Meet JoAnn
JoAnn wrote her first story — a tragic romance about two star-crossed Mallard ducks — as a second grade writing assignment. When the paper earned a gold star, she kept writing.
She’s gone on to write a hundred-and-forty-novels and has been published in twenty-seven countries. Two of her titles were excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and as a New York Times, U.S. Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller, she’s also a member of the Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll of best-selling authors.
JoAnn lives in the Pacific Northwest—where her high school sweetheart and late husband of fifty-seven years proposed to her at the seawall where her Shelter Bay books are set —with her still active, very vocal senior rescued Siamese cat, Paws. Since joining the family three years when she was thirteen years old, Dowager Duchess Paws has run the house.
A Note from JoAnn
Dear Reader,
My grandfather McLaughlin (who kidnapped — with her consent — my grandmother, when her wealthier Cavanaugh family wouldn’t permit them to marry) was a seanachie — an Irish teller of tales. My earliest memories are listening to the music of his lyrical brogue spinning grand stories of kings and castles, battles and banishments, magic and miracles.
Inheriting his love of storytelling, I wrote my first novella when I was seven-years-old and immediately decided to become a writer when I grew up. Taught by Grandda to think big, my youthful fantasies invariably involved me dashing off the great American novel in some Greenwich Village garret, hand carrying it to a New York publisher who would proclaim it brilliant and launch my career to both critical acclaim and commercial success, after which I’d move to Cape Cod and live among all the other rich and famous novelists.
Well, it didn’t quite work out that way. I’ve written advertising copy extolling the wonders of everything from household appliances to diamonds to tires. For a few years, I wrote for a large metropolitan newspaper, only to feel more and more constrained by the rigid parameters of fact. It was then I reminded myself what I really wanted to do – what I’d always wanted to do: make up stories I could share with others.
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t realize that by exploring my favorite themes of love, loyalty, family, and, of course, my favorite, redemption, I’m still following in my grandfather’s footsteps. In all his tales, heroes and heroines ventured forth on perilous quests against seemingly impossible odds, slaying myriad dragons along the way. Tyrants were toppled, lovers united, the wicked were punished, justice prevailed in the end and the good always lived happily ever after. And isn’t that what the best stories are all about?
xoxo,
JoAnn
10 Things About JoAnn
1) Her first job, when she was three years old, was in a roller skating follies. Her 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, JoAnn was made a member of the troop. Her pay, a hot fudge sundae and a weekly movie matinee, seemed extraordinarily generous at the time.
2) Her 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, she wrote melodramas, casting her sisters and neighborhood kids in the roles; tickets cost a dime and since she was a prolific writer, box office receipts paid for her first bike.
4) After her mother remarried, she 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 she was ten-years-old she 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, she interviewed local “celebrities” on a weekly afternoon television news/talk show.
6) She worked as a magician’s assistant. (And no, she will not reveal how she was cut in half.)
7) She played folk piano in coffee houses, still believes Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind is one of the best songs ever written, but hopes never to hear Puff the Magic Dragon again!
8) She married her high school sweetheart. Twice.
9) She has skydived over the Arizona desert.
10) She dearly hopes editors never discover that she’d write for chocolate.
