The Medium Life

To celebrate Christmas, I have written a Christmas short story, a five minute read that you can download for free on the BookFunnel site. The link to it is HERE . If you read   Marrying Melinda   (aka Daniel's Bride, the original title), you might recall the character of Nora, Daniel's super efficient PA. You might also recall that Daniel had two brothers, Sean and Everett, who had taken off overseas leaving Daniel to run the family business in Sydney. At the end of the book, Sean and Everett were coming home, and this story takes place soon after that. I love the story and even made a cover for it. So please head over and download a copy if you fancy a short, Christmas story.  Merry Christmas ~ Jo xxx

 The halls are indeed decked! Nearly a week into December and the tree is up, the rest of the decorations are up, the Christmas cake is made and undergoing its weekly feeding of brandy before it gets plastered in almond icing a week out from the big day, and the parties are in full swing. Two parties next week including a dessert night, so a lot of fun to be had. I am also in the swing of books Christmas and have two books I'm dying to get stuck into. The first chapters were great. If I don't like the first chapter I won't read on, and these two are just up my alley, so there is my weekend reading sorted.  The photograph of the tree is the Pohutukawa, the New Zealand Christmas Tree, at the front of my house. It doesn't have a great display of its red flowers but there are a couple there and they'll be gone by Christmas. Fortunately, everywhere you go now, all the other pohutukawa trees are blooming and it is a glorious sight indeed. There are far better ones down th...

I saw this bit of street art this week, when I was walking down a road here in Auckland to catch a bus. I'd actually missed the bus and had twenty minutes to wait, so thought I might as well walk back a few stops for the exercise instead of sitting and waiting, and as I strolled, I saw this. It's painted on a wall outside someone's home, and I thought it was just lovely. Heartbreaking, maybe, but just amazing. The image got more Likes on my Facebook page than anything else has for a while, that's for sure!  Love it. ~ Joanne

Here's a fun thing to share ... I’ve teamed up with 50+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Sweet Romance series starters to 2 lucky winners! Even more, the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader? 😁  You can win my novel FALLING FOR JACK , plus books from  a whole heap of authors; such a terrific chance to try new sweet romance authors and maybe even a new series to delve into.  Enter the giveaway by clicking here 👉 bit.ly/SweetRomance-Sep2020  It closes on October the 7th so get in quick! Good luck and enjoy!

Sometimes you just want to watch an old favourite movie and go for a browse of the DVD stash; I'm so glad I didn't get rid of them cos sometimes flicking through the pile is such a nice thing to do. Am also so glad we've still got the XBox so I can watch them on the actual TV. Anyhoo, yesterday I was flicking through the stash and came across the 1991 film, "Regarding Henry." What a treasure. I hadn't seen it in years but it was an hour and a half wonderfully spent. Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) is a hard-arsed, workaholic lawyer in New York, and when he goes to the local store to get a packet of ciggies, oh the memories, there's a robbery in place,  he is shot and ends up losing oxygen to his brain, and suffering brain damage. His marriage to Sarah hasn't been great, and he's been pretty harsh with only child, Rachel, but as he learns to speak and walk in rehab, and then comes home, the family grows together, from being distant to very close...

If you'd like to join my mailing list for my monthly newsletter, I will send you a link to download a free copy of my short story collection, Love The Commute , a collection of five short, romantic reads. (You can tell I take the bus to work from that title!) Here's the blurb: Love The Commute – five short romantic reads perfect for the ride home. Meet Othello, a matchmaking cat; Jennifer and her obsession with an enigmatic pro-wrestler; up-and-coming cook Penny Palmer, who learns a secret that could jeopardise her marriage;  single mum, Tracey, whose new neighbour is having his own fair share of single parent problems; and chocolate-addicted Bridget, who can’t get over her ill-fated relationship with gym-owner, Joel. Five light-hearted, sweet reads – just right for the ride home. All you have to do is click HERE   and it will take you to the sign up page,  then you'll get a Welcome email with the link to download a pdf.

 I am currently working on a new book, with no title yet, but it will be about Michelle, Daisy's best friend in Dating Daisy  I always thought it would be fun to write Michelle's story, and I came up with an idea a while back, wrote a first chapter and got side-tracked. Now that I am taking annual leave during our new two weeks lockdown here in New Zealand, I have a week to literally write a rough first draft, with no idea of the plot as such, to discover all that as I go along and hopefully at the end, it will work enough, that I can then go back and work on it and make it really, really good. Sounds like a great challenge. On the subject of Daisy, I received a great review on Amazon this week which cheered me up no end.  Not that I needed cheering up, but it cheered me up all the same. With a lot of humor and a little angst Joanne Hill really grabs your attention and holds it with Dating Daisy. Daisy and Joel make a very mismatched but so right for each other couple! I'...