I'm very excited to welcome author, J. A. Huss today!
The Hidden Talents of
Junco Coot
Junco Coot: Main
character of I Am Just Junco series
Age: 19
Profession: Assassin
for Rural Republic Defense
Hobbies: Piano,
mounted aerial acrobatics, collecting guns and books
It’s the piano that
trips up all her clients. “Piano?” They ask. “An assassin that plays the
piano?”
Yeah, what’s wrong with
playing the piano? Even baddie characters like Junco can’t be baddie all the
time. That’s not cool, that’s boring.
I love to study
characters in novels – I look for them in fact. Sure I love a good plot and I
love good prose just as much as the next reader, but what I really love is character
development.
Junco has many
talents and yes, most of them are tied up in the various methods she uses to
complete her jobs. She’s a heck of a knife thrower, she can shoot with amazing
accuracy from long distances, and she can land a tornado kick on the chin of a
guy three times her size.
But only her skill at
the piano was enough to stun a room full of wanna-be warriors into silence on
the eve of a death-match fight. The piano is a skill she relies on to keep her
grounded and the beauty of the music is in sharp contrast to the roughness of
the girl.
All characters need a
hobby but Junco really needs her hobbies. It keeps her human even as her
handlers draw out every last bit of humanity inside her to make her as immune
to death and destruction as any one person can get.
I probably chose the
piano for Junco for selfish reasons. I always wanted to play myself, but I
played the flute when I was a kid. I never regretted that, but I always envied
my friends who took up the piano because it seemed like an instrument where you
could just lose yourself. Just sit down and play and totally lose yourself.
The scenes of Junco
playing piano in the first three books of my new series, I Am Just Junco, are
few and far between. None occur in the first book. Only two in the second –
that’s when she makes the warriors cry with her playing. But in the third book
we get a very intimate look at just how much this hobby has kept her sane over
the years.
I love the piano
scenes in Flight (the third book) because they reveal her inner character and
they also reveal that her worth is not only tied up in her skills as a killer.
There’s more to her than that. She needs this hobby, she needs to know this
about herself – because if she can’t recognize the good inside her, how will
she ever stop killing?
It’s the things like
this that make characters stand out. Maybe playing the piano is not what Junco
will be remembered for in the long run, but I know one thing for certain, she’d
never make it to her end without it.
Check out Clutch, the
first book in the I Am Just Junco series for only 99 cents at Amazon and let me
know if what you think of Junco’s hobbies. You can find Clutch, Fledge, and
Flight (the first three books in the I Am Just Junco series) at Amazon.com.
And don’t forget to
enter the giveaway contest - each autographed copy of Clutch will come with
some cool swag, too!
Thanks!
J. A. Huss
Clutch
Book One I Am Just
Junco
By J.A. Huss
BLURB
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.
Book
Trailer: http://youtu.be/Iz0PWDGoTJY
Fledge
Book Two
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.
Book
Trailer: http://youtu.be/b_LYS0N1OAY
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.
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.
1 comment:
Thanks for having me on your website! I did play the flute as a kid - far longer than it was cool in school to do so! (It was a lot of fun too!) :)
Julie
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