Tag: Jennie Jones

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#WriteRoundOz w/ Jennie Jones – romance author

Jennie Jones_Author Photo

Fellow small-town fiction writer, Jennie Jones from Perth, Western Australia, lets me drop by in the fifth wheeler (as long as I do a little weeding on the way!!)

Check out the *** below for a little FACT or FICTION fun.

 

 

 

Thank you for letting my park my rig on your driveway–a five minute walk to the Indian Ocean.

You’re welcome, Jenn. Very impressed at the way you casually backed up a steep driveway and around two bends…but hang on to your drink because you’re still on a slope!

(It’s okay. I have wheel chocks!)

What’s that I see written on your ‘welcome mat’?

Beware of the cat (the small one).

(You have a big cat?)

Downsizing my life into a 24 ft caravan meant leaving lots of things behind in boxes. What (or who!!) would you have trouble leaving behind if you took off in a caravan?

My husband – because there wouldn’t be room for both of us (smile). But I’ve promised him I’ll write…

I miss my HUGE refrigerator. If I looked in your refrigerator right now, what would I find?

Scotch fillet steak for my husband and Eye fillet steak for me. Chilled champagne, cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, low-fat vanilla yoghurt and yesterday’s Webber bbq chicken.

Whose home would you like to visit in your van and why?

Any country manor – so long as it’s elegant and grand and whispers stories.

Houses are definitely Jennie’s favourite things. Check out her titles!! 6 Teaser_Swallows Fall Series by Jennie Jones

Do you REALLY have room at your house to park a fifth wheeler caravan and do you mind visitors? Oh, sorry, you don’t have to answer that one!! 🙂

It’s a complicated driveway and you were game enough to reverse up and around – if you could also do a little weeding while you’re here…you can stay.

Country curiosities…

My latest novel, Season of Shadow and Light, has a strong horse theme. (I love what horses can teach us). If you were an animal what would you be?

I’d be a cat. They’re so independent (so long as they’re fed on time) and so capable of looking after themselves (so long as they get what they demand when they demand it). But they are also very loving (when they want to be).

You’re cooking and your food is going up against the best cooks from the CWA (Country Women’s Association). What would be your winning dish?

Oh, heck. I’d lose, so maybe I’ll bring the wine.

About you…

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

I’m pretty good at starting a story due to ideas I have to get down, and it flows wonderfully from there for the first three chapters. I can grow the story at around three chapters per stage, but my huge stumbling block is making these stages glue together and make sense. So by three-quarters of the way through a first draft, I’m questioning my sanity. I don’t plot – even when I need to and think I’ve got the rest of the story outlined, the supposed plot changes as soon as I start writing – so I have to go through those difficult periods of wondering where on earth this is going and if it’s going to make the mark. One day, when I’ve got over twenty books under my belt, I might not find it so hard. That’s the hope, anyway.

If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?

She tried everything except parachuting (and bungy jumping).  

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?

“How did you amass such a fortune, Ms Jones?” But I’d probably wake up before I answered…

Favourites…

Favourite movie: Jane Eyre (most of the many versions).

Favourite quote: “Fate keeps on happening” Anita Loos

*** NOW – You’re a fiction writer, Jennie. Tells us something about you and we’ll guess if it’s true.

I once spent two weeks auditioning for a musical dance troupe – and after all that effort, got the job. Only to discover we’d be touring Indonesia and would be performing the play naked. I turned the job down. They were all arrested in Indonesia during the first performance.

What do you reckon, folks? Fact or fiction?

______________________________________

More about Jennie and her books…

 

Author Webpage: http://www.jenniejonesromance.com

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BUY: THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET – latest release.

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Amazon Australia

Kobo

iTunes/iBooks

And if you can’t get enough of HOUSE books, you can always check out my House for all Seasons (#5 bestselling debut novel in 2013)
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School Daze – your favourite authors

Playgrounds, pencils and Perkins Paste remain a hazy, crazy, daze for many of us. In Calingarry Crossing this storm season, a school reunion brings home more than memories for publican, Maggie Lindeman, so I’ve decided to ask a few authors to reflect on their own    school daze.

