UFI welcomes Jess Haines Author of The H and W Investigations series. Thanks for Joining us!!
What can you tell my
readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or
reading in another interview?
Hmm. I’m sure if you look
hard enough, you can find out all kinds of weird stuff about me. My obsession
with Ryan Reynolds, my love of chocolate and coffee, and that I know what
crickets taste like.
As far as something that
hasn’t been covered? Maybe that I hate
broccoli and cauliflower.
What do you enjoy doing on
your down time?
Watching movies and spending
way too much time chatting on Twitter. Once in a while, I like to sketch, but
mostly what I do is read or write.
What is your Favorite part
of writing?
Plotting all of the twists
and turns for my stories. I’m always operating one to two stories ahead of
what’s published, so seeing people getting excited about something I wrote over
a year before and had plotted out even longer always amuses and thrills
me.
Do you have any certain
routines you must follow as you write?
Mostly to make sure I have
coffee, chocolate, and a dictionary close to hand. I have a tendency to do a
lot of my writing while a movie is playing in the background because I got so
used to writing in a noisy environment.
Strangely enough, I find it difficult to write when music is playing—it
has to be a steady chatter or absolute silence or, for some reason, I just
can’t concentrate.
What are some of your
Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?
I
adore Jim Butcher and Thea Harrison.
Right now they are two of my favorite UF/PNR authors.
I’ve
got quite a long list of authors I admire and whose works I love, but I
wouldn’t want to bore you to tears with a laundry list. *g*
How would you pitch the H&W Investigations series to
someone who has not heard of it before?
Usually I just tell people
that my heroine is human and doesn’t want anything to do with supernaturals,
but keeps getting dragged into their business anyway. That’s a bit of a deviation from the normal
UF—my heroine doesn’t start out as a kickass vampire hunter. She has to work
her way up the food chain, so to speak. These books are the story of how she
becomes more than just cannon fodder or food, and makes her own way in a world
where she’s way out of her depth.
Can you tell us a little
bit about the world that the H&W
Investigations series is set in?
It’s
set in an alternate, present-day New York. The main difference being that,
after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, all the Others—werewolves,
vampires, magic users, elves, etc—came out of the closet, so to speak, and are
now integrated into society. Sort of. The more dangerous Others, like vampires
and werewolves, have to have the humans they plan on getting “intimate” with
sign contracts beforehand. Otherwise, no blood drinking or hanky-panky or any
of that fun stuff.
Do you have a favorite
scene in Stalking the Others?
I
do, but to talk about it would be exceedingly spoilery—so I’ll tell you it’s
the last couple chapters of the book. You’ll know when you read it. ;)
Which character was your
favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about?
It’s hard to pin that
down. I love a lot of my
characters—particularly ones you haven’t seen yet. They all have their own special
significances, even Chaz, so it’s really difficult for me to pick just
one. Shiarra, of course, being the main
character and all, is a ton of fun to write because it’s so funny to play
someone who is so damned reluctant to have anything to do with Others.
Basically, she’s my polar opposite.
Royce is tons of fun to
write, especially when he’s teasing Shia.
She never has any idea what he’s thinking, so having that knowledge (and
finding ways to hide it from the reader using Shia’s POV) is always an
interesting challenge.
Arnold cracks me up. He’s the most “me” out of all of my
characters. Then there is Mouse, the
mute vampire who works with Royce, and her boy-toy, Christoph. Oh, and the cab driver Shia keeps running
into. Can’t forget him.
Once you read the next book,
I think you’re going to get a kick out of characters like Jimmy Thrane and
Clyde Seabreeze, too.
As
for the hardest, I can’t say it’s actually been difficult to write any of them.
I have so much fun with these stories that I haven’t run into any issues that
might make it hard to put my thoughts down on paper.
Stalking the Others is book number 4 in the series. Do you find it easier
or harder to write as the series gets more books under its belt?
Six
of one, half a dozen of the other. I find I spend a lot more time having to
write other stuff (mostly related to promotion, like guest posts and
interviews) instead of the actual books.
It’s a little distracting to go back and forth between tearing through
writing the novel and then juggling writing promotional material on top of
it.
Not
that doing promo is a bad thing, of course, but it seems like with each book it
takes up more of my time. I have a hard
time saying no when someone asks me to do a guest post or interview, even when
I can’t afford to take the time to do it, so I think that it occasionally
stretches me too thin. It’s a challenge,
but so far I’ve been managing okay.
What Other Projects can we
look forward to reading from you?
I’m
contracted for more books in the series, so you’ll be seeing book five next
summer, and book six most likely the year after that.
There’s something else just
around the bend, too. Keep an eye out for an official announcement soon…
Thanks again for having me!
