About Vivi - Vivi Stutz

I wrote my first book when I was nine and asked my mother to submit it to a publisher. It wasn't published, but I continued writing, some of it published and some of it back to my pile for idea-recycling. I study the craft, most notably at the UCLA Writer's Program, and through a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts awarded by Excelsior College.

I have tried on many professions like shoes, depending on my current style and location. I love life experience more than stability.

I was a theater actress and musician in Germany, a tarot card reader in Australia, and a medium and intuitive counselor across the globe. I was fired as a waitress many times. I worked as a background actor on movie sets in Hollywood and earned far too little money as an actress in Los Angeles. I had my own business as a personal trainer and health coach in Silverlake, CA, for 20 years until it died of Covid, and worked as a marriage and family therapist with homeless people on Skid Row. I work as a writer and English-German translator, and I'm currently a virtual mental health counselor and EMDR therapist in Washington state while living as a digital nomad in Germany and California.

I have a Master's degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, and a Master's degree in psychology from California Southern University. I'm licensed as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise.

I grew up in West Germany, moved to the East after the wall came down (lived in a squatted house with no fluent water or electricity among WW2 ruins) and came to California at twenty-four (attending an acting school and working as a cleaner in Venice beach youth hostels.)

I married an American (somehow it didn't occur to me that I would end up staying for a while if I do that) and we set up shop with a hoard of rescue animals.

I'm notoriously homesick for Germany and try to have one foot on each continent, which can be shaky but the breeze over the Atlantic is invigorating.
When an insight or idea moves me or when I learned a new skill, I write about it. I'm curious about what makes us human and how to go about being human successfully. I write paranormal fiction because "the paranormal is y normal", or I write romance when something fed my inner die-hard romantic. I write non-fiction when I'm excited about something I learned or when I'm hooked on research.

I view life through the lens of psychology, non-denominational spirituality, humanism, history, multi-cultural perspectives, philosophy, non-traditional life styles, travel and most of all, humor. I am influenced by an inexpliccably strong intuition and by the paradigm-changing program at the University of Santa Monica, which often lends me an unusual outlook on events. Through writing, I hope to share inspiration, healing and empowerment. And laughter. We must keep our humor about it all.

I love the beautiful written word. I derive my calories from books; I devour them. Great books provide the best mental vacation all inclusive therapy and life coaching, and I will not discriminate against anything from chicklit to Kant.

A thoroughly good day is a day spent alone with the sound of the wind in the leaves outside, surrounded by books and words and writing tools in the company of furry creatures, and my husband bringing me chocolate when the sun gets ready to tuck itself and us all in.