What do you think about school reunions! Love them? Hate them? Do you agree with Maggie (Simmering Season) that such events push you to question everything — your worth, your achievements … your life.

To celebrate the release of Simmering Season, I’m holding a school reunion and you’re invited to catch up with your favourite authors, or find a new favourite author. If you have an Aussie author you’d like me to feature, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

The school bell is ringing, and first in class we have…

Jennie Jones – THEN

“When I left school I also left my best friend, Jane. We each trod different paths after that but had spent our high school years together; dreaming, dodging, wishing, loving boys and getting giggly over just about anything. Our formative years were filled with sighing, laughing, crying, arguing, wondering and planning.  We’re still in touch, after thirty-something years. This special school friendship we share is what I call a seasoned memory.”

NOW: www.jenniejonesromance.com

Sara Foster at school
Sara Foster – THEN

‘Throughout my primary school days we used to play elastics at every opportunity, coming up with more and more imaginative ways of jumping on and over two strips of elastic, which were either wound around people’s legs or tied to drainpipes and chairs. At some stage I’m planning to drag my daughters away from technology to show them how it’s done. (Although let’s just hope I can still do it!)’

 

Rachael Johns at School Rachael Johns – THEN

I’m one of the lucky ones. In my first weeks of high school I found my ‘group.’ You know the people who stick by you through thick and thin, who laugh and cry with you, put up with your crazy and embarrassing sometimes outlandish personality, and whom you feel confident sharing your deepest and darkest secrets? These are my girls – there are six of us. Four of us met in year eight, another came in year ten and the final (but just as important) member of our group found us in year eleven. We spent our high school years hanging out at school and whenever we could outside of school. We shopped for our all important formal dresses together, we were there to laugh over crushes of boys and support each other when hearts were broken. We had the BEST ever sleepovers – where sleep wasn’t on the agenda at all. We scared each other silly with thriller movies, while we ate junk food and drank Fanta. One sleepover we even rung the local radio station and dedicated songs to our then crushes – whether they have heard them or not, we’ll never know. The song was ‘I Swear’ if you were wondering.
Although we now are all married with kids, we are still as close as ever. Maybe closer. We’ve been through joyous times together – weddings and babies – and we’ve been through some tough times too. In many ways we are as different as a bunch of women can get, but we still get together as much as we can. We laugh over old memories and share what’s currently going on in our crazy, hectic lives. Now we even get together on occasions with our kids and there is nothing more amazing than watching my children enjoy spending time with my best friends’ children. I know we’ll be BFFs until the end. Yep, these women are the best thing I got out of high school!

Alison Stuart – THEN

“Unpick it and do it again”… Mrs. Plummer, sewing teacher. But seriously I think I owe my biggest debt of thanks to Miss Robinson who had the misfortune to try and teach a bunch of Year 9 girls English grammar. She was the first teacher who encouraged my creative writing.”

NOW:  www.alisonstuart.com

 

Cathryn Hein – THEN

“I suspect that without Mr Costello as my English teacher I wouldn’t be a writer. He was amazing. He also gave me a B+ for my cringe-worthy short story A Day In The Life Of A Feminist Cockroach. Not quite sure what he was thinking that day…”

 Nicola Moriaty – THEN

I thought it might be fun to quote directly from my diary that I kept all through my schools years, the following extract is from when I was eight years old, I’ve kept the spelling mistakes in!!
“i dont beleav it today mr. Connolly let us talk for a bit! We have this new sports teacher who is mean. But we playd lots of running games. We started school two days ago. We’v done lots of work but Mr. Connolly thinks we’v hardly done any he sais where gonna work our buts off. He already toute us two songs and a poulm. At lunch i got tipped when I was b.a. then everybody said to me that i was in so i said i was b.a. They said there was no b.a. I said i did not know. They said I had to take it. i got mad and cryed. But we made up.”
I think I still remember the injustice of that game of tip! But I also remember Mr Connolly as one of my favourite teachers because he gave me a hug when I cried after getting in trouble for throwing grapes on the school bus.

 

Dawn Barker – THEN

“I had two favourite subjects at school: English and Latin. My reasons for liking English are probably obvious, as even in primary school I was entering competitions reciting Scottish poetry and winning certificates like this! In high school I studied Latin for five years and loved it. Latin opened up the world of literature when I learned the structure and cadence of the language, the mythology, and the poems of Ovid, Cattalus and Virgil. Essential for anyone who wants to understand stories and language, I think!”

