GUNS: The Spencer Book

by JA Huss

  And as if on cue, I hear it.

  The low rumble of Uncle Spencer’s nineteen sixty-nine Camaro. My heart thumps with excitement as he pulls up to the curb on the far end of the playground. “Be right back, Kate,” I call out as I rush towards the car.

  Aunt Bombshell is gathering up the backpack from the backseat and then…

  I see her.

  Princess Shrike.

  I waited all last year for her. And they think they can just shoot me up a few grades and keep her out of my reach?

  Never!

  I sigh as I take her in. She’s got on her little blue and green tartan skirt and her white shirt is pressed smooth. Her long blonde hair is up in two flowing pigtails. She looks over at me and waves and my heart flutters a little.

  She’s mine now. Ha ha ha.

  “Aunt Ronnie.” I beam up at the Bombshell after she kisses Princess Shrike with a sappy tear in her eye. “I’ll take it from here.” And then I grab her little pink hand and lead her down the sidewalk to the playground.

  Her parents follow, but they make their way over to my mom and dad now, so I relax a little. I look down at my best friend. “Are you nervous, Princess?”

  She stops walking and puts her hand on her hip. “You’re not allowed to call me that, Ford. My name is Rory. You have to call me Rory!”

  I nod. “Sure thing, Princess. And it’s Number Five. Now, are you ready?”

  “Yes,” she says with a smile. “I can write my name and I know my address.”

  “Hmmm.” I’m not impressed. “In how many languages?” My toe begins to tap inside my shoe again. This might be more difficult than I thought.

  “What?”

  “Princess Rory, I can see my work is cut out. We will meet every day at lunch and you will learn French. That way you’ll know what the grownups are saying when they are talking about secret things.”

  “Why do I need to know secret things?” she asks innocently.

  The bell rings and kids begin gathering their things for class.

  I lean in to her ear. “Because, Rory. You are on the team now. So we gotta stick together. It’s all for one and one for all. Now listen,” I say as I grab her hand again and begin walking her inside the building. “I’m a whole five months older, so I’m the boss of you, Princess. OK?”

  “You’re not the boss of me,” she says in her sweet little Princess voice. “My mom says I’m the boss of me.”

  “No, your mom is wrong. Every team needs a boss, and that’s me. Because I’m the smartest. You’re the youngest, so I’m the boss of you.”

  She continues to argue with me all the way to her classroom, and then all the parents are there, interfering with my plans of playground domination.

  But I’m not worried.

  Because Kate, Number Five, and Princess Rory are gonna take this podunk school into science fair greatness.

  You. Just. Wait.

  End of Book Shit

  From Julie

  Wow. It’s over. And it really is over. I might write a wedding novella, but it won’t be soon. Ford will probably be back in some small role, he’s still got some loose ends. Number Five is a definite maybe, since he’s so damn fun. And he’s got a team going, so they will probably join him at some point.

  But I’m moving on to new characters now. Merc will have two books in the fall. He’s not a nice guy, so if you like dark books this two book series might interest you.

  Tet, who has a real name that he did not share in this book, will actually be the first to appear in The Erotic Consortium Anthology, BEND. He’s in the novella I wrote called COME, so you can learn more about him in that, meet his potential significant other, and the first of two full-length books about those two will publish in late June. PRE-ORDER HERE (Only 99 cents)

  Sasha will be back next spring/summer.

  If I write about Ronnie’s brother, Vic, it will be in serial form next summer. (Not this summer!)

  I also have two unrelated series upcoming. One will release in July and August (this year—two books) and the other one will release early 2015 (again, two books).

  I have a STORE with t-shirts, mugs, tote bags and all kinds of other stuff. It’s filled with rook and Ronin stuff - Shrike Bikes designs and logos… all kinds of stuff. So stop by and check it out here.

  ******

  THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING:

  Jana, my PA - I have no idea what I’d do without you. I’m addicted to you and your opinions! And that damn cat in a unicorn hat photo still makes me laugh. As well as the hair in the eye story. Still. Funny.

  RJ, my editor - I’m addicted to your opinions too. I hang on every word.

  My Street Team - there is no other team like you guys. I feel like we are all BFF’s and I hope I can meet each and every one of you this year. You are all so crazy! I love our Team!

  ALL the bloggers and Facebookers who have had me on their pages for takeovers and promos.

  Jenny and Gitte from Totally Booked, thank you so much for believing in this series and telling your readers about Rook and Ronin. It has had a huge impact on my success as an author.

  The MMM. You know who you are. Venga bus here we come!

  Giselle from Xpresso Tours - I don’t think I’ve thanked you publicly before! You’re the best tour coordinator out there and I appreciate you weeding through all the blogs to find just the right ones to be on the GUNS tour. :)

  ALL the Indie Inked girls - especially Alexia Purdy, Ella James, Heidi McLaughlin, LP Dover, and AO Peart. Your friendship and guidance has been invaluable.

