by JA Huss
Victoria will be at Ariel’s house until Corporate gives in and buys her one nearby. You gotta hold on to your friends, I told him earlier today when I called to see how he was doing. Let her stay, I said. I told him to use the jet as much as he wants if he still needs to do business on the West Coast.
He’s still pretty shook up. But I said, “Look, asshole, if you cry you’re a goddamned pussy, you hear me?”
I said just kidding afterward, but he gets the idea.
Don’t look at what you lost, look at what you have left.
I don’t know if I really understand what happened ten years ago. It was the perfect storm of people with grudges, and people filled with greed, and hate, and plans to take others down no matter the cost. We will never be cleared of that crime. But we will never be charged either. Maybe that’s the best we could ever hope for?
And who cares, anyway? That lie brought me this girl. That lie brought me these friends. That lie gave me my whole world back. If it wasn’t for that lie, I’d have left this town behind and never looked back. I would’ve gotten on that open road and turned into somebody else.
So fuck that girl, and fuck that school, and fuck that night.
I don’t care anymore.
So I lost everything eleven years ago.
Who fucking cares?
The next day I got it all back because I got all my friends. I got Mr. Perfect, the guy who really is as good as he looks. I got Mr. Romantic, a fucked up dude for sure, but he’s my fucked up dude. I got Mr. Corporate, who knows better than anyone that second chances are real. He’s had enough of them for three lifetimes. And of course, my own BFF, Mr. Mysterious. Who really can fix just about anything. He’ll take good care of my baby sister.
I got so much more than I lost.
Just like Katya.
She expresses me better than I express myself.
She is more to me than my poem.
She is my whole world, now and forever.
We are the perfect match.
END OF BOOK SHIT
Welcome to the End of Book Shit (called the EOBS by me and my minions). This is book five in a series, so you Bombshells know the drill. I sorta think of this last chapter as like a little mini-review of my own books. Hahah.
So much to say about this series now that it’s complete. First of all, Five will be back in September 2017 for the rest of his story. I get so many messages about that, but it’s my own fault because I’ve been promising that story for more than two years now. But for reals, next September.
This EOBS I’m gonna talk about each book so let’s jump right in and start with someone who now feels like an old friend, Mr. Perfect.
When I first came up with the idea for this series I was thinking it would be a quick serial. Sorta like Social Media, but releasing one month apart instead of two weeks. But I quickly realized I’m not really a novella writer. I don’t write super long books at all. I think of all my romances, 321 is the longest and it only comes in at about 90,000 words. So it’s not that I always go long. I just have this process in my head about where each plot points fits and making that 50% plot point mark at 15,000 words instead of 40,000 just kills me. I can’t do it. It’s pretty difficult to build up to the 50% mark in only 15,000 words.
I knew pretty early in Mr. Perfect that my novella serial idea was bust and I just kept going like I usually do.
Once I got over that whole mistake I started thinking about the sex scenes because let’s face it, when you’ve written as many sex scenes as I have you start to run out of ideas. So when the butter scene came up out of nowhere while I was writing I knew it completely ridiculous. But Ellie had already made herself out to be a completely ridiculous person by chapter six, so I embraced that butter scene and kept going. Fast forward a month to the night Jana Aston called me up while she was reading the ARC:
Ring, ring, ring.
Me: Hello?
Jana: Dude, that butter scene…
Me: Hahahahahahahhahahah
Jana: OMG, I’m picturing your reviews for this and I’m worried. I’m not even kidding.
Me: Hahahahahhahahhahhah
Jana: They’re all gonna write about this…
Me: Hahahhahahahahhahahah
Jana: Why are you laughing?
Me: I just don’t care anymore. Let them say whatever they want. I probably deserve it. I just do not care.
But Bombshells, if you’re in my Facebook fan Group, Shrike Bikes, then you know how much fucking joy we’ve gotten out of that butter scene. That alone was worth it. And every single time one of you guys posts a funny butter meme, I laugh all over again.
I did get plenty of one-star reviews for this series because I just don’t care what people think of my stories anymore. I got people saying the butter scene made them feel dirty and they needed to go to church. I had people accuse me (once again) of condoning rape because of Mr. Romantic’s fantasy. I’ve had people say I bored the hell out of them with Mr. Mysterious. (what? Like for real, if you hated Mr. Mysterious, just move along. lol. You are not my people).
