by JA Huss
I guess I also learned that I can be honest with someone I’m working with and that vulnerability strengthens the working relationship. Laura, my wife, is the only person on earth who knows me almost as well as I do. I am completely and unabashedly myself with her at all times. I owe her that. I said vows and shit to that effect. (Actually... Truth be told... We had a Conservative Jewish wedding ceremony, so the whole thing was in Hebrew. Laura and I joke all the time that neither one of us are completely sure what the fuck we vowed to do. Or if we’re even really married. The rabbi could’ve just been fucking with us. Anyway.)
But after Laura, Julie knows more about me and sees more about the person I am than probably anyone else on the planet. And that shit has happened quickly. And that’s fucking intense. But we’re making work together that’s intense, so the relationship has to be brazen.
And I guess that even though I’m a cold-blooded motherfucker who doesn’t trust anybody... I trust her. And that’s something I’ve learned about myself as a writer, and a partner, and a person. I can trust more than just one other person on this planet. I can trust two. So, good. Quota’s all full. Now I can stop trusting people again. Phew.
What is your favorite thing about writing Tyler’s character?
I don’t have one thing about Tyler that I like. Or Maddie either for that matter.
I love everything about both of them.
Years and years ago, I was acting in a play at Lincoln Center in NYC. I was in rehearsal one day, figuring out the character, and the director gave me a simple note that changed my entire life. He said: “Don’t judge him.”
That was it. Probably one of a dozen notes he handed out that day, but for me it was just about the most important thing I had ever heard. Because what that note actually meant was “don’t think about what the character is doing, just do it.”
And that translates into writing, big time. Write your characters. Don’t judge them.
So when I’m writing inside the minds of Tyler or Maddie, I’m just going on the journey with them. They’re leading me. Sometimes they’ll do shit that I’m totally not expecting. At the end of the third book in this series, Tyler does something that I was not expecting at all. I was just writing and the next thing I know this thing was on my computer screen that I hadn’t planned. The structure of the journey and the scene stayed the same, but Tyler’s behavior in it was totally unanticipated by me. And shit, if I’m surprised, the readers most likely will be too.
I can tell you a moment that happened in this book that’s like that: Way back in book one, Sin With Me, in the chapter where Tyler and Maddie connect up for the first time, there’s a bartender who calls Tyler “chief.” Tyler goes off on a mental rant about how he hates it when people call him “chief.” He says he’s not sure why, it just rubs him the wrong way. And I didn’t have a specific reason for writing that back then, it just felt right and I knew that it made sense.
Then in this book, in the chapter after Maddie and Tyler have sex in The Four Seasons on Thanksgiving, they run into Tyler’s estranged father in the lobby. And even though that’s a Maddie chapter, I was tasked with writing that portion of this book because Julie had her hands full with other work and in order to keep our deadlines, I had to take the first pass at it. Which we can do with each other because for the most part, everything’s been plotted and outlined, and Julie and I know what’s going to happen in each chapter. But the tiny details, the nuance, that’s found in the moment. So while I knew that we were about to meet Tyler’s dad, I didn’t know exactly how that interaction would go.
So when Tyler’s father didn’t recognize his son and then leaned into him and said, “Didn’t catch your name, chief...?” I actually gasped. I remember it vividly. I was writing on an airplane, and I leaned back in my seat, put my fist up to my mouth, and gasped. Because I discovered WHY Tyler feels a way about something that I knew he did but didn’t know where the origins of his feelings came from. Until that moment.
So that’s my favorite thing. That magical discovery. And it’s not just restricted to Tyler. It’s every moment of everything that happens. There’s a bunch of moments like the one I just described in this book (and all of them), but I won’t inundate you with them. I’ll just say that as Julie and I are writing this series, thus far, nothing feels forced and there are many magical moments that are causing us to feel, like the Elizabeth Gilbert TED talk, that we are just the conduits. We are not the controllers of this saga. It is simply passing through us on its way to you. And we hope you love reading it as much as we have loved writing it.
Because without you, there would be no need for us.
My thanks, my love, and my unceasing gratitude to you all.
-JM
11 February 2018
JOHNATHAN’S QUESTIONS FOR
1. Now that you’re several books into this partnership process, has working together been harder, easier, or about what you expected?
I think it’s both easier and harder at times. Like… when it’s easy, it’s VERY easy. And when it’s hard, it’s VERY hard. I don’t know if that makes sense, but so many things we’ve done together just come naturally. Like writing the TV pilot was incredibly easy. And Sin With Me was incredibly easy as well.
