory for both of us.

Robert’s Unusual and Refreshing Style
By 2001, Robert had added two more books to the Lizzie Series and at the request of fans had begun the “Victoria Chronicles.” If you aren’t familiar with our books you may be surprised to find they contain no sex or graphic violence and the Victoria Chronicles Trilogy has no cursing at all. They have become classics to our readers and are still some of our most popular books.

Our Awards
In 2007, we won our first Independent Publisher Gold Medal for Loyalty’s Haven and what an honour! But later that year we wrote and produced our first collaborative novel, Whispers Across Time, our tenth book which I also entered in the same contest. What a wonderful surprise when we got the email that we had won our second Gold Medal. Whispers Across Time received rave reviews from both readers and reviewers.

It’s now August 31st, 2011 and we are still actively selling our books at local markets, craft shows and some teacher conferences. Check our Event Page if you are trying to find us.

Happy reading,

Joyce