None of that matters because there are people out there who like what I write. They get me. So I’m gonna keep going.
But the sex scenes man. I have a lot of ideas for the upcoming Turning Series because that’s ménage stuff. I’ve only done one ménage book. But bitches, I have written like thirty hetero-couple books and each one of them has between three and five sex scenes. And at least one of them has to be a sex scene that is not about the sex. It has to be about the feels. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to come up with Spencer fucking Veronica with paint in every book. Or Ford and Ashleigh having the “perfect date” in Vegas. Or James and Harper doing it in a bathroom in Death Valley while Sasha eats gummy worms out in that blazing hot Hummer.
It’s takes a lot of imagination to come up with something completely different for each book and even though I probably could write the same sex scene over and over again and people would still buy my books, I won’t. Because I’d disappoint you guys and I don’t want to do that. Even if it means some people won’t get it and some people will make stupid assumptions about my motivations, I only have one motivation.
Tell a good story.
There are plenty of books out there that don’t tell a good story and still have great sex scenes. Those authors can still sell a ton of books and I’m all for that. But that’s not why I write. I write because I have a story I want to share with you. I write because the only opinion about my story that matters is my own.
Writing, as a profession, as a way to pay bills and meet your basic needs, is very difficult. And I’m not talking about the competition or the marketing. I’m talking about the discipline it takes to actually finish, publish, and then do it all over again, and again, and again.
I see so many posts about author burn-out. They write too much, they hate marketing, they have no time for anything else. And if they fall behind on any of these things, people forget about them and move on to find another favorite author.
It’s a valid concern. And if authors get burned out on telling stories there’s really nothing you can do about that. You need a pretty good imagination to keep going as a writer and that imagination has to be limitless.
I work every day. Some days, like today, I will work sixteen hours, easy. I have to write this EOBS, I have to make links for the back of my eBooks for each distributor and upload files, I have a cover reveal for Taking Turns tomorrow so I need a blog post and I have to do all kinds of last minute things to my Rafflecopter giveaway. I have a media kit to send to Giselle for the Match blitz next week, I have to format my Mr. Match paperback and upload that to Createspace so I can order copies and fulfill the 100+ orders I took in October for signed Mister books. I have a lot of shit on my list today that has nothing at all to do with actual writing.
And yeah, that’s hard. But the one thing that keeps me going is the story. The end, in fact. There is no rush like getting to the end of your book and wri
ting that last line, knowing it is perfect. Maybe there’s lots of imperfect things that come before that last line—maybe there’s twenty typos or autocorrect mistakes you didn’t catch or a plot hole or two—it doesn’t matter because you have that one thing that keeps you going.
The End.
I cannot imagine a time where I get burned out on writing The End.
But in order to get to the end you have favorite moments inside that story that keep you interested. The butter scene was one for me. So was Ellie’s little “tampon outburst”. And Mac’s scavenger hunt. That scavenger hunt was all the things that make me love a book. So this is the real reason why what people think about the butter scene doesn’t matter to me. It kept me going. It kept me interested and got me to the end.
In Mr. Romantic it was the way Nolan explained the “sex slap” using horse racing. It was the yellow dress and the yellow rope, and yeah, the ENTIRE rape fantasy scene which kept me going. My favorite chapter in Mr. Romantic is at the end of the fantasy when Nolan realizes what’s driving him. Why he’s the way he is. I love it. I could read that scene over and over again and never get tired.
In Mr. Corporate is was Victoria Arias. She took a lot of heat for her personality but looking back on Victoria, knowing now that she is the only thing that saved the Misters back on That Night (because she knew Corporate was never guilty—he had a witness), I love every spying moment, every sassy moment, every slapping moment about her. Victoria is the reason I love Mr. Corporate. She is standing in the middle of a world filled with vampires holding a crucifix, telling everyone to get the fuck behind her, she’s got this.
In Mysterious it was the Del Mar scene. Both the track and the house. I loved the fact that Paxton went out and got strawberries for Cindy, just so they could have a drink together. I loved the fight between Pax and Oliver over his baby sister. I loved Mr. Perfect’s chapter and his stupid dog, Scout.
