Author: Joanna V.

Semi-professional storyteller with a permanent case of wanderlust. Gryffindor. Whovian. Jedi. Nerdfighter. Cat lady. IGGPPC Staff. Sometimes I write stuff. Joanna currently lives in southern California with her husband, two cats, and extensive book collection. She is on staff with the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club and spends her time writing or traveling as often as possible. She loves national parks, wildlife conservation, geeky conventions, and weird roadside attractions. She knows that Han shot first. Joanna still hasn’t decided what she’s going to be when she grows up, though she suspects it will probably be herself. Her debut novel, Threadwalkers, is published by 50/50 Press and available for purchase online. You can find her other ramblings at joannavolavka.com or by following her on twitter @joannavolavka which is mostly cat photos and retweets of the geek culture variety. Need to get in touch? Head to her contact page.
Threadwalkers

Upcoming Event at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore

Joanna V.

HELLO.

Wow, this summer got away from me. What can I say? Grad school and writing a new book and all kinds of things ate my brain and my time. But here we are.

And here we are with another local event!

Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore here in San Diego is hosting a Local Author Meet & Greet event on Sunday, September 16, and it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun! Want to know more? I’ve got you covered!

I’m looking forward to getting to know some local readers, and also connect with other local authors. Let me know if you’ll be there!

 

uncategorized because I forgot

Site updates, Summer 2018

Joanna V.

Hello! This is just a quick note to let you know about a few updates that have come to the site. First, you may notice a slight layout change. I think it looks nice and shiny now! There may be a few more tweaks over the next little bit, but I really like the new layout.

Second, there is now a nice little drop-down menu button for purchasing Threadwalkers on Amazon! Easy peasy! I also added a new drop-down for non-book news and articles, as I was featured this week on SD Voyager Magazine. You can check out the article here [link]!

Things will been quiet here for the next month while I’m concentrating on school, but there’s probably a lot coming this summer that I’m excited to share. In the meantime, you maaaaay notice a brand new link at the top that says “Conservation Girl.” It’s not a new book– it’s the start of a project I’m working on for school. Take a peek if you like, and if you have any conservation questions for me, ask away! I’d love to add more content to the site, and hope to build it out more in the next few months.

So that’s about it. I’m looking forward to a California summer!

Threadwalkers, writing related

Threadwalkers book signing at Warwick’s

Joanna V.

Yesterday I had a lovely time at Warwick’s in La Jolla, signing copies of Threadwalkers for their Weekends with Locals event. They open their shop on Sunday afternoons to local authors to bring their books and chat with people coming into the store, and they very kindly offered me one of their spots this month. Thanks, Warwick’s!

Thanks for this snap, Laura!

It was a lot of fun getting to meet people, and also a bunch of my friends showed up to support me, which made the whole day really fantastic.

We took some photos for posterity, and I grabbed a late lunch afterward with some of my friends, and made a day of it. And hey, if you’re still looking to buy a copy, here’s the Barnes & Noble link, the Amazon link, and the Kindle link— and the Kindle edition is currently on sale, so only $2.99. 😀

this and that, updates

It’s April and I’m back from my SoCal staycation

Joanna V.

I’m really bad a titles, y’all. Blog post titles, anyway. But I feel like most of them are at least pretty informative about the content of the post.

We moved into our house in California back in late December, and Jared checked into his new command in early January, and in theory he was supposed to get 10 days to help get the house set up and us settled, but the Navy being what it is, he got to take his leave in….March.

Handily enough, I also had spring break in March so we lined the dates up and took a fantastic 10 day staycation in southern California, because sleeping at home and driving a little further is cheaper than flights and hotels. I won’t go into all the details, but here are some of the highlights! I might make more detailed posts about some of the individual outings (like the Food & Wine festival) in the next couple of weeks, but no promises.

Continue reading “It’s April and I’m back from my SoCal staycation” →

Threadwalkers

Threadwalkers Blog Tour Day 5!

Joanna V.

It’s been a whirlwind week, but here we are at the last day of the virtual book tour! I had fun doing this, and hope you enjoyed reading the bits from other folks, and guest posts I wrote.

With no more ado…

Blog Tour Links for March 9

  • Here’s a review of Threadwalkers from SMADA. [read more]
  • And here’s another guest post I wrote over at OD Book Reviews! [read more]

Thanks so much to everyone who hosted me, reviewed the book, or generally promoted it this week. I truly appreciate it and am glad that so many of you enjoyed my time travel story!

Hey, Sailor

For my last bonus-share of the week, I figured I’d leave a serendipitous photo that I happened to grab today: J in his dress blues!

jo and jared in uniform

He had an event today that required him to be all dressed up, and even though I didn’t attend, I took advantage of the opportunity when he got home to (with the help of my remote shutter) grab a couple of photos. 🙂

Threadwalkers

Threadwalkers Blog Tour Days 3 & 4

Joanna V.

Blog Tour Links for March 7 & 8:

It’s a bit quieter these two days, but we’re making up for it with quality content!

  • I wrote a guest post over on SuperCaliReader about dealing with writer’s block, which is probably my most-asked question. [read more]
  • Here’s an interview with Butterfly-o-Meter Books where you can learn fun things like why I don’t have a unicorn in my backyard. [read more]

Upping My Vintage Style Levels

I’ve been looking to add purple (especially lavender!) to my wardrobe for several years, and pastel yellow and pink are my favorite colors to wear, so you can maybe imagine how excited I am to see all three of these colors turning up this spring in stores!

28876362_10105551977519368_671528388_o

I also took an extra level in Vintage Style with this fab necklace from the 60s (an etsy find!) and a dolman that’s all paisly pink and periwinkle goodness.

Threadwalkers, wildlife watching

Threadwalkers Blog Tour: day 2

Joanna V.

