Ottawa Author: Joanne Giacomini

Thank you so much for being part of Pages and Pleasures Ottawa! 

We're thrilled to celebrate Canadian romance authors and the passion, creativity, and heart you bring to the genre. This interview is designed to help readers get to know you better—your journey, your characters, and the quirks that make your stories unforgettable.

Please take a few moments to answer the very first question titled Mandatory and then SIX of the questions below. Your responses will be featured in promotional blog posts, and social media spotlights. There is no right length to these answers. Just remember people are reading to get to know you, so one word answers are probably the wrong number. Engage with the reader as if they are listening to you on a podcast 😊

We are so excited to have you here with us at Pages and Pleasures Kitchener 2026!

Tell us why you chose Romance and tell us a little bit about one of the books you will have at the event.

I chose Romance because I’m a true romantic at heart who believes that love really does conquer all and happy endings are possible, even if it takes awhile.  I also believe in love at first sight and soulmates, themes I explore in all my books in one way or another. 

Joanne Giacomini is a paranormal and romantic fantasy author who writes about magical men and women that are spunky, flawed and independent. They are not looking for love, but end up finding it either in crazy love triangles, or by fighting their intense romantic feelings for one love interest. Regardless, they are doing this alongside battling the ultimate magical evil while trying to save the  world from destruction. In the end, they restore peace, find themselves, and find each other.

If you like fated mates, forced proximity and enemies to lovers paranormal and fantasy romance stories, Joanne’s books are for you! To learn more about Joanne, you can find her on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. To join her newsletter and get all kinds of freebies, check out her website: www.joannegiacomini.com.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: Joanne Giacomini Author 

Instagram: @joannegiacomini

Tiktok: @jgiacomini

How did your journey as an author begin—and what kept you going? I’ve been writing in diaries and journals since childhood. I started writing poetry in my teens and twenties, as well as a few short stories. At thirty years old my first fictional character came to me in a coffee house where I was writing after my 9-5 was done for the day. I was waiting for my husband to finish work. We commuted together in those days with one car. I hated that day job and at first I thought what I was writing was a diary account of how stifled I felt at my job, until I saw her, Valerie, a flamboyant red-head with a temper, a sharp wit and a very curvacious figure, including being well-endowed. Definitively not me. LOL. Also not me that her heart was broken when on vacation at an all-inclusive resort. The story starts with her flashing back to meeting him, Scott, the man who broke her heart. Wow! I wrote that story, a romantic comedy “The Perfect Dream Man” and its follow up “The Perfect Engagement” both part of “The Perfect Series.”

Several years passed, I had my son, became a temporary stay-at-home Mom, and I went back to writing poetry. I did not have any more fictional characters talking to me, contemporary or other, until many years later. I got back to fiction writing at an amazing creative writing workshop that sparked my love of the paranormal and romantic fantasy writing. A new genre of romance writing was born as well as my next series, a YA Fantasy Series called “The Knight Series” about a young man who discovers he is a werewolf and must navigate a very difficult coming of age and save the world. The series ended up being 3 books and launched me into paranormal fantasy writing officially. This book is dedicated to my son who has taught me that dreams can come true even in the darkest of places.

What does a typical writing day look like for you (if such a thing exists)? I write 20-25 minutes on my lunch hour and an hour to hour and a half in the early evening. Sometimes, I’ll squeeze in time while dinner is cooking. Weekends I write for 2 hours on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. With a full-time job, a son who is neurodicerse and still requires a lot of support, as well as taking care of the the usual household stuff, I balance writing with my life. I try and find other pockets of time on the weekend to write when I can. I also make time to meditate, walk, go to dance class, and do yoga which helps my creativity, as well as the rest of me, stay healthy.

If you didn’t write Romance, what other genre would you write? I would try my hand at writing cozy mysteries. I have author friends who write cozies. I also love to read in this genre and am beginning to understand the tropes better, both paranormal and contemporary.

What’s the hardest part of being an author that readers might not realize? The hardest part for me is balancing my creative writing side with my business marketing side. I love to write and it’s hard to put that aside and focus on marketing, social media and the business side as an indie author. Both are important to reach readiers, but I often joke, I need an amazing PA to do EVERTHING ELSE while I sit in my office and write. :)

Do you have one moment that you can remember where you interacted with a reader and realized “Oh my gosh, I am an actual author!”? If so what was it. Yes! I work at an elemenatary school for my day job. One of the teachers who is a regular customer, saw me in the hall as we were each walking in separate directions. She yelled out, “Guess what I was up reading till midnight last night?” She’d just bought Book 1 “The Discovery” of my paranormal thriller/romance series “The See-Ers”. She loved it and when it finished on a cliffhangar she asked when the next book would be out. I remember thinking, “Wow. She was up reading my book. I’m a real author. :)

What themes or tropes do you love exploring in your stories? The themes and tropes I love exploring in my stories are forced promixity, enemies to lovers, and fated mates. There is always a sense of how my strong and flawed female and male characters were damaged by love in the past,  but also how they rebuilt themselves stronger with support from friends or family. They are doing this while facing down new challenges, both in the human and magical world, when love hits out of nowhere. They must first realize they are strong alone and then be willing to surrender to the love of their life once obstacles are tackled and peace and love reign in their universe and the world.

Thank you again for sharing your time, talent, and stories with us. We’re honored to have you as part of Pages and Pleasures Kitchener. Your words bring joy, escape, and connection to readers—and we can’t wait to celebrate you!