Tell us about Daniel’s Bride

Daniel’s Bride is a sweet contemporary romance (ie no detailed sex) set in Sydney, Australia. Like a lot of Kiwis, half my family live in Sydney – I love that city! I originally got the idea while at a romance writers chapter meeting, when we had a talk on what a traditional Mills and Boon Presents novel is – pure fantasy with the billionaire, the sexy location, money money money! etc. So I wrote one – except at the end I realised it was so NOT a Presents. It had some of the elements, but it was more what marketing would call “sweet”.

“Daniel’s Bride” features the traditional, hugely popular marriage-of-convenience plot – about Daniel Christie who just wants his dying grandfather to have his one wish granted – that there are heirs to carry on the Christie name. That’s not going to happen any time soon, so he comes up with the next best solution. He hires jobless and recently jilted Melinda Green to be his wife. Mel is in a pretty bad situation, so Daniel’s proposition has a ton of merit and she’s not scared of falling for him. Her fiancé just dumped her for her best friend so men are off the radar. At least, that’s what she thinks…

So what genre would you say it is?
Romance. For those who like category romance a la Harlequin Mills and Boon and Bantam Loveswept, it’s that kind of story.

So that’s the kind of reader it will appeal to? For anyone who doesn’t know what Mills and Boon is, what demographic will you say that is?
Women – although men, too, I had a critique partner, Alex, when I wrote this book and he gave a great insight into aspects of plotting and came up with some of the best ideas – such as Barnaby, the Jack Russell terrier. I think this book will honestly appeal to everyone – its not sexy hot, so if you’re a reader who generally skips the graphic sex scenes, no need to do that here. I would hope it would appeal to readers of inspirational novels as well, although there is no faith element. If a reader is looking for a sweeter romance without anything graphic, an emotional read with elements of humour, then this will appeal.

How long did it take to write?
The first draft – not so long, I was on a roll and found it easy to get up early and write (it was also summer and warm so that helped.) But there has been a lot of refining and rewriting since then to make it a better book. It’s interesting, self publishing, because you don’t have that in depth editorial edge. I paid a professional to edit the book but that was proof reading, looking for typos and grammar mistakes, not in depth editorial advice. I remember reading how Harper Lee had an editor, Tay Hahoff, working on To Kill a Mockingbird for such a long time to make what was a good book with potential into a truly great book – so as an indie author, you’re really having to work as an editor as well as an author. Talk about challenging!

What was the most challenging part of the whole process?
Getting it down first, and making sure there is great conflict, I’m a wimp at heart who hates conflict (don’t we all) so tend to not get it as dramatic as I could, so that for me is the hard part. As for plotting, I wish I could plot it all out but I just go mentally blank at the beginning, so I find its in the rewriting I will come up with the good stuff.

You’ve told us you’re a Kiwi and that you hate conflict. What else should we know about you?
I’m a born and bred Kiwi living in the North Island of New Zealand with my family. I work in a research centre (part of a public library) specialising in local and family history. We’re the people you visit when you want to find out when your great-grandfather arrived in New Zealand from England back in 1870, that kind of thing. I love the work, and the diversity of people we meet daily from travellers on cruse ships stopping off in the city for the day, to school groups learning about history, to folk who have been researching their family for years and are discovering amazing new information. I recently graduated with an MIS degree (Masters in Information Studies) so that was hugely satisfying after four years of distance study. I’m still pinching myself its over! It means more time to write. A few years back I served as president of Romance Writers of New Zealand and it was amazing. I got to work with authors I love such as Debbie Macomber and Jennifer Crusie . So cool. Romance is dear to my heart and not surprisingly, my Masters research project was about romance novels and libraries.

Have you got a blog where readers can keep up with your work?
I do. www.joannehill.com. I post several times a week, and I also tweet (I love twitter) @joanneauthor. I have a fan page on Facebook but its still in its infancy.

Where can we buy your book?
Amazon ( US , UK) and Smashwords.

What’s next?
Falling for Jack – another short (50,000 word) romance, set in New Zealand this time, about bad boy Jack Fletcher turned major success, who finds out he’s a dad and needs a nanny to care for his son for a few weeks. He finds the answer in Robyn Taylor, a blast from a past he’d rather forget. This story won the Readers Choice in New Zealand’s Clendon Award. As far as those readers went, it was a winner.