5 Secrets (What No One Knows About My Book) with J. Hughey

Our guest author today is J. Hughey, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

J. Hughey knows what a girl wants. Independence. One or two no-matter-what-happens friends. A smokin’ hot romance. A basic understanding of geological concepts. Huh? Okay, maybe not every girl is into geology, but J. Hughey is, and in the Yellowblown series she combines her passion for a timeless love story with her interest in geeky stuff to help Violet Perch get a life, despite an ongoing global catastrophe. J. Hughey is the alter-ego of historical romance author Jill Hughey, who lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two teenaged boys.

5 Secrets about Eruption: Yellowblown™ Book One

1) There seems to be one secret I didn’t intend to be a secret. When I mention the premise of the book, many people say, “Oh, I love Yellowstone. It’s so beautiful.” Unfortunately, the driving event in the whole series (a major eruption of the Yellowstone caldera) destroys the place, so I’m not quite sure what to say. It’s like I wrote a book called Tinkerbell Dies, and, after hearing the title, everyone says, “I love Tinkerbell. She’s my favorite cartoon character. Don’t you just love her pixie dust?” Ummm…yes, but in my book she’s dead.

2) Character names are really difficult for me. When I started writing Eruption, I named the main characters the names I would have used if I’d had another kid. Boone for a boy, and Violet for a girl (also my paternal grandmother’s name.) There’s been a huge surge in the name Violet in fiction lately, but I wasn’t following the trend. Honest!

3) My brother-in-law let me shoot his shotgun as research. I wanted to understand what Violet would feel, hear, and smell as she learned to handle a gun. Funniest text conversation ever was him describing for me what a squirrel does when shot out of a tree. ME: Do squirrels make any kind of sound when you shoot them?  HIM: Yep, they go Ouch, damn that hurt! Not that I’ve ever heard.

4) At first, Violet’s home was set in Pennsylvania. I moved her west to Indiana to heighten the impacts of a Yellowstone eruption. In a similar vein, Boone Ramer, Violet’s love interest, was going to be a Texan. I realized he also needed to be closer to the action, so I brought him north to Nebraska.

5) I wrote some really cool scenes from the points of view of people across the U.S. as a means to show what is happening across the nation during the eruption. The editor hated them, hated the interruption of flow between chapters. So, after much gnashing of teeth, I pulled them — the scenes, not my teeth. The first deleted scene is actually on my website as an intro to the story.

Blurb from Eruption: Yellowblown™ Book One

I’m in the middle of the perfect college semester, hundreds of miles from Mom, with an awesome roomie and my freshman crush finally becoming a sophomore reality—Hotness! I’m figuring out calculus, I’ve got both hands on the handlebars and the wind of freedom in my hair. What on earth could slow my roll?

How about if the Yellowstone volcano erupts for the first time in 630,000 years, spewing a continuous load of ash (crap) all over North America? Think that’ll put a kink in my bicycle chain?
Make that kinks, plural, because here’s a scientific fact I’ll bet you didn’t know. Nothing ruins the perfect semester like a super caldera. Now that I’ve made you smarter today, maybe you can tell me how to keep my life cruising in the right direction—no to Mom, yes to roomie, double yes to Hotness!—during a global disaster?
My lame name is Violet and, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m not hanging from the side of a cinder cone on the last page of this trauma, but there’s definitely more to come. Unless, of course, humans become extinct and then there’s not. Duh.
 
To Buy Eruption: Yellowblown™ Book One go to:
Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MRHAIRO
 
You can find J. Hughey on these links:
Website:  www.jillhughey.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jillhugheyromance
Twitter: @jillhughey
Newsletter Subscribe: http://www.jillhughey.com/contact
 
Thanks for checking out J. and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, J. will be around to answer them today.
 
And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book.