After more than 260 interviews to this point and attendance at bookish events too numerous to count, I meet a lot of Australian authors. 

Some are well into their writing careers, others are just at the start or trying to break in like me while many are somewhere in the middle.  

So when someone I know - someone who has been trying to get published for a while - finally succeeds, it’s an occasion well worth celebrating. 

My friend, Joanne Spiers, works as an editor in her own business - Nuturing Words. And when she’s not wrangling other people’s manuscripts, Jo is writing her own.  

Her debut novel, Second Chance Love in Point Perry, was published by Harlequin’s Escape Publishing earlier this year. 

And I couldn’t be happier for Jo.  

A warm and tender story inspired by Jo’s upbringing on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia and grief over the death of her beloved mum, Second Chance Love in Point Perry ushers a bright and promising career (and more Point Perry books) for this talented storyteller. 

I was delighted to welcome Jo to the podcast recently.