Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
And I knew it wasn’t ever going to be The Hunger Games. At the same time, when I was releasing these Junco books, I was a book blogger. I had a website called New Adult Addiction because New Adult was a brand-new thing and I liked it. And I saw how well—the right word might be ‘easy’ here—how much easier it was to sell romance than it was to sell my cult-classic-science-fiction-in-the-making.
So, like Steve, I switched genres and wrote a new adult romance called Tragic and almost overnight, it was a hit. Not New York Times level hit. I am not nearly as successful as Steve Smith. Hah. But it took off. Everything about my romance writing career took off in 2013 and all the ‘cool’ things happened one after the other as the years went on. USA Today list (many, many, many times over) and New York Times list (Just the one time with Three, Two, One) and Top 100 on Amazon, Top 50 on Amazon, Top 25 on Amazon, Top 10 and yes, Top 5 on Amazon. Many, many, many times over. I sold film and TV rights, I wrote a pilot (with Johnathan! That’s how we got to be friends and writing partners). I’ve been to dozens and dozens of book signings. Traveled. Bought the cool house (which is a little ranch with all the dream animals) and it’s all good. It’s all good.
But still, in the back of my head there is this voice reminding me that none of this was my plan. That I had another dream once upon a time. And that dream was science fiction.
Of course, I’d been through that already. My plan was to be a scientist. And then I walked away and started over.
This probably explains why my best author friends are both science fiction writers. There is a lot of me in Steve.
But I am not Steve.
Because unlike Steve I already knew how to rewrite the dream. So… that’s what I did.
I started writing sci-fi/fantasy romance in 2019 and have 10 books out now under the pen name, KC Cross. And I just recently wrote a vampire book under the JA Huss name. Because no one was ever going to come into my life, shake me by the shoulders, and give me permission to rewrite my dream. Ya know?
No one’s gonna give you permission to rewrite your dream either. If you don’t like your life—if there is something disappointing you or something missing from your dream—then it’s up to you to chase it.
For me chasing the revised dream meant writing six-thousand words a day for all of 2019 so I could put out both a new long series in romance (The Bossy Brothers) and my first long series in Sci-Fi Romance (Harem Station). My Junco books, my first series as a fiction writer, those were not romance. There is a small romance in there, but it’s not a romance at all.
But yeah, there were times (right in the middle of all my success) when all I could think about was how the dream had gone awry. How it got away from me and turned into something I wasn’t expecting. Of course, this only happens when everything is great because when you have down times—and everyone has down times—you don’t have time for self-reflection and regrets because you’re too busy hustling to get more good times.
This is when I had to make a decision. Do I want to give up aiming for the dream? Or do I want to work harder and give it a shot?
Steve and I both worked harder. His experience was different than mine—I would not say Harem Station was a huge hit—I mostly write niche stuff—but those readers who enjoy a good alien romance enjoyed it a lot. It’s got a little Cult following. Not as big of one as Junco, but many, many, many readers got lost in the story and that’s success as far as I’m concerned. It’s enough success, at least, to keep writing in the SF/Fantasy romance genres.
Rom coms are not really my thing, either. I write dark romance and when I sent the last “Meanwhile” to Johnathan after I wrote it (He and both wrote those parts and this last one just happened to be one that I wrote) he wrote back something to the effect that “This was a very JA Huss ending!” And it kinda was. Because Gregory is dark, man. Dark.
Anyway. I can be funny. I don’t often get a reason to in the dark and twisty books that I normally write, but if you want more ‘funny’ by me you can read Vic Vaughn is Vicious. And Mr. and Mrs. But that’s a happily-ever-after book, so you gotta get through all the Misters to appreciate it.
But after saying all that, and assuring you that I am not Steve, even though I wrote the part of Steve, and gave Steve my best friends, and he gave me a reason to put the “banner back-alley-way scene” in a book—this book IS about us. The romance authors. And how utterly different we all are. And how we really all just want the same thing—New York Times Bestseller list—kidding. Half kidding. We just want to make READERS happy. Some of us do that by writing things that ONLY make readers happy and don’t scratch the itch of their personal artistic talent.