Vintage Writers: It’s never too late to reinvent yourself as an author

Guest post by Kim Gottlieb-Walker

After a fifty + year career as a counterculture, rock, and movie set photographer, I reinvented myself as a novelist and released  Lenswoman in Love – a novel of the 1960s & ‘70s in 2025 at age 78 – a reimagining my early career as a second-chance romance. And to my surprise, I discovered that I am not the only woman in retirement who has become a writer. I initiated a weekly zoom chat for “Vintage” authors, all women over 70, and discovered fascinating feisty ladies who have drawn on their wealth of experience to create wonderful books.
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Among them are:

• Roselyn Teukolsky, who after a lifetime of teaching computer science to devious teenagers (and writing the Barron’s prep book on computer science), has written two edge-of-your-seat thrillers I could not put down, with a computer genius heroine, A Reluctant Spy and The Fourth Woman
• Dorothea Buckingham, a librarian in Hawaii and WWII historian, who released her first novel Code Name Rascal about four women in Hawaii who worked for the government to help win the war.
• Karen Lee Cohen, who after a career as a TV producer ,has written a non-fiction self-help book Let’s Be Peace and started a movement to make the world a better place, one person at a time.

As well as:

• Colleen Fleidner’s Fascinating True Tales from Old California
• Alexis Krasilovsy’s poetry book Watermelon Linguistics and novel Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
• DM Cross’ Romatasy  A Long Way from Home
• MJ Frause-Chivers Russian Menonite Chronicles Katerina’s Dark Shadow and Katerina’s Dark Journey
• Paulette Brooks’ American immigrant saga Not Just a Homemaker

…and many working on their first books.
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Our group is a terrific support for each other, sharing our expertise in various aspects of writing, editing, publishing, and marketing, and cheering each other on, commiserating with setbacks and sharing each other’s writing and personal journeys. It has provided a sense of community and created new friendships. The group is overflowing with talent from from women living all over the USA and Canada, writing in every imaginable genre – historical fiction, romance, mystery/suspense, children’s and middle school adventures, self-help and spirituality and more, proving it’s never too late to reinvent yourself! 

This essay was first published by Chicago Story Press.

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Kim Gottlieb-Walker’s colorful career as a photographer covered a wide range of subjects, from classic rock and roll, reggae, and politics in the ‘60s and ‘70s to major motion pictures and television shows, including Halloween, Escape from New York, Cheers, and Family Ties. Her two coffeetable photobooks "One Set with John Carpenter" and Bob Marley and then Golden Age of Reggae" are still in print after over a decade. Now a novelist living in Laurel Canyon, Kim’s debut novel "Lenswoman in Love," a reimagining of her early career as a second-chance romance, has won over a dozen awards. See www.Lenswoman.com for an overview of her photographic history or www.KimGottliebWalker.com - her author website.