One of the most common questions authors face is a deceptively difficult one to answer: “Where do you get your ideas?” Yet, the answers to that common question can be almost as interesting as the resulting story. Welcome to You’re My Inspiration, a new column dedicated to discovering what inspires a particular author and their work. Whether it be a lifelong love of mythical creatures, a fascinating bit of history, or a trip to a new and exciting place, You’re My Inspiration is all about those special and sometimes dark things that spark ideas and result in great stories.
This week, we bring you Jus Accardo. You may recognize her name from a few years ago when she joined us for My Favorite Things, but today we’re promoting her latest release and final installment of her Denazen series, Transcendent, which is coming out on March 2nd from Entangled Teen! Jus has been kind enough to sit down and share with us the inspirations behind this series featuring super-powered teens.
Comic Books, Buffy, and Music, Oh My!
As the release date for the fourth and final book in the Denazen series approaches, I’ve been looking back at the things that inspired me while working on the series. Sometimes it was as simple as coffee (the main character, Dez, is a coffee fiend). Others, it was a complex list of songs curated to map out the complexity of a scene. Today I wanted to share a few of the things that help me bring the world of the Sixes to life.
One of my biggest inspirations for this series has always been the X-Men. Fantastical abilities and complicated characters, there was never a shortage of stories that got the wheels in my head turning. I first discovered the X-Men after seeing my older male cousins reading the comics. I remember showing interest and having them tell me, “These aren’t for girls.” They dismissed me, and as soon as their backs were turned, I stole their comics and fell in love. Each and every Six ability ever penned has been a homage to the great Stan Lee. Kick-ass men and women out to save the world. I grew up reading X-Men comics, and I think a lot of that shaped my creative mind. Being able to see all these amazing things play out on page not only filled my creative well, but dug it out to begin with.
Another huge inspiration for these books was music. For as far back as I can remember, music has had an impact on pretty much every aspect of my life. There isn’t one pivotal moment that I can’t connect to a song. It’s the same way when I write. Every book had a playlist, each character had one — even some scenes (There’s a scene in book one that played out to Black Lab’s “This Night” like the song was written just for it!). Earlier books in the series were heavy with Powerman 5000 and Ke$ha (two of Dez’s faves), but for Transcendent, there were 
quite a few Shaman’s Harvest songs. One scene toward the end played out entirely in my head to the tune of “Dangerous” by Shaman’s Harvest. Then, the moments leading up to a spectacular fight scene, were penned with “Bad Company” (the Five Finger Death Punch version) in mind. Thinking about it, music was such a huge part of these books they wouldn’t be here without it.
One of the more random inspirations for this series was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Seems weird? Hear me out. Buffy was groundbreaking in so many ways, but for me, one of the biggest takeaways was the complicated characters. No one was one-dimensional. Everyone had their own lives, their own wants and fears. They all had their own strengths and weaknesses. Everyone was flawed in their own beautiful way. The cast of characters saved the world — a lot — but they also screwed up. Buffy was a teenage girl with everyday issues, but she also kicked serious ass. She had hard choices to make, and her decisions left an impression, impacting her life. It was complicated and it was beautiful and that’s exactly how I like my characters.
Jus Accardo spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. But at the last minute, she realized her true path lay with fiction, not food.
Jus is the bestselling author of the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing, as well as the Darker Agency series, and the New Adult series, The Eternal Balance. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.
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