Joyce Sandilands

Joyce Sandilands was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada at the end of WW2. Her father was a victim of WW2 so she and her mother lived with her mother's parents for the next seven years. Later, she would realize what a wonderful connection he had given her to a huge and loving family 'Downunder.' Joyce's life had the usual and unusual ups and downs including a family of two lovely children and two grandchildren whom she sees regularly. In her senior years after retirement, she decided to write her autobiography for her family. It made her realize that life had been so much more precious than she could ever have imagined. She is still working on it as remarkably, she keeps remembering important bits and pieces!

In 1994, something extraordinary happened when she encouraged her 2nd husband Bob Whittle to write his bio while recuperating from a surgery and fighting a deadly staph infection for two years. His recovery took almost 4 years and he wrote three books during that time although not his bio. By 1998, she had published the 3rd novel he had written, 'Lizzie: Lethal Innocence.' It was written under his pen name, J. Robert Whittle. It began a 20-years writing and publishing partnership between them and became their first of 3 Canadian bestselling historical novels.

In 2008, Whittle's 8th book won their 2nd gold medal in the prestigious Independent Publisher contest for their first official collaboration 'Whispers Across Time.' With their Victoria Chronicles Trilogy now complete (with 2 bestsellers and their first IPPY gold medal), these awards certainly helped turn the international reading public onto their side. It had been difficult for self-published writers in these days, but now their readers truly got behind them, deciding that these self-published authors were definitely worthy of their attention.

Sandilands edited and published all 11 of her husband's novels, while she wrote two children's chapter books based on one of his short stories. She also co-authored 3 of these novels with Whittle and produced 4 audiobooks, two narrated by Robert and two by herself. Countless fans claimed their family-friendly novels were the "best page-turning novels" they had ever read because of their clean, historically correct content - a refreshing change, they said.

Robert passed away in August 2017 stunning many of his friends and fans. He was 84 years-old but many thought he was much younger. He had been terminally ill for many years with Coalminer's Black Lung after many years underground but he never let it get him down and always had a smile and a laugh for others, she said. Joyce finally retired in 2022 and moved to Duncan to be closer to some of her family. All their books are available on Amazon including ebooks.