We gave Jus our own set of questions, from the fun to the serious... Read on to find out a little more about the personal side of an up-and-coming writer! (Use the arrows immediately to the right to scroll down.)

What do you drink while you write?

"It depends on the day and the character I'm writing. Most often I drink a strong, full-bodied tea with milk; sometimes a hot chai if I'm overlooking all the sugar that comes with those. When I wrote Quinn's scenes, I drank Scotch, straight."

What music did you listen to when you wrote Nocturne?

"Most often to soundtracks. Nocturne was a long project so I went through quite a few, but in the beginning I listened to a bit of Tori Amos and Meet Joe Black. In the end it was often Troy and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

What are some of your favorite movies?

"Interview with the Vampire for its mood and the conflict its lead character suffers; Sense & Sensibility, for Jane Austen's pitch-perfect characters and that it was just excellently done from script to direction; Meet Joe Black (the more recent one) for the gorgeous cinematography and musical score; Phantom of the Opera for the sheer drama in its music, which they played for all it was worth. The first Lord of the Rings was spectacular for the suspense it was able to convey and for the different cultures they were able to bring to life, particularly the elves. I was glad they took it the direction they did, toward the darker side. I think they actually improved on the book.

"The Hours deserves a special mention. Incredible soundtrack, just extraordinarily well done. The director took an immense amount of care—the attention to detail was just amazing: for instance, the way he took care to mirror each character. He also stuck right to the book. It's not the type of movie I'd ordinarily go see, but I loved it for its quality, and the Meryl Streep storyline characters have stuck with me."

What's your favorite bookstore in the region where you live?

"There aren't a lot of independent bookstores in this city. There are three Barnes & Nobles, the existence of at least one of which is a non-negotiable prerequisite as to where I live. I love Barnes & Noble: the whole mindset, the idea that they'll give you a hot, creamy mug of latte or chai, let you sit in a comfortable easy chair, and give you your pick of whatever book or magazine you'd like to peruse. I buy nearly all my books and music (and certainly all my chai lattes) there. They've treated me right; I feel I need to treat them right."

What writers do you read for pleasure?

"Inside the genre, C. J. Cherryh is the very top. Outside the genre I regularly read Joanne Harris, who wrote Chocolat among other things; her masterpiece, though, is Five Quarters of an Orange. I like to read Jane Austen, for her sheer perfection when it comes to human character in a civilized world. Michael Chabon's Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is another one—Joe is one of my favorite all-time characters. Most of the time, though, I read for what I like, not necessarily by author. If an author consistently writes what I like, I'm in heaven."

Do you have a favorite character, or a few favorite characters, in Nocturne?

"That's tough. I liked writing them all, even the secondary characters. Some were harder to get into, but I did get into them all. I was able to get 'into character' earlier with Graham and Jenning than with others. The story's micro plot, of course, follows Graham and Kellan; they're two of my favorites, I'd have to say, but Jenning has her place."

Is there a scene in Nocturne you thought turned out particularly well or was particularly easy/difficult to write?

"That's another hard question. It's hard to know when you've conveyed something perfectly to another mind, that you haven't gone over the top or been too subtle. I thought the ending turned out well. There were some twists in the plot that I really enjoyed turning up. The fight scenes went smoothly in the writing, but had me stressed out for Graham, and I was the one writing it! Writing a macro plot (the conflict between Kaettegut and Jefferson, and Jefferson with the Back) and a micro plot (Graham and Kellan) was satisfying.

"Difficult to write—probably the council scenes and some of Chauncey's scenes, because I had to convey the drama and to be able to hold the reader's interest through what are effectively meetings, like meetings readers have been to dozens or hundreds of times. The sequel will have more action; in this novel I had to set up a lot in terms of the macro plot, though in this volume there is suspense of its own kind in the political machinations of power.

"A particular difficulty for me is the use of foul language. When a character is really very stressed out, he/she isn't going to think things like 'gosh' or 'dagnabbit,' yet I find cursing to be frequently coarse. Existing solutions don't work well. The new Battlestar Galactica series uses "frack" to hilarious effect, often to the detriment of suspense—only the actress playing Starbuck manages to make that one sound legit. Some writers use 'gods' rather than 'God,' but their cultures often don't have religions with multiple gods so that doesn't make much sense. I ended up using curse words that I'd rather not use but that are not tied to religion in this book. I thought of them as words that have just carried down the generations but have lost their original source meaning—placeholder words that simply stand in for an emotion."

What inspired you to write Nocturne?

"I don't know that one thing inspired me to write Nocturne. I have a focus or a concern with how humans treat each other, with human nature, with power structures. Colonization by a superpower is a very interesting subject for me.

"For the setting itself, I can tell you that I came upon the articles by Joshi et. al, and it was perfect. In relation to that, having the coincident recent focus on interstellar planet discovery and the redefinition of what constitutes planets and suns has been timely and interesting. Minds are being opened. Science fiction opens the writer's mind like no other genre. There are almost no limits in what kind of story you can tell."

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