In Mr. Match it was the first chapter. And how lucky is that? How many times do you write a book and you get the first chapter perfect? If you haven’t read the Rook & Ronin series it might not seem so perfect, but if you have, it is. And that first chapter, when Oliver is talking about his world, it’s the whole reason I kept going.
When I got to the “feels” sex scene in Mr. Match I was on the phone with Jana again, complaining about not having anything good in mind. I needed something more than sex at this point in the book and it took me days (days I did not have to spare) to come up with the Gimme more… gimme more… gimme more scene. And when I finished I was completely satisfied.
Aside from all the sex my books will typically have a pretty twisted plot. When I wrote about Corporate’s little treasure in his book I did it on faith. It felt right to me. How it was going to play a part in the final book never even entered my mind. “I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
When I’m writing a series with a mystery running through all five books like it did in the Misters, I typically leave the solution to the mystery for later. And I do this because I like to have a framework that reigns me in. If you’ve read Meet Me In The Dark I talk about this a little in the EOBS. How Merc was in so many of the Dirty, Dark, and Deadly books, as well as the Rook & Ronin books, and how I had to sort of piece his past together using all those other story lines as the constraining framework.
It’s challenging for sure. But I just believe in the story and go from there.
So when it finally came time to weave Mr. Corporate’s treasure into the end of Mr. Match, I couldn’t have been happier to look up “lost treasure” on the internet and find the RMS Republic. Which really was carrying gold meant for Russia and really did sink off the coast of Nantucket.
Insert huge smile here because I had already written in the gold, Nantucket, and the Russians.
It’s like that little piece of information was just waiting for me to go looking for it and add it to my story.
I can’t say much more about my writing process without sounding like a freak but this is how these stories come to me. One piece at a time until they add up to something more than I started with. Pieces of a puzzle I didn’t realize I was trying to put together, but which make perfect sense once I’m done. Fate, maybe.
The Misters took up almost my whole 2016 and I cannot think of a better way to spend ten months of my life. Even though it was stressful and I had to give up quite a few things to stay on track, it was completely one hundred percent worth it.
Yeah, the competition is hard and the marketing is a time suck. But when it’s all said and done I still have the end.
And it’s enough. It keeps me going.
I hope you enjoyed the end. I hope you got the answers you were looking for and if you think I left something out, I really didn’t. It’s in there, you just need to find it and form your own opinion. Not everything should be so cut and dry. I already know I’m going to get a hundred questions about the Smitten Kitten, but I left that out on purpose. Just another bit of fate, Princesses. Fate that fits, but I like the mystery.
Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing, and I’ll see you in the next book. (Which you totally DO NOT WANT TO MISS and should pre-order now, because Bombshells, Taking Turns will be the sexiest book you’ve ever read.)
Julie
PS – Sorry for any typos in this EOBS. You know I never edit it. ;)
About the Author
JA Huss is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who makes you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.
You can read her writing craft and marketing articles at her website and chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, and her kick-ass romance blog, New Adult Addiction. If you're interested in getting your hands on an advanced release copy of her upcoming books, sneak peek teasers, or information on her upcoming personal appearances, you can join her newsletter list and get those details delivered right to your inbox.
JA Huss lives on a dirt road in Colorado thirty minutes from the nearest post office. So if she owes you a package from a giveaway, expect it to take forever. She has a small farm with two donkeys named Paris & Nicole, a ringneck parakeet named Bird, and a pack of dogs. She also has two grown children who have never read any of her books and do not plan on ever doing so. They do, however, plan on using her credit cards forever.
JA collects guns and likes to read science fiction and books that make her think. JA Huss used to write homeschool science textbooks under the name Simple Schooling and after publishing more than 200 of those, she ran out of shit to say. She started writing the I Am Just Junco science fiction series in 2012, but has since found the meaning of life writing erotic stories about antihero men that readers love to love.
JA has an undergraduate degree in equine science and fully planned on becoming a veterinarian until she heard what kind of hours they keep, so she decided to go to grad school and got a master’s degree in Forensic Toxicology. Before she was a full-time writer she was smelling hog farms for the state of Colorado.
Even though JA is known to be testy and somewhat of a bitch, she loves her #fans dearly and if you want to talk to her, join her Facebook fan group where she posts daily bullshit about bullshit.
If you think she’s kidding about this crazy autobiography, you don’t know her very well.
SEE ALL HER BOOKS HERE
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