FRIDAY FUN VIDEO -- Do-Re-Mi flash mob

So, the past couple weeks have been grand fun. The Homecoming hit the printed NYT list its first week on sale, then has managed to hold on for a second week, and as I write this it's #2 on Barnes and Noble romance bestseller list and #3 on Borders/Waldenbooks. And reviews have been lovely.

So, I was already pretty happy before I stumbled across this video of a flash mob in Antwerp, Belgium. Enjoy, and if you want to spread the Do Re Mi joy, pass it on. :)

A room with a view: summer garden color

When we moved to East Tennessee after thirty years in the Arizona desert, I knew nothing about what grew here. The first thing we discovered was that we had to do a lawn renovation. Something I'd never heard about because most Phoenix lawns were, in fact, some sort of decorative rock.

When I called a friend in Baton Rouge to tell her what the Scotts guy had told us, she literally gasped. Then said, "Oh, no! Not a lawn renovation!" I told sweetie that this could not be good.

But it wasn't bad. They killed off the crab grass posing as fescue, then reseeded, and in a few weeks we had a lovely green lawn. Which ushered more than a decade of on-going lawn wars with the neighbor across the street, but that's an entire blog by itself for another day.

About the same time, bulb catalogs began flooding our mailbox. Seduced by the gorgeous photography, and excited at the prospect of growing something besides petunias that would be burned to a crisp by Easter, I ordered twelve hundred daffodils, tulips, irises and hyacinths. Okay, maybe I didn't realize that planting all those bulbs in hard-packed red clay might not be the easiest thing, but I got them all in by Thanksgiving, and continue to add about a thousand a year. Since mulch has become my life, each year the bulb planting gets easier as that clay slowly, gradually, turns into soil. Honestly, finding earthworms while digging is more exciting than if I'd unearthed a diamond!

So far we've also added eleven trees to the fifteen we already had (two of the original have been replaced after splitting in storms, while another two had to be removed after succumbing to pine beetles), and hundreds of bushes. After having spent too many decades living with shades of brown, I really wanted year-round color. Spring remains the most spectacular season, thanks to all those bulbs, but even now, as lawns and gardens struggle under our southern summer heat, this is the view from our bedroom window. The tree is crepe myrtle, the white flowers which surround our back deck, are butterfly bushes, which attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, and I can't remember the name of bush with the bright rosy red flowers (which unfortunately look a little rust-colored on my computer), but we have another two out by our mailbox, and the hummingbirds and I love them.

Fun Video: Will It Blend? Vuvuzela Challenge

Gotta love the World Cup, which succeeded in doing what no politician has managed to figure out how to do -- unite red, blue, and purple Americans into red, white, and blue, and have us pretending we actually care all that much about soccer. Not only did the U.S. guys definitely gave us a super exciting team to root for, there were some really hot guys to watch.



The downside was that our ears were continually assaulted by the din of those unbelievably annoying vuvuzelas. Which brings me to this revenge challenge video: WILL IT BLEND?

The Homecoming Release Day Fun! Win stuff!

One of the best things about writing is when author copies arrive at my door. Which they did last week.

Another cool thing that never gets old is book release day. Which would be -- yay! -- today!

To celebrate the release of The Homecoming, I'll be giving away various things at various places.

Today, Tuesday, I'll be giving away autographed copies of The Homecoming at both Romance Roll Call and Jessica Scott's blog. Jess is an author and Army officer recently back from Iraq. The blogs are the same, but I'll be giving three books away at each, so feel free to comment both places!

Wednesday, July 7th, I'll be at the Book Binge blog, where Signet has donated three more copies of The Homecoming to be given away.

Thursday, July 8th, I'll be at Borders True Romance blog, where three people chosen at random from readers who comment will receive a $25 Borders gift certificate. (Enough to buy The Homecoming, with extra left over for other books!)

And for an entire month, until August 10th, I'll be running my own contest, to Find Sax. Just email me at joann@joannross.com and tell me where you saw The Homecoming and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a box of chocolates from Oregon's premier Moonstruck Chocolatier, and a $25 gift card for either Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Books-A-Million. Reader's choice.

Here's an excerpt from one of my favorite scenes in the book. Trey, the heroine’s eight-year-old son, has lost his father at an age where he personalizes death. He watches all the natural disaster TV shows and worries about everything. He also always wears T-shirts he's outgrowing but refuses to give up, which say things like My Dad's a Marine. And He's my Hero. So, needless to say, he's less than impressed by Former Navy Seal Sax Douchett's hero status.

That starts to change when Sax takes him shopping at the lumber store, then afterward to the VFW for lunch, where there are many animals that used to be alive but are now dead and stuffed. And all the guys in the place start telling Trey about his dad.

Trey liked talking about his dad, which he couldn't do much with his mom because he was afraid he'd make her cry. And whenever his dad's name came up in front of his grandmother, she'd get a sort of pinched look to her face that gave him the idea that his father hadn't been her favorite person.

As if they knew just how he was feeling, other veterans got up from tables and came over to the bar and began telling stories about his dad. Stories neither of his parents had ever talked about. Like how he'd been an Eagle Scout, and the time he'd rescued a little kid, younger than Trey, who'd gotten caught in a riptide on the coast, and his dad had gotten a medal from the fire department for bravery.

"Your dad was a bona fide all-American hero," one guy wearing a black leather vest with all sorts of patches on it, said. His gray hair was pulled back in another one of those ponytails. "Semper Fi, kid."

"Semper Fi," Trey repeated along with the other Marines in the room.

And he suddenly realized, as he looked over at the snarling grizzly bear, and the mountain-lion head glaring down from the wall, and the rattlesnake coiled on the shelf holding the bottles behind the bar, that right now, here, in this very special place of warriors, he wasn't afraid of those dangerous-looking animals. Or of volcanoes, or typhoons, or tsunamis, or any other of the disasters he'd seen on TV that could kill innocent people.

Because every man in the room seemed to agree with Tim O'Riley and Sax: that the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree.

Semper Fi, Dad.

Proudly lifting his glass of root beer, Trey Conway joined in the toast to his
all-American hero father.


Finally, I have some lovely bookmarks to give away. If you'd like an autographed one, just send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to JoAnn Ross, P.O. Box 23153, Knoxville, TN, 37933-1153.