JoAnn Ross
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross
Author of The Inheritance
From the publisher: With a dramatic wartime love story woven through, JoAnn Ross's brilliant new novel is a gorgeous generational saga about the rivalry, history and loyalty that bond sisters together
When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard—and for a family they didn’t ask for.
After a successful career as a child TV star, Tess is, for the first time, suffering from a serious identity crisis, and grieving for the absent father she’s resented all her life.
Charlotte, brought up to be a proper Southern wife, gave up her own career to support her husband's political ambitions. On the worst day of her life, she discovers her beloved father has died, she has two sisters she never knew about and her husband has fallen in love with another woman.
Natalie, daughter of Jack’s longtime mistress, has always known about her half sisters, and has dreaded the day when Tess and Charlotte find out she’s the daughter their father kept.
As the sisters reluctantly gather at the vineyard, they’re soon enchanted by the Swann family matriarch and namesake of Maison de Madeleine wines, whose stories of bravery in WWII France and love for a wounded American soldier will reveal the family legacy they've each inherited and change the course of all their lives.
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross
Author I draw inspiration from: Leo Tolstoy. I'd read avidly from the time I was four years old, and the bookmobile coming to our country crossroads every two weeks was the most exciting thing to happen when I was growing up. I've enjoy so many stories, and so many authors, but the first time I read Anna Karenina, suddenly, during the steeplechase scene, I was right there, watching and holding my breath. I'd never been so fully drawn into a story before, so I try my best, with each book, to invite my readers into my characters' worlds.
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: Anywhere and everywhere. I've read in airport gates, in stands waiting for our son's basketball practice to be over, on a sidewalk waiting for the Fiesta Bowl Parade to begin, doctors' office waiting rooms, beaches, camping in forests, in swimming pools, bathtub, as I said, everywhere. I do always read in bed before going to sleep.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Is there any other answer to this? Fitzwilliam Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. And he must look like Colin Firth. Who is the only real movie Mr. Darcy.
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I grew up on the Pacific Northwest flyway, where geese and ducks flew overhead on their fall and spring migrations. When I was seven years old, I learned that Mallards mate for life. So, for a second grade assignment, I wrote a story about a female Mallard getting shot by a hunter, leaving the drake a grieving widower who had to raise his ducklings alone.
Unlike the stories I now write, this one didn't have a happy ending. The mother duck did not go slowly. It took her several pages to finally fly off to that big wetlands inn the sky. When that story earned a gold star and a lot of attention from teachers, I decided to become an author when I grew up.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: All. Many of my research books only come in hardcover and I still reread old paperbacks, but most of my reading is ebooks these days because I enjoy having my library on my kindle, which allows me to switch between books. My husband and I have listened to audio books on road trips for decades, and when I spent sixty-six days in the hospital in 2019, he would visit every afternoon and we'd have lunch together while listening to audio books. That always brightened my day.
The last book I read: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: I wrote my first nine books on a pretty blue IBM Selectric typewriter. Then moved to an IBM computer as soon as they became available. I upgraded from 56k to 128k, it had no hard drive, two large floppy disks, and a DOS operating system. I will switch to writing by hand on a new yellow legal pad if I need to wake up my subconscious sometime during the book. Something about forming the letters by hand causes the words to start flowing again.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Jo, in Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott because I always imagined being her while growing up. But if I'd been her best friend, I never would've let her quit writing.
Author Interview - JoAnn Ross | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: A CIA analyst/agent. The last semester of my senior year in college, I switched from Honors English to geography, a major that covers all the aspects—geological, climate, history, politics, social norms, and economics— of all the countries and regions of the world. The CIA was the largest recruiter of geography students at my university, and I'd found all the topics so fascinating, if I hadn't had a husband and young son, I would've gone to work for the agency in a heartbeat.
Favorite decade in fashion history: This crosses decades from the late 1950s into the early 1960s because of Halston dressing Jackie Kennedy, Givenchy dressing Audrey. I gave a character the ballerina length wedding dress she wore in the movie Funny Face) and the fun of Mary Quant's revolutionary mini skirts and bright, happy colors that she took from London street wear and clubs.
Mini skirts were quickly embraced by girls like me who'd already been rolling up our skirts after leaving the house, didn't want to look like our mothers, and found the dresses liberating from the formal, tight waisted style of the '50s Fun facts: the mini skirt was named after her favorite car, the Mini, and she also designed the interior of the Mini Designer car in the 1980s.
Place I’d most like to travel: I've been fortunate to visit many wonderful places around the world during my lifetime. The only cities I've always wanted to visit, but haven't, are Barcelona and St. Petersburg. I went through a many years period of reading Russian novels during the time it had been changed to Leningrad, which wasn't the best time to be an American tourist there.
My signature drink: My usual drink is wine, which is how The Inheritance came to be written. My husband and I enjoy drinking wine, especially from Oregon, visiting wineries, and have been given wonderful tours. As for cocktails, I have two very different ones: a dirty martini and a Paloma, made with tequila, agave syrup (or simple syrup which is easier to find), grapefruit juice, lime juice, sparkling water, with a sugar and salt rim.
Favorite artist: Edward Hopper. He may be considered the artist of lonely isolation, or even foreboding, but he draws the storyteller in me into his paintings. By such close cropping he creates a tension that gives me the sense that's something is happening, or is about to happen outside the frame.
I wonder what those two women at the table in the Chinese restaurant are talking about. Why is that another woman sitting alone, looking so forlorn, in the automat? What is that woman looking out her window so intently at on a Cape Cod morning? There's always something he isn't telling me. So, I'm forced to make up my own stories. Some that occasionally spark an idea that makes it into my books.
Number one on my bucket list: One advantage about getting older is that I've accomplished almost all the things I'd had on my list, including skydiving solo before tandem jumping was a thing. The last thing, which I doubt I'll get to, is learn to fly a plane. I grew up flying in my dad's small planes, and loved it.
Anything else you'd like to add: I'd like to thank booksellers, librarians, book bloggers, and reviewers who help readers find my books. Especially these days when there are so many books to choose from. And also, definitely all the readers, some who've stuck with me for decades, who've allowed me to live my dream for the past thirty-eight years. Because in the end, it's all about them.
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Author Bio: JoAnn Ross has written over one hundred books and has been published in twenty-six languages. Two of her books were excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine, and her books have also been published by the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild bookclubs. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her high school sweetheart—who she married twice—and a thirteen-year-old rescued Siamese, The Dowager Empress Paws, who rules the house.
