When Michele Olson of Green Bay retired, she didn’t view it as the end of a 45-year career as a writer, producer, and voice actor, she looked forward to it as a chance to spend time doing the things she loved the most. She calls it her “second act.”
“There is this beauty to it,” Olson said. “I am retired and I don’t need to have this corporate idea of goals. My goal is to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit every day and keep doing what I’m doing it and enjoying it. I would say to everybody sitting in a cubicle, look ahead and you will be able to have your own second act.”
Her second act is a mostly unscripted combination of painting, designing bookmarks, teaching classes, doodling, speaking, doing voice work, and writing books.
“The sky is the limit. I do whatever I feel like doing on that day,” Olson said.
Although almost everything she does results in success, probably the greatest success has come from writing. She is the author of a series set on Mackinac Island. The first book, “Being Ethel in a World that Loves Lucy,” was published in December 2019. Since then, there has been a book almost every year, including “Being Dorothy in a World Longing for Home,” “Being Alice in a World Lost in the Looking Glass,” “Being Wendy in a World Afraid to Grow Up,” “Being Nancy in a World Lost in Mystery,” and “Being Goldie in a Just-Right World.”
All have been in the top 10 on Amazon at various times; “Being Nancy” is a National Zibby Award Winner and recently hit No. 1 in Amazon mysteries.
The books are available on her website, www.lakegirlpublishing.com, on Amazon, and in book outlets like Barnes & Noble and Walmart. They are also carried at libraries across the country, Lion’s Mouth Bookstore and Pages and Pours locally, and Junk in the Trunk Antique Mall in downtown Green Bay.
But one of her favorite places to promote the books is at the bookstore on Mackinac Island.
Olson said, “It takes me a year to write a book, but my pattern is that I’ll get it out by March or April. After it’s published, my husband and I make a trip to the island during tourist season to sign and sell books.”
In addition to books, the bookstore also carries her artwork, including a line of bookmarks designed especially for the island. This was the first summer that she didn’t make the trip.
“Writing a book is so much more work than creating art,” she said. “It is working with a cover designer and an editor, and getting it uploaded to two different distributors. This year, I was tired and decided to take the year off.”
She points to statistics that show that of the 81% of people who think they have a book in them, only 15% of them will actually go through the lengthy process of sitting down and writing one. Of that 15%, just 3% will finish the entire book; of those, only 1% will ever actually publish one.
That evidences just how difficult it is. Even trying to find a publisher or self-publishing is a hard part of the process. To ease that part of it, Olson formed her own company, Lake Girl Publishing, before releasing her first book.
Now that company has expanded to include her other endeavors. As she takes the year to focus on the art she loves to create, the company includes a wide array of whimsical tote bags, paintings, magnet art, and bookmarks that are marketed under the new branch of her business, Bookmark Betty.
“The whimsical bookmarks are painted by me with the tagline, Artsy Bookmarks with Attitude,” she said. “For my books, I do the postcards that are on the cover of all of them and create Mackinac Island scenes.”
There is an undeniable sense of joy expressed in the art; she admits that it is her favorite thing to do. She hopes that others find that same sense of joy by creating their own art.
Olson said, “I will be teaching four classes at Pristine Lavender, near Pulaski (register at www.pristinelavender.com) this summer with the first class on June 27. It will be outside in the lavender field under the tent, and lavender lemonade will be served. You don’t need to have any experience and after painting a project, you can go home and continue painting. Kill your inner critic and enjoy art.”
As she talks about her excitement to teach, it is hard for Olson to stay focused on one thing.
“I just go down rabbit holes. I’ll start on one thing and then there is something else that draws me,” she said.
That has resulted in a very busy schedule. As a voice actor, she still does voice work for video games, corporations, tourist tapes, commercials, and film. Almost every day, Olson can be found, at least for part of the day, in her home studio as she auditions for the voice roles. It is something she began doing about 50 years ago, but much has changed.
Whereas it used to be only normal practice for a human voice to be used, AI is the newest competition. That has meant fewer opportunities for not only voice actors, but also copywriters and others in the arts.
It is also something faced by writers as entire books are written by AI; often using an author’s name. Olson has had numerous discussions with other writers about combating it, but it is difficult.
She said, “AI is changing everything, and books are written that are completely fabricated. They are trying to catch which books are AI generated and stop it, but I don’t know if it can be controlled.”
One area that should be free of fabrication is where Olson finds herself on Sundays at CRE8 Church in downtown Green Bay where she serves in a very unique role.
“I think we’re doing something that might not be happening anywhere else in the country,” Olson said. “While pastors James and Jill Kocian are preaching the sermon, I am drawing out the sermon on an iPad in real time, and that is going on right behind them on a big screen. It has been well-received and doing doodling yourself at a talk, meeting, or sermon is a wonderful way to stay engaged.”
Doodling, also known as sketch notes, are part of how Olson’s creativity is exhibited. She describes herself as an author, artist, and edutainer, a person who entertains while educating. One of her current “rabbit holes” is learning how to be a caricature artist and she recently took a class in Nashville with her son, also an artist.
“I am pretty busy all day. Anything I hear, see or read or strikes me as funny can find its way into my books or art,” she said. “That’s my story. I turn 70 in six months, so I want to encourage all the second acts to go after their passions. You aren’t too old and it’s never too late.”
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Retired Green Bay woman finding success in her ‘second act’
Reporting by Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt, For Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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