LOVELY DARKNESS IS LIVE!

Creeping Beautiful Series is complete!

THIS SERIES IS COMPLETE!

So we need a good old-fashioned END OF SERIES SHIT!

This story really started back in 2013 when I wrote the FORD book. It started as a novella back then called SLACK. Just a little peek into a day in the life of Ford Aston. In the book prior to this, PANIC, he was kind of hated. But the last chapter had you thinking… hmm. Maybe there is more to this guy? But then chapter one of Slack has you rethinking once again. Nah. He really is a dick.

But in my story world nothing is what it seems. We go on a little journey with Ford that day. It was Christmas Eve and he was heartbroken over something lost. And he ends up in an antique mall in Cheyenne, Wyoming, doing a favor for a friend, and meets an inquisitive twelve-year-old girl named Sasha Cherlin.

And then everything about my life, and my books, just… changed.

The Company was born in that little novella about Ford’s miserable Christmas Eve and Sasha would go on to become one of my most (if not THE most) loved character in a collection of work that spans ten years and over thirty books.

The next year, 2014, I was in an anthology with a few other talented writers called BEND. We each wrote an original novella to put in it. Something a little twisted and mind-bending. My novella was called Come and it featured a guy called James Fenici.

That novella anthology was my very first trip to the USA Today bestseller’s list. It was pretty awesome. But Come ended on a cliffhanger (on purpose) because I had just finished the first part of the Rook & Ronin series and needed to start something new. Come, Come Back, and Coming for You were the first three books in a new spinoff that would eventually be called The Company and Sasha Cherlin would grow up over the course of these next several spinoffs and come into her own.

But even as I wrote Wasted Lust (Sasha’s “final” story) I knew there was a lot more to these Company people. So I jumped forward in time and wrote another series about the kids of these original characters called The Misters. I took some time off to do the Turning Series and Jordan’s Game after that. A few standalones came out and then I was ready to start something old, but new again, and that’s when I came up with the Bossy Brothers.

It wasn’t supposed to be a Company series. It was supposed to be a fun, light-hearted enemies to lovers. But, of course, my mind is always looking for the twist. I always want to connect things.

So that’s what I did. My brain went crazy making connections, and coming up with plausible explanations, and relating some of it back to political and social issues that we saw happening in the real world. Some of it almost seems a little bit prophetic. Especially Bossy Brothers Johnny. If you read that book, you know what I’m talking about.

But nothing about it was prophetic. It was just the natural progression of the story. When I write I come up with a scenario and then I ask myself—what happens next? Meaning—if this character was real – was me, for instance—what would I do?

If I was wronged in some way—and that’s what ALL these stories are about—how would I go on? What would I do? How would I move forward—get revenge, or retribution, or closure—and not lose my soul and humanity in the process?

In other words—how do I be the bad guy and do good works?

It’s a pretty fine line. If you’re one of these characters, and this is the life you’re living, then you don’t get to be safe. You don’t get to pack yourself up in a bubble wrap and refuse to take hits. You have to take risks, be brave, get hurt, and make the hard decisions.

You have to walk the edge.

And if you’re the author writing characters like this, that edge is razor sharp.

There are a lot of people out there who hate what I write. They haven’t walked an edge in their life, they just pretend they have. They get all self-righteous about my words, and offended by my plots, and angry that I get away with it.

But I’m not getting away with anything.

I’m just telling truths though fiction. I’m exposing dark worlds through brave characters.

Some people have a hard time with this seemingly irreconcilable paradox because they live in a world that is this or that. Black or white. Up or down.

And they can’t understand, will never understand, that no such world exists.

There is no this OR that.

There is only this AND that.

There is no black OR white.

There is only black AND white.

There is no up OR down.

There is only up AND down.

It blows my mind that people don’t understand these basic concepts. You cannot have THIS if there is no THAT. Everything has an opposite and they must coexist. These are just the laws of nature.

But I can’t be bothered with those people. They cannot be reasoned with. So I just do my own thing at all times. And people can come along for the ride, if they want, or they can just get the fuck out of my way.  

I didn’t plan Sasha. And I’m gonna be up front with you now, I didn’t really plan any of this. As time went on this Company story took shape. A character here, a call-back there, and a new plot point every few chapters (it seemed).

And the whole world just took on a life of its own.

Nine years later we’ve come to an end and almost all the players are here for it. Which is nice. They don’t all have a speaking role, but most of them pop up in the Creeping Beautiful series. And I like that. I really like that.

And of course, we have the ultimate comeback of another, equally-loved character, who never quite got to tell his side of the story.

The Creeping Beautiful series is the culmination of the Rook & Ronin series, the Company books, and the Bossy Brothers. The Misters are also part of this world, but they happen after all these other series take place.

It’s quite a journey, and although it was difficult to keep it all straight (and I didn’t always succeed), it has been worth it. I feel a great sense of satisfaction over the completion of Lovely Darkness and I hope that when you guys get to the last page, you do as well.

Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing, and I’ll see you in the next book!

(Which, by the way, is SAVAGE SAINTS! I just finished that book on Friday night and I’m pretty damn happy with it!)

JA Huss

March 29, 2022

Oh, and P.S. – I am redoing this whole website. I’m kind of in the middle of it, actually. It was quite a big deal to do this because I have a private server. I’ve had it for years. Since like… 2014 maybe? And so it was old, old, old. Some things could not be updated anymore. So I had to get a NEW server and upgrade PHP and all kinds of other things – but holy shit, it’s so much faster now! lol

But it’s not all done yet. I have the live site (which you are on now) and the production site—which is waiting to go live once we’re ready. So I’m trying not to post much because anything new that I put up has to be transferred over by hand. That’s why my website has been so quiet lately. But soon it will all be back to normal and there will be a brand new social forum and a store too!