Local Author Spotlight
Author Johanna Vendel
Author Johanna Vendel has lived in Buffalo since August 1, 2020. Her family emigrated from South Africa in 2016, first landing in Monticello and later moving to Buffalo. In her autobiography, “Life? Think Again!!,” Johanna tells the tale of her family’s decision to leave the county of her birth in search of a new life and safety for her children.
Her book received the International Impact Book Award for best autobiography category for July 2024.
Tell us about your family’s emigration from South Africa to Buffalo in 2016 and how that experience led you to write your story:
If you get to read my book, you will realize that there were a lot of things that happened in my life and that South Africa is not a very safe place to live nowadays. I needed to give my children a safer environment to grow up in. I told my husband to find a transfer through his work anywhere but in Africa. It took approximately seven years for him to look for a suitable position. He found one in Minnesota of all places, and we moved to America in 2016.
We found our home in the small town of Buffalo, Minnesota, where we will settle down. People will not understand how amazing it is to feel safe and to know that you won’t have people breaking into your house at night and that you can sleep with a restful heart and know that you will be okay.
What inspired you to become a writer?
Life has made many tragic turns with me. I have lost my entire family and struggled to get over my grief. For a very long time, I have been writing songs, and four years ago after losing my last sister, it started to take a toll on me. How does one person have so many losses in one lifetime? How could God take away all my loved ones? How does one handle all the stress from divorce after a long marriage with someone you trusted with your whole heart?
Every day is a new day, and it goes on with or without you. I needed to learn how to get through just one day at a time. Coming to America has helped a lot with most of my stress, but not having close friends surely makes it VERY difficult. So… what do you do? Take your own life? Become an alcoholic? Or drown yourself in drugs? NO!!! I WROTE a book… “Life? Think Again!!”
How long have you been a writer?
I started to write songs in 2006 when I found God and said my personal yes to Him. I overcame a lot of grief from losing my father and my twin sister. I was invited by a friend to go to a church camp to meet different people and that weekend the Pastor gathered us all around the fire pit. It felt like he was speaking to me. My heart felt like it wanted to break out of my chest from all the heartache. While the pastor was speaking, he could see that I was crying. I tried not to attract too much attention. He walked up to me, placed his hand on my chest and asked me if it hurts. I did not reply back but instead I burst out in tears. He placed his other hand on my head and started to pray for me. All the other people around the campfire stood up and placed their hands on me. To this day, I believe that it was the big hand of God that relieved me from all the pain that was in my heart. I felt like I could move on.
I started to write songs and that turned into a CD in 2013 when I turned 40. I then knew that I wanted to write a book in the next few years. I lost the rest of my family members and that made me think of them a lot and made me write down my thoughts of them, which then turned into my book.
Writing about my life has helped me overcome many sadness and grief. I will never forget my family, but it surely helps to know that I have God in my life. He has always been there for me… I didn’t always see it, but now I do. If you are going through a few struggles, feel free to read my story for a little inspiration.
Where can people discover your work?
You can find my book on Kindle and Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4XTKS31.
Author Brandon Van Hees
Local artist and author, Brandon Van Hees, has a gift for music, storytelling, and spray paint art. Brandon and his wife, Jodi, live in Buffalo. His first book, “Madness Reigns: A Rock Band Story,” is an action and suspense-driven thriller that draws from his experience as a musician and drummer playing in bands.
His second novel, “In the Shadow of Dallas,” is a crime and suspense thriller that pulls from Brandon’s interest in history, especially the assassination of JFK, a subject he’s studied throughout his life.
What inspired you to become a writer?
My daughter and my father. My dad has written six books, but when he wrote those, I still didn’t have any desire to write one myself, it’s a pretty daunting task. I was never much of a reader either, other than books about history, like the JFK assassination. My daughter loves to write; growing up, she was always writing some kind of short story about this or that. So, at some point the idea to write something came about, but I had no idea where to start. I knew I was going to write something fiction, but I was having trouble coming up with something original. I spent months trying to come up with something before I finally landed on the subject for “Madness Reigns.” Funny thing is since then, new ideas have been coming like crazy, I’ve even woken up in the middle of the night with an idea for a book. The hard part is finding the time to sit down and write. I have probably five or six different stories I’ve started that are just waiting for me to come back to. I’m hoping to get another one done over the winter.
What is your preferred genre to write?
I like thrillers and suspense. When I started writing, I began to read a lot more than I ever had before. Vince Flynn, Marc Cameron, James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Brad Thor, authors like that. I love the plot twists and surprise endings, things you don’t really see coming. People who’ve read “Madness Reigns,” have told me they thought they knew what was coming and then BAM, this happens and throws them off. I love that!
Describe your writing process:
I don’t plan anything. I have a general idea for the story, where I want it to go, but other than that I just write and see where it goes. Referring to the plot twists, as I was writing “Madness Reigns,” I had an idea for what was going to happen with one of the characters and as I was writing the chapter, it literally went in a whole new direction I didn’t plan on. It was awesome, I surprised myself as I was writing. I watched some videos of Steven King talking about his process and that was one of the things he mentioned, “to let the story unfold in front of you.” And it’s true, that will happen, and I love that about the process.
How long did you spend writing your books? What was the inspiration for the stories?
With “Madness Reigns,” I’m a drummer, have been for over 30 years. I know all about starting a band with some friends and playing gigs and so forth. I never got the chance to make it to the “big time”, but I have knowledge of it. So, I used a combination of my experiences and knowledge of the music world to create the story of Dex, Chaz, Jesse, and Jon starting a band called Madness Reigns and their journey to making it big. Of course, there’s more to the story that you’d have to read to find out. That book took me about a year to complete, I took three months off because we moved into our home in Buffalo, so I was spending time on that. I finished it and published it by October of 2021. I’m very proud of that book.
As for “In the shadow of Dallas”, I’ve been studying the JFK assassination for as long as I can remember. There isn’t a documentary or book I probably haven’t seen or read. When I decided I wanted to write another book, which after the first I wasn’t sure if I would. Writing a story around the JFK assassination seemed like a cool idea. And with the experience of writing the first book I was able to finish this one a lot quicker, I think it took four months to write it and publish it. Honestly, I write for me. I never thought about getting rich or famous from it; it’s a hobby like my painting. But the fact that I’ve sold 18 copies combined of my two books is crazy! I never thought that would happen. In fact, I just got a review from someone that bought “Madness” on Amazon and left a very nice review. That meant a lot to get feedback from someone I don’t know, it’s a good feeling.
Where can people discover your work?
Both books are on Amazon and Kindle, and I sell them along with my paintings at the art and craft fair in downtown Buffalo. I sold one last year to a lady that came into my booth before the show even started. That was really cool!
