We have interviewed the author Justine Huffman on her book titled Baccarat. She writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She currently have a short action-comedy story for Kindle titled “Baccarat” for sale and a story titled “Up In Smoke” in a newly published collection of short stories titled “Morning Stories: The Beginning”. She had her first poem published when she was ten years old in the “Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans: 1995 Edition”. She is currently in the process of preparing to publish her first poetry book.


(Picture taken from Amazon.com)

How did you come up with the setting of Delaware and Atlantic City? Did you initially know that you wanted the setting to be there?

 

 I’ve lived on and off in Delaware since my junior year of high school, and I can honestly say (aside from my strong dislike of the Winter months; I detest the cold) that I enjoy living here, so I wanted to include the first state in some way. Atlantic City is less than two hours away driving, so it made sense to pick somewhere close by that’s well known (unlike Delaware, apparently) and full of popular nightlife activities. Believe it or not, I’ve never been to Atlantic City, so I had to paint the scenery using research and pieces of stories from people I know that have visited. I did know initially that I wanted to choose it for my story due to familiarity and the distance from Delaware.  I will be making a trip there in the near future though. It’s time for me to do some hands on research.

 

When did you decide that Jackie's personality needed to evolve when you were writing? Did you plan this to happen and to be part of the plot of “Baccarat”?

 

Jackie isn’t into dealing with situations that may involve crying, since she just isn’t softhearted like Prue. Though the two have been besties for quite some time, I knew that the friendship needed to change, and the change had to come from one or both persons. I felt with the girls urge to prove their worth to the agency, to their fathers, and to themselves that character growth had to happen in some way. Usually when I write, I always try to establish my characters and the situation, but as always, the story and characters seem to evolve on their own, and I choose to just go with it. It’s so much easier that way; it’s less conflict between the writer and the pen [giggle]. 

 

There are a lot of books, movies, and television shows linked with the CIA. How did you want to make yours different from all the stereotypes? Was having two females as partners part of that?

 

Whenever I think of the CIA or any other crime fighting agency and women, I’m always drawn to Charlie’s Angels, because for me, they are the definition of iconic on screen women who were action figures.  Though I only know of the original broadcast from pop culture references and online exploration (the show ran before my debut on Earth), I knew I didn’t want to fall into the trap of writing something that reflected that franchise, since Jackie and Prue have different reasons for doing what they do, as opposed to Charlie’s Angels.  I wanted the story to be more fun than action based, so I contrived Jackie and Prue with the intent of having them not boxed in as stereotypical female action leads.  I aspired for them to appear authentic and relatable on some level.  I knew right off that having a female duo would be better as opposed to having a coed or male team, since this has been done quite a bit as well.  Being of the feminine persuasion myself, it was easier to create two female leads.  Having a coed pair may have required the input of sexual tension, and I wanted to avoid that between two leading characters.  If “Baccarat” was a novel, than maybe I would have been able to work with that concept a lot better, but being that it is a short story, I didn’t want to drag anything out, especially an awkward love tale thrown into a low level mission.  I didn’t want the headache.

 

From the sample of “Baccarat” it seems that you could write several books with Prue and Jackie, almost like a series. Are you planning to do that, or are you just writing this book as one story?

 

I wrote “Baccarat” as a one-story pony, though I left the ending open to the possibility of a sequel. If I receive lots of positive feedback on the story, then I may be inspired to write another installment. I do like Jackie and Prue, and would like to see what other misadventures they’d have together.

 

What does the title “Baccarat” mean for you in the story? How did you come up with this unique title?

 

Since the setting of the story is in Atlantic City, I felt it would be appropriate to use a title related to casino games. As I mentally tossed out commonly known games like Blackjack, Roulette, and Texas Hold’em, I decided to look up other types of games associated with casinos. I came across Baccarat, and was intrigued by it, mostly because it’s obviously a foreign word, French I believe. Like all or most casino games, it’s a game of chance, which is what Jackie and Prue’s mission was.


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To get in touch with the author Justine Huffman, visit the links below.