  Ali from The Ginger Pimps - thanks for helping me on the street team.

  Kristi who runs my Shrike Bikes Fan group - and thank you for blogging on New Adult Addiction with me! I love having you there.

  Leah and Amber who run the New Adult Addiction Facebook page - thanks so much for keeping it active.

  ******

  OK, so I actually have a lot to say about the Rook and Ronin series. I’ve gotten a lot of reviews for this series—THANK YOU!—which means I’ve gotten a lot of feedback, most of it overwhelmingly positive. So I feel very lucky.

  I’m sure you have a few questions about this last book. Who knew what and when did they know it? How deep was Ford’s involvement? Well, here’s the thing about first-person point of view books. I can’t tell you that stuff unless Ford decides to tell the main characters in the book.

  So, sorry. :) But… Merc and “Bobby” both have the inside scoop on the details that were left out of Spencer and Veronica’s story. I’m not saying they will divulge those secrets, but they could.Everything I set out to accomplish with these characters has been achieved in my mind. Some people don't like books about babies—well, this series had a lot of baby stuff. It was planned that way. So there’s nothing I can do about individual tastes. Some people don’t like complicated plot twists. Same thing. I like complicated plot twists, so that’s what I write. I like back story parceled out over many books. I like secrets, and families, and damaged people, and loyalty, and faith, and fate, and perseverance. And so that’s what I write about. Almost every book I’ve written has these same themes.

  Hopefully you like these things too, otherwise you probably would’ve stopped reading! THANK YOU FOR READING all the way to the end!

  I hope you fell in love with some of the characters. I know I did. Ford is definitely my favorite. I love Ronin and Spencer too, but Ford is my guy. I can relate to Ford the most I guess. I dig his indifference. I’m pretty indifferent. I live in my own world, I make my own rules. It might not always turn out great, but I’m OK with that. Failure is always an option. Success and failure go hand in hand. It’s OK to fuck up, as long as you never stop trying.

  Now the covers… I actually do not get a lot of feedback on them. Hardly any at all, actually. Which is why I never changed them. But some people are so damn insistent that they be changed, I feel I should say something. The books didn’t sell millions, but they sold well. When I made the covers I lo
ved them. I still like them. So I’m not gonna change them. The Tragic cover served its purpose—it sold books. Mission accomplished. And actually, most people who comment on it say they love it.

  Really, those are pretty much the only things people say about the books from what I’ve read. Even though I’m on Goodreads almost every day, I don’t read most of the Goodreads reviews. Especially the low stars. But I try to check every few weeks and read the one’s with great images and gifs and the ones with four and five stars.

  I miss a lot of them though. I’m not sure how easy it is to navigate GR for most people, but it’s difficult for me as an author to find reviews of my books. So I miss them. If you write a review you’re proud of and would like me to read it, please send me a link via Facebook. I always respond to fans personally. No one is managing my page over there, pretending to be me. If you get an answer, it’s me. I run all the contests on my author page, I choose every winner, I send every notification via private message or email. Unless it’s Jana, and then she says it’s Jana. But mostly I do all that stuff myself and then hand it over to Jana to keep track of.

  Also, this is sorta new, but I’m getting a lot of new friends on my personal Facebook page. I friend everyone who asks and if you write on my personal wall, that’s totally fine with me :). But if you’re a new friend and you have a private message for me, please use the author page to communicate that so I don’t get bombarded with private messages while I’m working. I’m on Facebook all day long and I check the author page at least twice a day for messages. So I will still get it.

  I’m sad to leave this series behind, but at the same time, I’m really looking forward to new characters, and settings, and plots. The BEND novella takes place in Huntington Beach in Southern California, so it’s a nice change from Colorado. I hope you will continue to read my upcoming books and I will do my best to make each and every one interesting, original, and filled with people you can care about.

  Thank you!

  Julie

  P.S. My friend LP Dover and I did a chapter swap, so you can read the first chapter of her USA Today bestseller, Fighting for Love, if you page ahead.

  Wanna know about upcoming books? Sign up for the newsletter or promo posts at www.jahuss.com and never miss out on an upcoming event. Follow me on Facebook and you’ll get all the deets. If you want to hang out with my Street team and me in my group called SHRIKE BIKES, just click here and ask to be added to the group on Facebook. :) We have a lot of fun in there.

  Again, PLEASE, I realize I have a bunch of reviews for this series, but I can always use more. So please, if you’ve enjoyed these books, leave me a review on Amazon. I would so, so appreciate it.

  About the Author

  JA Huss is the author of the Amazon bestselling...

  JA Huss is an Amazon bestselling author of the Rook and Ronin series, the epic science fiction I Am Just Junco series, and hundreds of kid-friendly science books in subjects such as biology, physics, anatomy and physiology, astronomy, and forensics. She has an undergraduate degree in equine science and a master’s degree in forensic toxicology. She has never taken a creative writing class and she hopes she never will.