Joanne Murphy lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has one daughter who is an attorney in Chicago, Illinois. Part of the winter season she spends in Florida. When she is not writing her children's stories, she is on the golf course playing a mediocre game of golf. When in Milwaukee, she is active in the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she sits on two museum boards. Her book "The Jellybean Band" was inspired by her love of jellybeans.