Winner #13 On Lavender Lane Six Sentence Sunday

I'm so sorry to be late with this announcement! Continued storm stuff, dentists, and life kept intervening. Good news is that On Lavender Lane has so far spent two weeks on the NYT printed list! This past week tied with my writing hero Maeve Binchey! We're waiting today's announcement, so fingers crossed.

I'm happy to announce that the winner of last week's Six Sunday was -- ta dah! -- Siobhan Muir/ Meg Palevich! (Too bad Sibohan didn't win in March, with that Irish name it would've been perfect!)

At any rate, Siobhan, if you'll email your mailing address to joann@Joannross.com and which book you'd like, we'll get that out to you as soon as possible.

As for people I owe books to, I'm sorry for the delay. We were snowed in for a week, so getting to the post office wasn't possible and the mail couldn't get to us, either.

I'll miss this week's Sunday because we'll be picking up tree branches and clearing up other mess, but hope to be back Feb 5th.

Six Sunday #13 On Lavender Lane preview

Wow, I was afraid I'd miss posting this week's six sentences after South Puget Sound was hit with the heaviest snowfall in forty years followed the next day by the worst ice storm in decades. We ended up with an inch of ice coating 12-15" of snow. (If you're not interested in reading more, just scroll down to the italicized sentences.)

Along with 300,000+ others we lost power for a few days, which, except for the nerve-wracking gunshot and cannon sounds of trees falling everywhere, including our back yard, wasn't as bad as it could have been. Fortunately, the gas fireplace and gas range worked, so I was even able to made a stovetop version of the braised short ribs Maddy makes in the opening of On Lavender Lane.

Apologies for breaking official Six Sentence Sunday rules by going off topic, and the rest of the storm story with pics will eventually end up here sometime next week.

Continuing their saga, Lucas and Maddy are now a couple, but she's still not ready to talk about a future. Although it's definitely not his first choice, Lucas has been going along with that. Until a new client points out that any past with her, checkered or not, gives him a step up on his competition.

One commenter will receive a copy of The Homecoming or One Summer, winner's choice. Winner will be announced here, on Twitter, and Facebook, on Monday.

Enjoy. . .

Other than the Frenchman, who, obviously being an idiot, had put himself out of the picture, Lucas hadn't, until this moment, considered having any competition. But Maddy was bright, gorgeous, and had always been well liked. It would be stupid to think that he'd be the only guy in town who'd notice that she was suddenly, conveniently available.

Which meant he was going to have to pick up his game. Patience was one thing. Stupidity another.

We have a Six Sunday winner!

Thanks to all who commented on my #SixSunday sentences! I really appreciated you all visiting!

The winner this week is Amy Durham! Congratulations, Amy; if you'll email your mailing address and which book you'd prefer (One Summer or On Lavender Lane) to JoAnn@joannross.com, we'll get your book out to you.

I also everyone will stop by next week for more Six Sunday sentences and another book giveaway.

xo,

JoAnn

Six Sunday #12 On Lavender Lane sneak preview

Thanks to all who bought On Lavender Lane and helped it land at #9 on the New York Times bestseller list its first week on sale!
Continuing through January with sneak previews from the book, here's a bit more of Lucas and Maddy's story.

As they've grown closer, he's just told her about a mission that had gone terribly, tragically wrong in Afghanistan during his time as a SEAL.

One commenter will win a copy of either One Summer or On Lavender Lane, winner's choice. Winner will be announced Monday here, on twitter, and facebook. Enjoy!

Madeline understood that Lucas didn't need her to soothe his pain with gentle hands and tender touches.

What he needed was the freedom to exorcise his demons with passion.

Because she loved him, and because he'd reawakened something inside her that had remained dormant all during her marriage, she framed his tragically handsome face between her palms.

"You want me, Lucas?" Their eyes met and there was a flash of heat like a bolt of lightning over the sea. "Then take me."

Six Sunday winner & recipe!

The winner of this week's Six Sunday On Lavender Lane preview is K.E. Saxon!

K.E., if you'll email your mailing address and which book you'd like (either One Summer or On Lavender Lane) to me at joann@joannross.com, we'll get your book out to you!

Thanks to all who commented and I hope you'll come back for another Sunday Six and book giveaway!

Also, I just posted the recipe for Chef Maddy's yummy braised chicken from the book. Just "like" my Facebook page to read it in the exclusive fan zone!

On Lavender Lane Sunday Six sneak preview #11

So, although On Lavender Lane just came out this past week, I'm sticking with Lucas and Maddy a bit longer. After Lucas found her drinking champagne on the beach, he carried her up to his cliff house, where she managed -- with a bit of help, lol -- to pull him down onto the bed with her. But he's a SEAL. A man of honor.

Enjoy:

Desperate, but determined not to show it, he stood up.

"Here's the deal. You're drunk. Which is totally understandable under the circumstances. But when we make love, and we will, I want you stone-cold sober.