 

Fiona Palmer – THEN

“I hated maths and I had some real doozy maths teachers over the years but then Mr Gow came along in Year 11. He was awesome and my favourite. My friend took this class photo, maybe that’s why I was game enough to ‘bunny ears’ Mr Gow.”

NOW:https://www.facebook.com/FionaPalmerRuralAuthor?ref=hl

Christine Stinson at SchoolChristine Stinson – THEN

“I met my favourite teacher in primary school. Sister Justinian looked a lot like a bull dog, with a particularly pugnacious bottom lip and a habit of throwing exercise books out the window (and onto the road) if she wasn’t happy with the standard of homework. Bless her, she gave me pictures to write stories about and didn’t mind how long those stories were, and my exercise book never ended up on the roadway.”

NOW: www.christinestinson.com

Heather Garside – THEN

“Before- and after-school jobs included feeding the occasional poddy calf. My primary schooling was done by correspondence school as we lived too far from town to attend normal school. My mother taught all four of us and often battled with getting us into the school room. One morning we had gone off playing some distance from the house and poor Mum was calling and calling us to come home. How naughty were we! One of our cats came up to join us and began meowing at us. Then he turned around and starting walking back to the house, looking back at us and meowing every so often. We were so intrigued, we obediently followed him home!”

NOW: http://www.heathergarside.com

Jenn J McLeod – THEN

“The strongest memory for me at High school relates to that plot in the playground, our group’s patch of ground that no other group dared occupy. A recess oasis where battles were fought and friendships were forged.”

 

 

School’s out for the day. If you have any questions or 

suggestions, please raise your hand, leave a comment, share!

A word about that OTHER school reunion in Calingarry Crossing. 

Poor Maggie. She has no idea the perfect storm is

Find out more, right here. Simmering Seasonheaded her way.

For emergency alerts and warnings for Simmering Season, subscribe to Jenn J McLeod’s blog before you go, or LIKE her Facebook Page.

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LILY, GOLF – and other four-letter words!

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Let’s get one thing clear… I LOVE the name ‘Lily’. Add the word ‘Malone’ and for some reason I start to conjure up all sorts of wonderfully romantic images of Marlene Dietrich and Vera Lynn singing: “Auf Wiedersehen Lili Marlene” (Don’t ask me why! I just do.)

Let me further clarify…

Lily Malone is an author. I can’t remember where or how I found this author. My first memory is reading a blog post she had written about being an aspiring writer. Her writing style made me laugh (in a good way) and that is always a good thing in a blog post.

Since then, Lily Malone has gone on to publish (both through Escape Publishing and independently) three novel.  She does have a wonderful way with words and she can be a bit cheeky. Her stories are contemporary romances – a mix of love, lies and a little lust. (Oh and wine! There is usually lots of wine. And OH GOSH! All those wonderful four-letter words: LOVE, LIES, LUST … WINE!)

So if that is your genre, Lily tells a great yarn. Not only that, she has THE best cover on her latest release – Fairway to Heaven. Yes, it’s about golf – but not as we know it apparently (which may be a good thing because GOLF is definitely a bad four-letter word to me.)

Check out Lily’s blog here.  Or buy Fairway to Heaven on Smashwords.

I wanted to give a shout out on my blog because apart from being good fun and a fabulous storyteller, Lily is a generous and supportive person to lots of other authors – me included. (And I have been slack and totally missed the big [insert bad four-letter word here] blog hop thingy. But you can still join in the fun.

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You can find links to all the blogs taking part (and the clever enter to win thing) of them at the bottom of Rhyll Biest’s blog. Authors like Jennie Jones, Wine, Women and Wordplay (with Imelda Evans), Cate Ellink, Susanne Bellamy. Check one or two or as many as you like for your chance to win a great prize pack from Lily filled with yummy delights (and a copy of Kate Belle’s book, The Yearning).

And finally…

Here is Lily (funny, funny lady) taking part in my Author Harvest last year and it has a little taste of the song: Lili Marlene –  CLICK