J.A. Huss Interview & Giveaway

Hello lovely followers :D! You all know how much I LOVE the Rook and Ronin Series by J.A. Huss. This is one of my favorite New Adult Series, and it's a complete series! Yes, Panic (Rook & Ronin #3) was released last week. I know I'm going to be re-reading this series soon. So guess what happened last week? J.A. Huss accepted to do an interview for my blog :D!  I was so excited when she accepted to do the interview, and let me tell you that she is so nice. 

 

Are you all ready for my interview with J.A. Huss?!?!?!?

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself :). Who is J.A. Huss?

I hate talking about myself!  I’m just a mom from Colorado, really. I grew up in Ohio and moved to Southern California when I was a teen, had my first kid when I was really young, messed around with way too many bad boys, and then decided to go back to school to be a scientist. I was going to get a PhD, and when I say that – I mean I was in grad school actually doing all that laboratory crap for like fifteen hours a day for more than a year when I decided that life sucks. So I quit the PhD program, got a Master’s Degree instead, then went into business for myself writing science workbooks for kids. I ran out of ideas for topics so about two years ago I started writing fiction.

2. Who are some of your favorite authors? Did some of these authors inspire you to become a writer? 

Rickard k Morgan is the author of my all-time favorite SF series, so he is my official favorite. That series is brilliant.  But I also like Laini Taylor, Katja Millay, JA Redmerski, CD Reiss… I have a lot of favorites actually.

3. How do you get started with writing a story? Do you brainstorm a lot or do you just go for it without planning too much?

Oh, I plan all of it.  I always know the ending.  Sometimes, like with the Junco series, I know the exact words of the very last sentence.  I had those words in my head from book one and I just got to write them a couple weeks ago in book five. It was pretty cool. 

4. Do you plan to always write NA books, or is there and adult book in the future?

Ford is not really NA, he’s more adult. And I have another NA series I’m gonna write at least two books for in the spring, then a dark more adult series in the fall.

5. What is your favorite genre to write?

Science fiction. Because you have so much more to work with in terms of plot devices. You can make your characters do anything if you set your world up right.  Contemporary books are very limiting, but I try to add in the unexpected whenever I can.

Now let's get into some questions from my favorite series!

 

1. How did you come up with the idea to write about a girl who has experienced a tragic life from a very young age, and finds her luck in erotic modeling?

It started with a book cover. I was looking for a sexy picture for a title I actually never released, and I started wondering if those models were faking it. I figured the good pictures, the ones all us authors wanted on the covers, those models were not faking it, it looked real. So that’s how Ronin’s job was created.  He’s supposed to make the girls look that way, like they are turned on so the people who look at the covers just automatically think they are lovers.

 

Rook is a little bit of me and a lot of “every girl”. I think people like Rook because she’s real. She’s not perfect and even though she’s pretty, life’s not easy. She’s had a lot of challenges and even though she makes a lot of mistakes, she keeps going and tries to learn from them.

2. When I was reading the synopsis for Tragic, Rook's name caught my attention, because it is a very unique name. I haven't read a book with character's named Rook and Ronin. How did you come up with their names?

I love birds.  Junco, the main character in my SF series, is also named after a bird.  So Rook came off that. And then I just added in the fact that a rook is a blackbird, and made that Spencer’s “thing”. Ronin is a play on the Irish version of the name (Ronan) and the word used for what they call a rogue samurai Japanese warrior. I thought it was cool.

3. I just need to put this out there, because I know I'm not the only girl who experienced this while reading your series. How in the world did you create three equally desirable men? Most of the time I just fall for one of the guys in a book, but you had me falling for all three, especially Ford in Panic!

I love secondary characters, they make and break books in my opinion. If the secondary characters are boring, then your main characters have to be together the whole time. I didn’t want Rook and Ronin to be the only story. I wanted everyone to have a past. Plus, they are a team. Each one had to contribute something to that team, so they all had to be very unique. 

 

Everyone these days loves a biker, so it was easy to make Spencer the biker. But I gave him a twist with the body painting stuff.  No one likes a geek, but what if he’s a hot geek with so much weird sexual chemistry you can’t help but fall for him?  So that’s Ford. And Ronin was just the player who wants to settle down. Girls like the thought if a loyal hot guy.

4. What comes after Panic? I know that Ford is getting his own story. But are other characters in the book getting their own spin-off series or novellas?

Yes. I’m surprised more people haven’t asked about the “trials”. There will be trials and everyone will be involved because in order to put people in jail, someone has to testify.  It won’t be pretty.  That’s part of what Spencer’s book is about.  I’m also writing a Valentine ’s Day novella about Elise, Antoine ,and the baby.  Lots of people have asked about them. I also like Veronica a lot, and she’s gonna have a little disagreement with her brothers about her job in the very near future. That will probably be a novella series next summer.

5. I know you're going to hate me for asking this question, but I just have to do it :). Who would you have chosen if you were Rook?

Ford.  :) But Rook is much better at picking men than I am.

6. How do you feel now that the Rook & Ronin series is over?

I’m glad the third book turned out so well and I’m looking forward to the stories of the secondary characters and then new projects when that’s over.  I’m not sad at all. I think R&R’s story is mostly told, so time to move on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview :D!

 Thanks a bunch Kassie!  

 

 

Find J.A. Huss:

Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook  ~  Goodreads

  

Add the Rook & Ronin Series to your TBR Pile--->Goodreads

Add Losing Francesca to your TBR Pile--->Goodreads

Add the I Am Just Junco Series to your TBR Pile--->Goodreads

Purchase Rook & Ronin Series, Losing Francesca, and I Am Just Junco Series:

 

Amazon  ~  B&N  ~  Kobo

 

 

Giveaway:

  Winner gets to pick one book from the Rook & Ronin Series. 

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