by JA Huss
“Airplane mode, please. And I can see your Twitter page, so I know you’re not in airplane mode.”
He waits there, tapping his foot, until I go into my settings and flick that little tab to airplane mode.
Well, whatever. Vaughn has no idea who I am on Twitter, but as soon as I get to my stop in Atlanta, that shit is going.
I plug my headphones into my phone and bring up my tunes, then settle back into my oversized seat and try and enjoy my first, and probably only, first-class experience.
A few hours later, after I’ve been served lunch, champagne, orange juice, a hot towel, and a movie—IM1, it’s the only one playing—I’m satiated, relaxed, and even a little bit giggly over my ridiculous weekend with movie star Vaughn Asher. It’s sort of a blur, and sort of surreal. I mean, did I really get fucked by him in a tropical forest? Did I really put a vibrator against my pussy in the company of the great Adam Asher?
I laugh out loud and several people look over at me.
It was sorta fun, but Jesus, I’m glad it’s over. I’m not his type, he’s way too much ego for me, and we really did fight the entire time. I prefer my quiet, predictable, low-conflict life and the only dates I see in my future are virtual ones on Saturday night Dirty Heaven twitter chats.
The plane lands and phones begin dinging as everyone switches them off airplane mode. I stretch out, ready to get off this plane and find my next gate so I can just go home to Denver. I fish out my phone to check my messages. Bebe is gonna be pissed off when she gets that note. I switch the phone off airplane mode and it begins dinging.
A balloon bubble pops up on my home screen telling me I have twenty-two messages.
What?
I swipe my finger to go into my messages app and look at them.
Unknown number.
Unknown number.
Unknown number.
Unknown number.
They go on and on like that. More and more and more.
My email app dings and I press that to take my mind off what might be happening on my phone. I have fifty-two new emails from Twitter.
I open the first one and it takes me a few seconds of staring to realize what I’m seeing.
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) favorited one of your Tweets!
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) favorited one of your Tweets!
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) favorited one of your Tweets!
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) favorited one of your Tweets!
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) favorited one of your Tweets!
On, and on, and on. Down to the very last new email for today.
Vaughn Asher (@VaughnAsher) is now following you on Twitter!
I scream.
People startle and flight attendants come to help me. But I fall back against my seat, unable to process what just happened to my life.
I’ve been outed. He knows. Every last dirty thing I’ve said about him over the years—from I wish I could slide my pussy against your scratchy chin to You have long thumbs, I hear your cock is three times that size—he knows them all.
And then my phone dings a message.
I force myself to look down.
I can’t wait to play Dirty Heaven with you this weekend—Vaughn
I die of humiliation right there. I just die.
Buy Book Two
Read other books by J.A. Huss
End of Book Shit
End of book Shit (EOBS) is something I do at the end of every book I write. It’s a chapter where I get to say anything I want about… whatever. So this time I’m going to talk about this series! Fitting, right!
This book, this whole series, actually, was an idea presented to me by my assistant last year. She came up with both the concept (normal girl meets movie star on tropical island) and the premise (Normal girl infamous for filthy tweeting meets the object of said filthy tweets and forges a fragile relationship with him as he bosses his way into her heart.)
So I told her I’d write it and publish it. And I did! We did, actually. My assistant, for those of you on Facebook with me, is Jana Aston. She and I became friends after she read Panic last October and she became my PA shortly thereafter. She’s a huge part of my writing life and she deserves lots of credit and thanks yous for hanging in there as I butchered her tale almost beyond recognition! Hehe. I really did, but I think she’s happy with it now. (At least I hope she is).
We’ve had a lot of ups and downs planning this series. At first this was supposed to only be two books. First book was going to be called Social, second book was to be called Media. We had it all planned. We bought licensing rights to two photos of Steve Boyd and we thought we had it all figured out.
And then I started writing and I was all… Yeah, no. This is way too long. My plot points are all off, I need to end it here and start again here!
And Jana was all, No, that sucks, you need to end it here, I insist!
And then I was all, Hey, I think we have three books! What do you say to three books?
She was all, We only have two fucking covers, Julie. And no more titles. It’s SOCIAL MEDIA! End of.
And she hated my font color for the cover. We did envision blue, but it took me a while to get that fucking blue to work. But OK, we have blue.
Now back to the plot… this is what it’s like collaborating, I guess. You actually have to listen to someone else every once in a while.
If you’ve read my other books you know I like me some twistiness, so I added in some twists and we discussed that for a while, and then we decided, at the end of all that bickering over how many fucking books we would have, it was going to be six novellas. Why novellas? Because the plot points.
Jana was all, I don’t know what a plot point is.
