END OF BOOK SHIT
Welcome to the End of book Shit! This is where I get to reflect back on the story and say whatever I want about it. They are never edited, they are never censored—just 100% Julie in this bad-boy last chapter.
I like the idea of writing about a character who is a self-help speaker. I have a very good friend who kinda does this. Her name is and she’s a business coach and writes books about mindset, and writing, and other magical, badass things. I love her to death. We met in a mastermind group a few years ago and we were sitting next to each other and maybe we got a little bored or whatever, ya know? And like… had our own conversation going on at the end of the table about what the best hand lotion is. It was pretty much love at first sight.
Since then we’ve seen each other a few times. A couple more times at the mastermind, then at another conference in Vegas last fall, and she was actually one of the four important friends in my life who I introduced to Johnathan when we first started writing books together. (The other three were science fiction writer, Terry Schott, and my assistant Nicole Alexander and her husband Tim).
Honoree has all these cute colloquialisms and funny sayings that feel very Southern. She says the cutest shit in the most badass way and I’m jealous of that because while honesty is something I do well, being friendly and personable feels like a talent I never quite mastered. She can be brutally honest and sweet in the same sentence. And she just does it naturally. She’s makes friends everywhere she goes, and when you need help making the hard choices Honoree is the one who will look you in the eye and say, “Bitch, get your shit together!” So I love her for that. She pulls no punches.
So while Issy Grey isn’t based on Honoree, Honoree was my inspiration for this character.
Johnathan told me once a few months ago that if I ever stopped writing books I should be a self-help speaker because I have a certain worldview that lends itself to practical, logical answers to difficult, emotional questions.
I think what he means is that I’m Spock. Right? lol I’m logical and practical and see things in a very binary, black and white way. So when I have a problem, the answer to my problem is mostly black and white too. Do it or don’t do it. We were emailing back and forth a couple weeks ago and I said that to him. You’re Kirk and I’m Spock (because he and I are so very different and Kirk and Spock sum it up pretty well.)
But I do like teaching and I do like helping people so Issy Grey is more of a combination of both me and Honoree together.
I like the idea that helping people can actually help you heal yourself. And I was thinking about this yesterday when I was watching that show Billions on Showtime. Do you watch that? It’s really good. It’s about this scrappy (pretty unethical) billionaire who bootstrapped his way up from humble beginnings to be one of the most successful stock investors in the world. So in this episode he lost his license to trade stock because the Attorney General (who is his nemesis) found out he did something illegal. And so this “poor” guy is lost. He can’t do what he feels like he was meant to do. And he wants to trade stock so bad. Like he sees an opportunity and he wants this so bad, he’s almost willing to throw his whole life away to do it.
He just doesn’t know how to live any other way.
And I was watching that episode thinking—Dude, just take all that money you have and go help people. Helping people gives you purpose in an immediate way that almost nothing else can. And it heals you at the same time.
So Issy was a woman who took her sadness and loss and turned herself around by helping others. And she did this is a very provocative way that makes people take notice. But her first instinct isn’t to fight, it’s to run. She’s a very good runner. But now… when the past comes back to haunt her, she has a choice to make and it’s not so simple. Because helping people is her purpose. And if she leaves her purpose behind, she might leave herself behind too.
Finding one’s purpose is a very hard thing to do. Some people struggle their whole lives and never find their purpose so if you’ve found your purpose you don’t turn your back on it. You can’t turn your back on it.
Finn is the first character I’ve written in a long time who isn’t good at heart. I don’t know if this comes across on the page very well because I am very careful to write a likeable hero, but Finn is the first guy since James Fenici in The Company books, who is probably more of a bad guy than a good one. If you’ve read the Turning Series you might be thinking… Well, Elias Bricman wasn’t good either. Probably true. BUT—Bric wasn’t breaking laws. Bric wasn’t doing anything illegal. And Jordan is a good guy, regardless of what he appears to be at present.
But I like Finn and that’s why he’s on Team Jordan now. He’s got more to say in the next two books, believe me. And I think it’s OK to write a bad guy who doesn’t immediately find his good side in a story.
Writing back story in romance is tricky. Because on the one hand you need just enough of a past to create a good character, but on the other hand, the romance is the whole point of the book. And if you let the back story overpower the romance, you lose your reader. People don’t read my Company books because of the shadow government and the assassins. They read them because of the characters. Not the character’s past, but the character’s present. So when writing romance you gotta balance this out. Give the reader enough so they can feel like they “know” the character, but not too much that knowing the character overpowers the point. And the point of a romance is the romance.
So Finn hasn’t found his purpose yet. He found a person to share his life with, but people need more than romantic love. Yes. That’s true. People need to feel complete when they’re alone as well as when they’re together.
Every time I think about writing a happily ever after book I want to kick myself. lol Because HEA books never make money, only readers who’ve read through the whole series want them, and when you’ve got thirty-seven new ideas for books and only so many hours in the day, it’s hard to put those aside and revisit a world just for the sake of revisiting it.
So I sneaked something into this book. Chella’s HEA. It’s still developing and it will play out over the next two books, but I love that her father got what he deserved in this book. And I brought Darrel back from Turning Series to take care of some shit for me. So I’m loving the cross-connection between Turning Series and Jordan’s Game. It was always meant to be that way but you never know if you can pull a thing off until you’ve pulled a thing off. And this series is still developing, so we’ll see at the end if I manage it.
But I’m pretty sure there WILL be a HEA book in the future for the Turning and Jordan people. I think that their world is too big to not have one. Which is why I wrote one for Rook & Ronin and the Misters. They all had a big world and they all needed more after their individual stories were over. I’m not sure I’m gonna put this up on Amazon… lol Like… is it book four of Turning Series? Or book five of Jordan’s series? I’ll have to think on that.
I feel like this EOBS is a little bit all over the place this time. Probably because that’s how my life is at the moment. I have so many balls in the air, it’s hard to know if I’m coming or going. In fact, I don’t think I’m either. I think I’m both coming and going.
Johnathan and I have finished writing our first four-book series, Original Sin. Book three, Flesh Into Fire, will be releasing next week. We have another book planned for July, but we’re not announcing it yet. Look for a cover reveal on July 13. I will tell you this – it’s a standalone book, it’s a romantic comedy, and it’s gonna be fucking fantastic! We are staying in Colorado as far as setting goes but we are building an entire new world of characters with their own fictional neighborhood. I’m quite excited about it honestly, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
We’re also working on our Company TV deal with MGM. Should be signing that contract in the next week or so.
In between all that I’m writing this Jordan series, traveling for book signings, and planning my next solo book outside the Turning/Jordan world which will release in the fall.
So pardon my rambling mind in this EOBS! I have all the things to say and only so many pages at the end to say them!
I hope you continue on with the Jordan books. The stories are standalone but the world is not. The world is just getting started and I think the last two books will leave you totally satisfied and ready for that HEA book that will probably release in December as a little Christmas gift.
Until then, think about what your purpose is. If you haven’t found it yet don’t worry. It took me forty-three years to find my purpose.
There’s no expiration date on your dreams.
Issy might need to put that on a poster. :)
Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing, and I’ll see you in the next book
!
Julie
JA Huss
April 5, 2018
STALK ME BITCHES!