Thanks for having me on your blog! I’m J. A. Huss, better known as Julie and I live in rural Colorado where I write new adult speculative and science fiction books. My current series is called I Am Just Junco and the first three books are out now at Amazon.
1. Who or what inspired you to become a writer?
I always knew I wanted to write science fiction stories, even as a child. My biggest inspiration came from reading young adult science fiction books such as A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Dogsbody, and many others. One in particular had a very big impact on me, but I forgot the title of the book and have never been able to figure out what it was called.
2. How long did it take you to write Clutch?
My first book, Clutch, took about six weeks to write, but editing probably took another six weeks.
3. While writing how many times do you go back and rewrite a plot?
I am a plotter from beginning to end, so the book generally does not move forward if the plot is not working. Even then, I rewrite things several times before I’m satisfied. Some books take longer to edit than others. Clutch took the longest of the three books I have out now. The second book, Fledge, took the least amount of editing before the editor, but the most afterward. That tells you something, huh? :)
4. You run into a bookstore, where do you go first?
Science fiction shelves!
5. How many books in a month do you tend to read?
4-5 typically, unless I find something really fascinating, then I’ll read it no matter what.
6. In all the books you've read. Who is your most favorite character and why?
My favorite character is a hard-core science fiction soldier in the book series that begins with Altered Carbon. His name is Takeshi Kovacs and he’s the inspiration for my main character, Junco. I love Takeshi for his skills as well as his depth. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be a soldier who was as hard and ruthless as Kovacs, except from a young female perspective.
7. State 5 random facts about yourself.
I own two donkeys named Paris and Nicole
I like to watch other people play video games, but I don’t like to play myself
My specialty dishes in the kitchen are baked potato soup and tacos
I’m a science nerd
I think Sheldon from Big Bang Theory would be fun to hang out with
8. Your favorite Genre?
Science fiction, but I love a good sexy romance too!
9. What are you currently reading?
Veil, by Aaron Overfield
Nerve, by Jeanne Ryan
10. What is the best book you've read?
Woken Furies, by Richard K. Morgan
11. Any new projects coming up?
I Am Just Junco Book Four, Range, will be out in April 2013
Here’s your chance to market your book. Describe it. And why readers should pick it up?
Picture yourself standing at the edge of a dock.
Now picture yourself lost in your own head, utterly unsure of yourself, surrounded by people who want to use you, take you away, or simply kill you.
This is Junco Coot, aged 19, year 2152, daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. Assassin, semi-famous athlete, and on the verge of a breakdown.
In front of you is a mountain lake...
In front of you is your future. A future filled with secrets so heinous you’d rather not remember them, thank you very much.
…and behind you is a small cabin, pristine white curtains flowing in the breeze passing through the windows.
And that cabin is the place where your life will fall apart.
Junco Coot is not your typical teenage hit-girl and the I Am Just Junco series is not your grandma’s angel apocalypse. Pick it up today at Amazon.com for only 99 cents!
Flight
Book 3
Escape from Earth. Check.
Morph into an avian body. Check.
Survive Fledge and Deliverance, soul intact. Check.
Bring her Siblings back to Amelia and restore the avian race? Not so fast, darlin’.
There’s a new twist on an old prophecy and this one brings the End of Days. Junco must make a choice, but the choices all confirm her only worth is tied up in killing.
Lucan has secrets. Secrets that will make the Stag Camp look like playschool. And the lies are flowing like a mountain river during spring thaw. But he needs Junco to cooperate just a little bit longer or it all falls apart.
The Siblings on Earth are waiting for the Seventh to return and pull their clutch together. But Earth has secrets too -- secrets that change everything.
Junco has survived against impossible odds, but the cost of survival is higher than she ever imagined. Luck is about to catch up with Junco Coot and her debt must be paid.
Fledge
Book Two
YouTube Trailer
Junco Coot can’t even remember her trip off Earth; she was too busy being morphed into her new avian body. But reality hits her hard when she wakes up to find her new life is not what she expected. Not even close. Tier is on trial for disobeying his commander’s kill order and only Junco seems to care.
In most places the avian coming-of-age Fledge ritual would be nothing more than mass murder, but here in the capital city of Amelia, it’s called growing up. Junco has no choice; either fight to the death to prove her worth or get sent back to Earth in the hands of her enemies.
Her new military team is hostile, her body is being taken over by an illicit artificial intelligence, the avian president wants her dead, and her only friend is a ten-year old throwaway boy.
On a foreign habitat, in a foreign culture, and surrounded by people she can’t trust or count on, Junco must find a way to save herself and Tier without losing her immortal soul in the process
Clutch
Book One I Am Just Junco
By J.A. Huss
Book Trailer
Excerpt
In 2152 the avian race is on Earth looking for something stolen from them decades ago –their genetics. At the center of the search lies the Rural Republic; a small backwards farming country with high hopes of military domination and a penchant for illegal bioengineering.
19 year old Junco Coot is the daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. She’s the most foul-mouthed, wildly unpredictable and ruthless sniper the Rural Republic has ever trained. But when her father’s death sparks a trip into forbidden places, she triggers events that will change everything she knows to be true.
As an elite avian military officer, Tier’s mission is to destroy the bioengineering projects, kill Commander Coot’s daughter, and return home immediately. There’s just one problem. Junco isn’t who she claims to be.
With no one to trust, not even herself, Junco must confront the secrets of her past and accept her place in the future, or risk losing herself completely.
About the Author:
J. A. Huss never took a creative writing class in her life. Some would say it shows. Others might cut her some slack. She did however, get educated and graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Equine Science. She had grand dreams of getting a Ph.D. but while she loves science, she hated academia and settled for a M.S. in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida.
She went on to write science curriculum for homeschoolers and now runs a successful home business that creates and offers online science unit studies. When she’s not writing science curriculum or fiction, she works as a farm inspector, traveling the Eastern Plains of Colorado in variety of environmentally friendly vehicles that never have four-wheel drive, so when she gets stuck in the mud in said vehicles, she has to beg for assistance from anyone who will help her. She is not bitter about that at all.
She’s always packing heat and she is owned by two donkeys, five dogs, more chickens and ducks than she can count, and of course, the real filthy animals, her kids. The I Am Just Junco series was born after falling in love with the ugliest part of Colorado and the Rural Republic is based on the area of the state she currently resides in, minus the mutants, of course.
Where you can find author J. A. Huss:
Goodreads
Website
Blog
http://kindleritualreviews.tumblr.com/
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