We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jacqueline Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacqueline, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I am a small animal veterinarian and my kids always love hearing about what I do at work every day. One day, my husband said jokingly, “You should write a book.” And suddenly that seemed like a great idea! It wasn’t long before I self-published my first picture book called “The Doggy Doctor and the Upset Tummy.” It was a great experience learning not only about writing, but the publishing industry from artwork, book design, and printing.

Jacqueline, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always love reading and stories, but as a veterinarian I seemed to lose time for more creative outlets. During Covid, I found some more time to really explore writing and found it was such a wonderful creative outlet. I also discovered how wonderful the writing community it, especially the kidlit writers – they truly are such an embracing and supportive group of people.

I am often drawn to true stories or little known moments in history, and I try to bring some of those to my stories. With my first traditionally published book, I have been thrilled to tell the story of the first practicing female veterinarian in the United States, and how much determination she showed to achieve her dream.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Writing can take up a huge amount of time and emotional output, while not being financially lucrative. I think it can be hard for people to understand why writers invest so much of themselves in what might be seen as a “hobby” when we could otherwise be pursuing more tangible goals. Part of it is just having stories in you that need to be shared, even if the only other people who ever get to read it are in your critique group. And some people who have jobs that may be very mentally taxing in analytical or scientific ways can benefit from unwinding in a more creative manner, be that writing, painting, knitting, etc.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many resources out there for writers that it can be hard to parse through which ones may be the most helpful. Online writing courses, SCBWI, Twitter pitch parties, contests, newsletters, Patreon accounts. I think the most helpful thing I ever found was having a least a handful of trusted critque partners to share work with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jacquelinejohnsonbooks.com
• Instagram: @jjohnsonbooks
• Twitter: @thevetwrites

Image Credits

The photo of me and the other author is Dana Miroballi