JoAnn Ross

About me:

Ten things most people don't know about me:

1) My first job, when I was three years old, was in a roller skating follies. My mother was a chorus line skater (sort of a Rockette on wheels), and since dependable day care was hard to come by in those days, I was made a member of the troop. My pay, a hot fudge sundae and a weekly movie matinee, seemed extraordinarily generous at the time.

2) My early years were spent in a bungalow on Santa Monica Beach, with bulked up bodybuilders from L.A.'s Muscle Beach as babysitters.

3) While still in grammar school, I wrote melodramas, casting my sisters and neighborhood kids in the roles; since I was a prolific writer, box office receipts paid for my first bike.

4) After my mother remarried, I moved to the remote ranching country of Southern Oregon. Because the Cascade Mountains blocked television signals, people were forced to find other ways to amuse themselves. When I was ten-years-old, I led a group of kids to an abandoned cattle slaughter house and convinced them that the blood spattered all over the floor and walls was from murdered Girl Scouts.

5) While in high school, I interviewed local “celebrities” on a weekly afternoon television news/talk show.

6) I worked as a magician's assistant. (And no, I will not reveal how I was cut in half.)

7) I played folk piano in coffee houses, still believe Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind is one of the best songs ever written, but hope never to hear Puff the Magic Dragon again!

8) I married my high school sweetheart. Twice.

9) I've skydived over the Arizona desert.

10) I dearly hope editors never discover that I'd write for chocolate.

Having worked in journalism and advertising before turning to fiction, I've written ninety-nine novels. So far.

These days I'm writing for NAL Signet and Kensington and my books have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. I've also been published in 28 languages as well as in the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild booksclubs, and have had two novels excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine, which, I occasionally remind my sweetie, makes me an official Cosmo Girl.

You can find out more about my books, and see pics, videos, and other cool stuff on my website.

Meanwhile, let's talk about one of my most favorite things to do, which is spending my days with hot, hot, hot (!) guys. Some people might say, "But yeah, JoAnn, the thing is, those guys are fictional."

Really? Well, maybe if you want to get technical. But to me, they're definitely real. And did I mention they're really, really hot? I've written all over the genres: category romance, family-centered women's fiction, erotic romance, paranormals featuring time travel, witches, space aliens, and other woo-woo things that go bump in the night. I've written about cops and killers and spies and SEALs. These days I'm having a lot of fun working on a High Risk series about former Special Ops heroes.

But here's the deal. . . Whatever genre I'm writing in, my books are all about the guys. They're tough, confident, sexy (and hot!) Alpha males who are secure enough in their own masculinity not to be threatened by equally strong, sexy women who challenge them every step of the way.

So if you enjoy fast-paced suspense novels with lots of danger and steamy sex, where the good guys win, the bad guys get punished, justice prevails in the end and the hero and heroine, after lots of hot sex, live happily ever after, then do I have a book for you!