But it turns out they are necessary and they have to occur at very specific places in the story so that readers feel “satisfied”, and my points, as they were written, were not working with only two books. The story, it seemed, had very definite defining points without me doing much planning and there was nothing I could do to fix that, beyond re-writing, which I do not do.
So the six novella idea fixed my plot point crisis and will (hopefully) give you satisfaction and some sense of resolution at the end of each book.
And it’s like, once we made that decision to have the story unfold over six novellas, all the broken pieces to this project fell into place. Like this was meant to be. It lined up so well.
And before you get pissy with me about writing a novella serial with five cliffhangers, I’ll just say, you’re getting a whole lot more story than you would’ve gotten if I had stuck to two books. My total word count for two books was supposed to be about 140,000 words. Which is one short and one medium book. This six book series will be 220,000 words when it’s all done. Possibly more. So celebrate the serial novellas with me. ;) You win in all ways.
Also, when we were going to do two books we decided early that they would release four weeks apart, but since I already had most of the first three novellas written when we decided to change the structure, we changed the release timing as well. Two weeks, people. If you hate cliffies, it’s TWO WEEKS!
I did this for you, serial novella cliffhanger haters!
PLUS, I’ll have a pre-order for the next book out as soon as this one releases and they will be for sale on pre-order for only 99 cents.
I will probably not keep the 99 cent price because I make no money off that. I have bills to pay and 99 cent books don’t pay my bills (I get 35 cents a sale at the 99 cent price). So if you hate paying full price for novellas, get the pre-order that will be available during your measly two week wait for the next book.
And since I know a lot of you hate the short books, I have gone out of my way to make these novellas longer. This first book is just about 40,000 words, which is about 150 pages. The rest will probably be about 30,000 words, which is about 120 pages.
I try to please you in every way I can without giving in too much, because you know, underneath my mild-man
nered and meek exterior, I’m a controlling bitch. I really am. Ask Jana about font colors! I want you to be happy, but I want to do it my way.
So to recap:
I am making the story longer
I am releasing the novellas every two weeks
I am giving you an opportunity to buy them for 99 cents each
And I’m giving you well positioned plot points to ease the cliffhanger
Big, long sigh.
It wasn’t easy. It’s very stressful trying to put out six books in twelve weeks. So, for the love of all that is hot and steamy, I don’t want any bitching about the length of the book, the price, or the cliffhangers in your reviews. Please and thank you!
And if you’re brand new to me and my books, thinking what the hell is this chick doing writing this stuff? I apologize for the EOBS. It’s unorthodox, I get it. But we’re all friends here, and friends are honest. I’m just being honest when I write this shit at the end.
OK, I’m done! The next two books, as I write this on August 16th, 2014, are both completed. I’m writing book four now and I couldn’t be happier with how this story is shaping up. :)
So thank you for reading and if you’ve enjoyed it, please leave me a review! Next EOBS I need to tell you about my editor. So much goodness to say about my editor. And sexy Steve Boyd and how we got his photos for the covers!
Wanna know about upcoming books? Sign up for the newsletter or promo posts at www.jahuss.com and never miss out on an upcoming event. Follow me on Facebook and you’ll get all the deets.
Also, I have a very cool Facebook group called Shrike Bikes where I hang out everyday. My street team is in there too, along with some crazy fun ladies. So if you’re a Facebooker, request to join and we will add you.
Muah, ladies.
Julie
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other Books by J.A. Huss
Chapter One - GRACE
Chapter Two - VAUGHN
Chapter Three - VAUGHN
Chapter Four - GRACE
Chapter Five - GRACE
Chapter Six - GRACE
Chapter Seven - GRACE
Chapter Eight - GRACE
Chapter Nine - GRACE
Chapter Ten - VAUGHN
Chapter Eleven - GRACE
Chapter Twelve - GRACE
Chapter Thirteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Fourteen - GRACE
Chapter Fifteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Sixteen - GRACE
Chapter Seventeen - GRACE
Chapter Eighteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Nineteen - GRACE
Chapter Twenty - GRACE
End of Book Shit
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other Books by J.A. Huss
Chapter One - GRACE
Chapter Two - VAUGHN
Chapter Three - VAUGHN
Chapter Four - GRACE
Chapter Five - GRACE
Chapter Six - GRACE
Chapter Seven - GRACE
Chapter Eight - GRACE
Chapter Nine - GRACE
Chapter Ten - VAUGHN
Chapter Eleven - GRACE
Chapter Twelve - GRACE
Chapter Thirteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Fourteen - GRACE
Chapter Fifteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Sixteen - GRACE
Chapter Seventeen - GRACE
Chapter Eighteen - VAUGHN
Chapter Nineteen - GRACE
Chapter Twenty - GRACE
End of Book Shit
Table of Contents
