Welcome, friend!
I am a Christian author, living on a small homestead in New Zealand with Chris, my husband of 36 years. We have six adult children, whom I home-schooled for 23 years, and currently five beautiful grandchildren, with more to come! My passion is to encourage and inspire others in their faith and family through song writing and singing, public speaking and writing. I’m the author of 11 books—family read-aloud books, children’s picture books, devotionals, and parenting books.
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My Writing
I was nine when I entered a short story writing competition for children living in Australia and Papua New Guinea (we were living in Papua at the time). I won the competition and the prize of a first edition copy of The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien. In 2002, Chris enrolled me in a four-year correspondence course with The Writing School as a birthday gift (at my suggestion!). That was when I really began to write in earnest. I loved doing the course and writing soon became a passion. For a long time, the only thing that ever came back in the post was rejection slips, but finally the day came when the American Guide Magazine accepted a short story for publication. After that, I had a number of other stories and articles accepted in quick succession and published in American and New Zealand magazines, and in the New Zealand School Journal. My first four books were published by a traditional Australian publisher. The rest are published under the Boom Tree Publishing label. My passion is to write wholesome books for children, full of adventure and humour, which the whole family can enjoy.
Speaking
It has been my privilege to speak at conferences, churches and groups all over New Zealand and internationally (USA, Canada, China etc.) over the last 35 years. I love encouraging others in their marriage, family, homeschooling and faith journeys, and often share a combination of practical examples, songs, and Scripture. I am always happy to hear from churches, homeschool groups, conference organisers and others who would like to arrange me to speak. Please don't hesitate to contact me via the contact details at the bottom of this page.
Singing
My brother John bought my twin sister Penny and I two 3/4 size guitars when we were ten, and taught us three basic chords. We loved them! We spent hours practising, and later started composing songs. When Chris and I married, we began performing our original songs together. In 1990, we started doing concerts to raise awareness of World Vision's child sponsorship programme. We performed throughout New Zealand and overseas for the next 20 years. We have recorded four CDs which are now available on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uOLbbhTz2NwojGOKdb7Vv Testimony: “I went away from your concert feeling like God had touched my heart and kissed my forehead. Thank you for your ministry.” Joanne
My Childhood
I spent some of my childhood in Papua New Guinea, where my parents were missionaries. It was a fantastic childhood – weird and wonderful pets, jungle clubs, huts by the river… You can read more about my adventures in New Guinea in my book Where the Jungle Calls. We came home to NZ when my twin sister Penny and I were ten. I went on to do my nursing training and worked for the next ten years in both public and private hospitals and as a practice nurse in a doctor’s surgery.
My Love Story
I met Chris in Hamilton shortly before I went to Borneo to be involved in missionary work. Some months later he came over for a visit and declared his love for me. When I returned to NZ a year later our romance blossomed, and we married in 1987. Chris and I are singer/songwriters and together we travelled around New Zealand and abroad for 23 years, singing at churches, World Vision events, camps, conferences… This became more and more challenging and complicated as our family grew, but before long we had the added joy of our children performing with us at our concerts.
Life in the Barn
In 2007, the Boom family made the big move from Hamilton to Northland, where we bought 11 acres of land, complete with river and a 90 year-old barn. My first thought when I saw the ancient barn was, ‘We could live here!’ And we did exactly that. The next four years were crammed with fun and adventure as we set up the barn as home. We evicted the resident possum, put in a few windows and best of all, installed a Homewood stove which became the heart of the barn—cooking our food, heating our water, and keeping us warm through the cold winter months. In the first six months, we survived two ‘one hundred year’ storms—exciting, nerve-wracking days and nights of gale force winds, rain so loud on the tin roof that we couldn’t hear ourselves shout, rescuing animals and anxiously watching to see if the barn roof would lift off. The barn creaked and shook and groaned but outlasted the onslaught. After a year of living in the barn, the story of our adventures begged to be told. I had kept a detailed diary, so the books were a joy to write as I chuckled my way through the entries, re-living all the special moments. You can read all about our adventures in my series The Barn Chronicles.
The Boom Homestead
We lived in the barn for four years, while Chris built the new Boom family homestead. It was a real family project with all the children helping, and me as his right-hand lady. It took us three years of hard work, but we finally moved in 2010.
Homeschooling
One of the greatest joys of my life has been home-schooling my six children. My youngest child graduated in 2019, but I am still involved in speaking at home-schooling conferences and helping at our local home-schooling group. My latest book Heart to Heart with Rosie Boom (due for publication in early 2023) is a resource for home-schooling mothers, based on the messages I have given at home-schooling conferences over the last 23 years.