Since I’d never written a screenplay before (and no idea how to even start to do that) Johnathan took lead on that. And it was all very satisfying for me because I’d already written the story. The world was mine, the characters were mine, all the dynamics between the characters were mine. And Johnathan didn’t try to change that at all. I mean, I’m gonna be honest and tell you that the STORY is different. Certain things that happened in the book have been changed, but never once did I hesitate about it. It all felt right. Throughout the entire script-writing process I felt that Johnathan and I were one hundred percent making The Company a BETTER story.
And the best part of writing The Company was filling in the details of scenes I only hinted at (like when Harper kills everyone on her birthday) and expanding that into a real scene. Because I never wrote that scene in the books and it turns out, when we were finally “done” with the pilot, it ended up being the first scene. We had started the writing process thinking the scene with James and Sasha out on the prairie was the first scene, but it got bumped because the Nick and Harper on that super yacht was so just… EVERYTHING. So fantastic!
So when we started writing Sin With Me I took lead because, let’s be honest, I’ve done this a shitload of times. Just like he was the expert script-writer, I was the expert romance novel writer. And it went pretty easy. At least FOR ME. Lol Because Johnathan let me take lead and adapted his style to mine. Which I was grateful for.
But when it came time to write Angels Fall, I could see that he was maybe struggling a little to adapt to my “easy-going” style. Like when I write, if I fuck something up, I let it go until I’m done. Because I’m me, I know what I did wrong, I know how it needs to be fixed, and when I’m writing alone, the most important thing is to just… KEEP WRITING!
Writing with a partner changed all that. I mean, he can’t read my mind. I wish he could, but he can’t. And I knew it was kinda driving him crazy that I would just fuck shit up in the story and tell him to worry about it later, ya know, like I usually do when I write alone. So we agreed to try his style for book two.
Johnathan is kind of a perfectionist. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, but he doesn’t like to make mistakes. He likes to get it right. So for this book when I’d fuck something up he didn’t let me say, “Later.” He wanted it fixed. Which was a hard adjustment for me. So when things got hard, they got REALLY HARD. It’s like… we have no middle, we’re either cruising along and everything is perfect, or we’re at full stop because we’re having issues.
I’d be lying if I said it’s been perfect, but I’m not lying when I say I wouldn’t change a thing. Not one thing about how we write, or what it took to come to an understanding, or anything. Things worth doing require effort and we are
a thousand times better because of our disagreements because we’re honest about working things out. But all relationships require WORK. And all the work we did on our writing relationship (and friendship too) paid off in the end. We’re more committed now than we were yesterday. We’re better writing partners today than we were last month. And we’re better friends too.
I think Angels Fall is a GREAT book. I love it so much. It might be my favorite of the series, although I love them all. I think Maddie came into her own in Angels Fall this is the book that made me fall in love with her.
2. You’re working simultaneously on jointly written books and solo work. Can you keep all the stories in your head at once, or do you have to parse out time for each?
It’s pretty easy for me to keep the stories straight once I’m actually writing. Because I write in first person I AM the character I’m writing. So, for example, right now I’m writing The Pleasure of Panic as my solo book. And when I’m Issy Grey or Finn Murphy, I’m THEM. I know how they are, what they’re doing, and where they need to go. And when I’m writing Maddie and Tyler, I’m THEM. And so it’s pretty easy for me to switch between stories because what I’m really doing is switching between characters.
The one thing that IS very difficult is finding TIME to write all these people. :) But Johnathan has been a champ about this part. He has been really great about it. So thank you, Johnathan. I appreciate that more than you know.
3. At this point in the Huss-McClain adventure, the TV series version of THE COMPANY is getting closer to happening every day. Does it feel exciting? Nerve wracking? Still too far from being real to feel like anything yet?
It’s still kinda unreal to me. I mean, I was in London a couple weeks ago and I had to have a call with the entertainment lawyers about the book rights for the TV series deal and just listening to them explain things to me was both exciting and scary. (I’m in good hands, so don’t worry about the scary part!) So it’s starting to “become” more real as time goes on, the negotiations get further along, and the reality of what it will really mean if we make it to the finish line sinks in. And at the end of the call my lawyer says, “So, do you feel good about this”?” My answer was, “I have no clue what I’m doing.” And he replied, “You’re in London to sign books for fans who love you, so you know exactly what you’re doing.”
And I appreciated that little reality check. Like… it’s OK. I’m doing fine. We’re gonna figure this out together. So… yeah, I’m a little excited. And once we hammer out this initial deal and sign those papers I’m gonna be very excited because that’s when I get to TALK to people—important people—about what I created. About what Johnathan and I BOTH created when we took on this new project. And yeah, if it all goes through I’m probably gonna cry with happiness. Because these characters in The Company are REAL to me. And being able to see them come to life on TV, and follow them, and fall in love with them all over again—I have no emotion to really describe how that will feel, I just know it will be amazing.
THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU, for being a part of my life and going on all these journeys with me. I started this new Huss/McClain partnership with YOU GUYS in mind. So I hope you’re loving this new period of my writing career as much as I am.
