Joanne Rodasta Wilshin has always had quests, but three stand out as huge successes. In the 80s she found my entire birth family without the help of the Internet or DNA. In the 90s she figured out why positive thinking and prayer only work sometimes and how to fix that problem. In the 10s she figured out how to sail from Puget Sound to Alaska and back with just her husband as company (he was the captain). The results of these quests are three books (and accompanying blogs):

The Findlings: A novel based on a real event - 2021

The Happiness Path - 2015 (formerly Take a Moment and Create Your Life! 1997)

The First-Mate’s Guide to Cruising the Inside Passage: Thriving and surviving the waters from Olympia to Glacier Bay - 2017

As a native Californian born in San Diego, she grew up in Palos Verdes, and lived her adult like in Los Angeles and Orange Counties before moving to Anacortes, Washington, in 2010. She has degrees in fine art and education from Long Beach State University and University of San Francisco. For thirty-one years she taught English and various subjects in Buena Park, Calif. She is a member of Mensa and the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry.

In the early 2000s, Joanne studied novel writing with Louella Nelson through UC Irvine. The Findlings first draft was completed after her move to Fidalgo Island. A portion of The Findlings was short listed by the Pacific Northwest Writers Assn’s annual contest. In 2006 she won the Worst First Sentence contest at the Santa Barbara Writing Conference.

Joanne is married to attorney David Wilshin. She has two children, Lisa and Nicolas, who live in Oakland, Calif., and McMinnville, Oreg., respectively.