Interview with the Fabulous JoAnn Ross

She really is fabulous. JoAnn Ross is one of my very favorite people, not to mention a fantastically talented and prolific author. I was so happy when she agreed to do a blog interview for us and I agree with her...readers on the Scamps, Vamps & Spicy Romance loop asked a ton of wonderful qeustions, but I think JoAnn selected some really great ones to answer.

Without further ado...I give you...JoAnn Ross...

Wow, what a lot of great questions!! I want to stress that it was extremely difficult to choose, so my selection process was mostly random. Which pretty much describes everything about my writing. :)

1) Is Emma Quinlan's friend Roxi from Cajun Heat getting her own story? Or Bobby Jefferson from Blaze? ~ Judy F

I'm so glad you asked that, Judy! ::g:: Because it gives me a chance to tell you that Love Potion #9, my novella in the BAD BOYS SOUTHERN STYLE anthology, will be out the first of July. After Katrina blew away her shop, Roxi moved Hex Appeal to Savannah, another of my favorite cities. Emma and Gabriel also make an appearance. You can see the cover, read an excerpt, AND even watch a hot Bad Boys Southern Style video on my website at http://www.joannross.com/. As for Bobby, I haven't planned a story for him, however, I've learned never to say never!

2) Will there be anymore trilogies in the future? ~ Chad

Yes. But that's all I can say about it at this moment. ::g:: Oh, I can tell you that you just might be seeing more of Brendan, from my Irish trilogy and OUT OF THE STORM and BLAZE, and Father Mike, Joe's brother from OUT OF THE STORM. (Both men are harboring dark and dangerous secrets from their pasts.) Stay tuned.

3) One of the things I like about your books is the Louisiana bayous are the setting of many of your books and in fact many of them have been set in the fabulous city of New Orleans. Why the fascination with this location? Has Katrina had any affect on your writing and do you plan to set future books in these locations? ~ Barbara

New Orleans is fabulous, isn't it? Even now, with all its current challenges, it's still like no other city in America. I fell in love with it back in the early 90s when we spent Christmas there. After that first visit, we've gone back every chance we get, including many visits to the bayou country where the Callahan Brothers trilogy, and BAYOU BAD BOYS is set.

And yes, Katrina had quite an effect. I was well into a book set in the city when Katrina hit. We'd been down in the Mississippi Gulf area for a library fund-raiser the Saturday of that weekend when the storm began to turn. We made it back to TN Sunday night, and I was glued to the television all Labor Day, watching the tragic destruction. I kept going back and forth on what to do since my book centered around crooked cops, corrupt politicians, the mob running gambling/prostitution boats in the Gulf, a battle between good and bad voodoo and -- oops -- a huge hurricane hitting the city. By late Monday night I'd come up with a new romantic suspense set in Wyoming about a serial killer (the man who was once the boy raised by wolves), which became IMPULSE.

I'm now back to work on the New Orleans book -- and passing a good time with way sexy bad boy cop Nick Broussard -- which will be out in February or March of 2007. (It no longer has a hurricane.) The title on the excerpt in the back of IMPULSE is FALLEN, but I just received word last week that may change. I'll announce the new title on my website as soon as I know it myself. And wow, that ended up a long answer! LOL

4) Jo Ann, if you could meet any of the characters in one of your books, who would you want to meet? (and why?) ~ Erin the Innocent

Hey, Erin -- One of my favorite heroines, of FAIR HAVEN, has the same name as you! As for meeting my characters. . . Wait! You mean they're not real? Then who are all those people who've been hanging around my house for the past 23 years? ;)

5) How much research do you do? Patti

Tons. I changed majors five times in college, so each time I start a book, it's like having someone actually pay me to change majors again. Remember, in Tootsie, where Dustin Hoffman tells his agent that he's not merely any tomato, he's a BEEFSTEAK tomato? We'll that's how I write; I'm sort of a "method" writer who has to be inside every character's skin in order to write them. (Which, since I've had serial killer books due December 30th two years in a row, has made for some rather strange Christmas seasons! Even my dogs started acting edgy around me while I was writing the Flamemaster's death row scenes in BLAZE.) Anyway, working this way means that I eat what they eat, listen to the music they listen to, and pretty much need to know everything they know. I read approximately 25 books on fire fighting and arson investigation for BLAZE, and even passed a written sample certification test.

6) What is the most fascinating thing you've learned about the writing process, and/or the most fascinating thing during your research for one of your stories? ~ Stacy

The most fascinating thing, to me, about the writing process is that twenty-three years and ninety-six books later, I still have no idea how I do it. I only know that some days it works. And others, like a baseball pitcher who loses his mechanics and doesn't have the foggiest idea why, it doesn't. Fortunately there have been more good days than bad.

Thanks for inviting me, Lucy, darlin'. I only wish we'd had room to answer everyone. These were all truly great questions!