--JH
March, 6, 2018
Original Sin is a four-book series that releases three weeks apart starting March 6, 2018. So chances are good that next book is already on sale.
GET THE NEXT BOOK, Flesh Into Fire, HERE
Johnathan and I would like to thank all of you for reading our second book together. We hope you enjoy it just as much as all the books I wrote alone. Actually, we hope you like this better. :)
And if you’ve got a minute, and you liked the world we created, and the story we told, and the characters we gave life to… then please consider leaving us a review online where you purchased the book.
We are not traditionally published – WE ARE INDIE.
And we rely on reviews and word-of-mouth buzz to get our books out there. So tell a friend about it if you have a chance. We’d really appreciate that.
Much love,
Julie & Johnathan
www.HussMcClain.com
About the Authors
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Johnathan McClain’s career as a writer and actor spans 25 years and covers the worlds of theatre, film, and television. At the age of 21, Johnathan moved to Chicago where he wrote and began performing his critically acclaimed one-man show, Like It Is. The Chicago Reader proclaimed, “If we’re ever to return to a day when theatre matters, we’ll need a few hundred more artists with McClain’s vision and courage.” On the heels of its critical and commercial success, the show subsequently moved to New York where Johnathan was compared favorably to solo performance visionaries such as Eric Bogosian, John Leguizamo, and Anna Deavere Smith.
Johnathan lived for many years in New York, and his work there includes appearing Off-Broadway in the original cast of Jonathan Tolins’ The Last Sunday In June at The Century Center, as well as at Lincoln Center Theatre and with the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Around the country, he has been seen on stage at South Coast Repertory, The American Conservatory Theatre, Florida Stage, Paper Mill Playhouse, and the National Jewish Theatre. Los Angeles stage credits are numerous and include the LA Weekly Award nominated world premiere of Cold/Tender at The Theatre @ Boston Court and the LA Times’ Critic’s Choice production of The Glass Menagerie at The Colony Theatre for which Johnathan received a Garland Award for his portrayal of Jim O’Connor.
On television, he appeared in a notable turn as Megan Draper’s LA agent, Alan Silver, on the final season of AMC’s critically acclaimed drama Mad Men, and as the lead of the TV Land comedy series, Retired at 35, starring alongside Hollywood icons George Segal and Jessica Walter. He has also had Series Regular roles on The Bad Girl’s Guide starring Jenny McCarthy and Jessica Simpson’s sitcom pilot for ABC. His additional television work includes recurring roles on the CBS drama SEAL TEAM and Fox’s long-running 24, as well as appearances on Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS: Los Angeles, Trial and Error, The Exorcist, Major Crimes, The Glades, Scoundrels, Medium, CSI, Law & Order: SVU, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, and Happy Family with John Larroquette and Christine Baranski, amongst others. On film, he appeared in the Academy Award nominated Far from Heaven and several independent features.
As an audiobook narrator, he has recorded almost 100 titles. Favorites include the Audie Award winning Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff and The Last Days of Night, by Academy Winning Screenwriter Graham Moore (who is also Johnathan’s close friend and occasional collaborator). As well as multiple titles by his dear friend and writing partner, JA Huss, with whom he is hard at work making the world a little more romantic.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Laura.
JA Huss never wanted to be a writer and she still dreams of that elusive career as an astronaut. She originally went to school to become an equine veterinarian but soon figured out they keep horrible hours and decided to go to grad school instead. That Ph.D wasn’t all it was cracked up to be (and she really sucked at the whole scientist thing), so she dropped out and got a M.S. in forensic toxicology just to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible.
After graduation she got a job with the state of Colorado as their one and only hog farm inspector and spent her days wandering the Eastern Plains shooting the shit with farmers.
After a few years of that, she got bored. And since she was a homeschool mom and actually does love science, she decided to write science textbooks and make online classes for other homeschool moms.
She wr
ote more than two hundred of those workbooks and was the number one publisher at the online homeschool store many times, but eventually she covered every science topic she could think of and ran out of shit to say.
So in 2012 she decided to write fiction instead. That year she released her first three books and started a career that would make her a New York Times bestseller and land her on the USA Today Bestseller’s List eighteen times in the next three years.
Her books have sold millions of copies all over the world, the audio version of her semi-autobiographical book, Eighteen, was nominated for a Voice Arts Award and an Audie Award in 2016 and 2017 respectively, her audiobook, Mr. Perfect, was nominated for a Voice Arts Award in 2017, and her audiobook, Taking Turns, was nominated for an Audie Award in 2018.
Johnathan McClain is her first (and only) writing partner and even though they are worlds apart in just about every way imaginable, it works.
She lives on a ranch in Central Colorado with her family.