"So that when I'm finished with you, years -- hell, decades -- from now, when we're old and gray and walking on the beach with our great-grandkids, all I'll have to do is look at you and you'll remember every single thing I did to you."

One person who comments will win a copy of either NYT, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller One Summer (Shelter Bay #2 with hottie Marine Gabriel St. James) or On Lavender Lane. Winner's choice. I'll announce the winner here, on Twitter, and Facebook tomorrow.

Oh, and don't forget, if you haven't entered my month-long Find Lucas drawing for a Kindle Touch, Nook Touch, or a gift card equivalent ($99), check out the details on my homepage.

We have a Six Sunday winner!

Happy New Year!

Thanks to all who commented on my #SixSunday sentences! I really appreciated you all visiting and I would've responded to each comment, but yesterday was crazy getting out my newsletter (with a new program I wasn't used to) and redoing my website homepage to announce my new Find Lucas Kindle/Nook giveaway contest.

Also, for those who don't subscribe to my newsletter, you can read an archived version of it here or click at the top of the newsletter to view it in your browser.

Now to what you've been waiting for: the winner of this week's random drawing is -- ta dah! -- Kathleen O!!! Kathleen, if you'll email your address to JoAnn@joannross.com, we'll get your book out to you. I hope you enjoy Lucas and Maddy's story!

I also everyone will stop by next week for more Six Sunday sentences and a backlist book giveaway.

xo,

JoAnn

Six Sunday #10 On Lavender Lane sneak preview

So, having stood up for herself and negotiated very favorable divorce terms with her cheating French chef husband, who publicly humiliated her when his sex video went viral, Maddy has bought a bottle of champagne and taken it down the the beach, where she's well on her way to getting drunk because, as an actress stated in one of her fave '40s movies, there comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.

Watching whales from his cliffside house, Lucas spots her and informs Scout, the three-legged dog he brought back from Afghanistan, that they have a new rescue mission.

One commenter, chosen at random, will receive a copy of On Lavender Lane, which will be out January 3rd. The winner will be announced here, on twitter, and Facebook tomorrow. I'll also be posting news of a fun month long contest with the winner receiving a Nook Simple Touch, a Kindle Touch, or $99 gift certificate equivalent, so check that out.

Meanwhile, wishing everyone a fantabulous 2012! Enjoy:

"Old Acquaintance, 1943. Bette Davis said it to Miriam Hopkins when, at the end of the movie, after all those years of feuding, they're left with each other."

Toasting herself for recalling the line, she tossed back the champagne. "It was probably for the best, because if it has tires or a penis, it's just bound to cause you trouble."

"The tide's going to be coming in soon," a familiar male voice warned.

Speaking of penises. . .

My twenty-one year old pelican Christmas cards

The card you see here dates back to 1990, when after many years living in the Arizona desert, Sweetie and I were going to FINALLY move back home to the Pacific Northwest where we grew up. Where, when I was eighteen, he bought me a white bag of salt water taffy at the coast where my Shelter Bay books are set, then proposed to me. We'd even found a place on Admiralty Inlet in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

Then life sort of intervened. But I already had my Christmas cards bought, so I decided to keep them for when we did make it back there. Meanwhile, we continued to visit for three weeks every year to go to the beach and hike in the Olympics, Cascades, and North Cascades. And eat much yummy fresh seafood, shellfish, and berries.

THEN, a few years later, we were -- yay! -- ready. We found another house, in the same neighborhood. It was October and I had my pelican Christmas cards ready. Then grandkidlets started being born in D.C. and Sweetie decided we should move back east to be closer to them.

My first question was, "You want us to move across the Mississippi?" My second, unspoken one, was "What about my pelican Christmas cards?????"

And that's how we ended up in Tennessee, which was only an 8-9 hr drive to D.C. Which, as any westerner knows, is nothing. But it was also a lot farther from the west coast. So although I'd escaped Arizona, we were moving in the wrong direction.

But still I kept those cards.

Last September, while searching online, as I did at least once a week since the internet was invented, I found what appeared to be the perfect wooded lot on South Puget Sound using Google Earth. We emailed a scan of a check for a downpayment and flew to Washington three days later to confirm that it truly was our perfect place. Which it was! Even better than the earlier ones! So we began building.

After flying back and forth 3,000+ miles three times during construction, we bought a motorhome and drove our three rescued dogs across ten states in nine days to beat the moving van. We arrived at the end of May and I moved my cards to a desk basket in my office/scrapbook/cardmaking room.

And FINALLY, twenty-one years after I first bought them, here we are, living on the water on Puget Sound back home in the Pacific Northwest and I'm able to send my happy holiday pelicans flying off to friends.

So, along with wishing the peace, love, and joy of the season to all, my Christmas message is, if you have a dream, hold on tight and never let it go.

Merry merry. whatever you're celebrating, and warmest wishes for a wonderful new year!

JoAnn