It’s Tuesday, so welcome to DAY TWO of the Threadwalkers blog tour, aka virtual book tour. Yay!

Blog Tour Links for March 6:

  • Here is a lovely review from Arkham Reviews to check out. [read more]
  • This is another review from Married to Books. [read more]
  • An excerpt of Threadwalkers is available over on FirstBookLove [read more]
  • Finally, a review from Birdie’s Bibliotheca. [read more]

Come back tomorrow for the next round!

Backyard shenanigans

One of the things I’m enjoying this week is the DRAMA of the hummingbirds in my backyard. They’ve fought over the feeder since day one (and I’m seriously thinking about getting a second one just so everybody will calm down a little) but the new development this week is that A) they aren’t afraid of me anymore so they are fighting above and around my head and B) they figured out they could perch on the decorative pieces I have hanging from the porch ceiling and stand guard over their preferred feeder spots.

hummer on art

So cute and ridiculous! (It’s not a great photo but at least you can see one of the loudest of my soap opera cast.)

Threadwalkers

Threadwalkers Blog Tour Day 1

Joanna V.

It’s Monday, which means it’s DAY ONE of the Threadwalkers blog tour, aka virtual book tour. Yay!

Blog Tour Links for March 5:

  • Here’s a short review with a giveaway attached for a $25 Amazon gift card from The British Bookworm [read more]
  • Here’s an interview I did with The Cover Contessa. If you’ve ever wanted to know what my dream job as a child was or five things that make me sad, this is the one for you. [read more]
  • Finally, here’s a very kind review from Stephanie at Literary Flits who is also giving away a $25 Amazon gift card! [read more]

Snaps from a daytrip up the mountain

winter valley

Sunday afternoon 3 friends and I ventured into the east San Diego county mountains to meander around Julian and to enjoy the winding roads and gorgeous overlooks. We saw a distant Salton Sea and desert and snow and it was lovely.

4 friends

Two of these ladies move away this year and I’m so sad to see them go. It’s part of life, these hellos and goodbyes, but this hello has been entirely too short.

Threadwalkers, updates

March news, links, and a blog tour, OH MY!

Joanna V.

Oh HEY. It’s March. Where did February go??

It felt like January took roughly 11.3 years to get through and then I blinked and it was March 1st. WOW.

Because time got away from me, there are a couple of links that you may have missed.

Author Interview

First, I had a fantastic time chatting about Threadwalkers with Jennifer Holmquist, aka Magic Cat Jenny, over on her YouTube channel:

Book Review

Second, Time Travel Nexus published a lovely review of Threadwalkers earlier this week, which you can read here.

Don’t forget you can always find reviews, media, and bonus content on the Media and Bonus Content page of this site. 🙂

(Vitural) Book Tour

Third, I’m going on (virtual) tour! Starting next week, I’ll be hanging out on various book blogs in the form of guest posts and interviews, and there will be many more reviews! If you want to follow along, here’s the planned schedule:

March 5th

March 6th

March 7th

March 8th

March 9th

So I’ll be seeing you a lot next week as I try to stay on top of these. I’ll also link back to these sites each day as the posts go live so they are easy to find.

#BYJoStraw Project

In other, non-Threadwalkers news, I’ve started a new instagram account to document a project I’m doing this term for my master’s program. I was challenged to find something to promote biodiversity, so I decided to give up single-use plastic straws! In the US alone, we go through an estimated 500 million straws A DAY. They can’t be recycled and it takes each one 200 years to decompose. YIKES. I ordered a glass straw from Simply Straws, and honestly, it’s been SO much fun to use! I take it with me everywhere in its cloth sleeve, and it’s got a cleaning brush and everything. Here’s my straw in action:

If you want one of your own, you can use my referral link to Simply Straws for 25% off your first purchase. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will let you know that I also get rewards when you use the link. So basically we both save money and there’s less plastic pollution. It’s a win-win-win.

So there’s the full update! In theory I’ll be back on Monday with links to FUN THINGS! Woot!

updates

New Year, New State

Joanna V.

Well, here we are.

It’s 2018, we’ve moved halfway across the country, and life is beginning to show the signs of settling back into some sense of normalcy in our household. J went back to work and I am waiting on school to start and generally speaking we’ve got an idea of the next few months.

If you follow me on instagram, you’ve seen some of our recent local adventures, now that we’re back in southern California.

View this post on Instagram

Silver and gold sunset

A post shared by Joanna (@joannavolavka) on

It’s been good to be out of the cold weather, and I can already feel my mental health improving. It also helps that not only do I have friends still here, but I actually have, somehow, more friends here than I did when we left three years ago. Some have moved here and others have naturally grown from acquaintances to friends from just being in my broader circle, and I’m grateful for all of them. And, unlike my usual moves where I don’t have a niche (which is an ongoing issue for military spouses, and one that I should probably blog about separately), I also have a cohort to join and which has already been welcoming and happy to meet me.

So all in all, things are good.

And what of the writing?

Well, I’m working on a couple of things. The first is a fresh media push for THREADWALKERS, including a local book launch sometime in the next couple of months. (I’m seeking book bloggers/vloggers/etc for reviews and interviews and all, so if you are interested or know someone who is, please get in touch!)

I’m also working on the next book… It’s not a follow-up to THREADWALKERS but a new thing entirely. It started as a pet project to get some ideas out of my head but has grown into a thing that might turn into a Book. We will see. There’s still a lot of work to do.

What can you expect in 2018 from me?

  • I’ll be going to some conventions this year (would a schedule on my About page be of interest?).
  • New content related to military spouse life.
  • New content related to writing.
  • More travelogue things because you know I won’t stop traveling and that’s what I enjoy writing about here the most.

So there’s the update! If there’s anything you’d like to know more about, just get in touch!