Today we are very happy and honoured to welcome Jessica Scott debut romance author and career soldier at Book Lovers Inc. Jessica is here to tell us about her debut novel Because of You, a very emotional romance novel and first book in a new series. Read on to learn more about Jessica’s series and life and get to know the characters of Because of You. 🙂


(You can read my review of Because of You here.)

Jessica: Lol! There is no typical day of writing for me. I just turned over the guidon, so I’m no longer a company commander, but for me, writing comes when it’s going to come. I keep a notebook on me because when an idea strikes, if I don’t write it down, I’ll lose it. A typical day of writing goes something like this: after 8 pm when the kids go to bed, I get on the computer. I check emails, then crack open whatever I’m working on. If it’s a first draft, it’s Scrivener (I swear by that program in all it’s glory). If I’m revising, it’s word with track changes. For some reason, I need to see the red lines through stuff to feel like I’m making progress. And I work until I get tired.

I never thought of myself as a plotter. In fact, I thought it was way cooler to just write the novel as it came to me and go bam, perfect book. Yeah, not so much. I had an epiphany earlier this year when I discovered Alexandra Sokoloff’s book Screenwriting Tips for Authors. Literally it was like the sky opened up and a beam of light flooded my brain. Things started clicking and I started plotting. I’ve found that it doesn’t ruin the surprise of writing the book for me at all. In fact, if anything, it keeps things moving because I know where the story needs to end up. Plus, knowing the story question is a huge deal for me now.


Stella: What do you think is the difference between a reader and a real Book Lover?

Jessica: A reader will close a book and go meh. What’s next. And book lovers do that to, but a book lover will have those few select books that really speak to their soul. They have books that they’ll automatically tell you about, that light up their eyes when “their” book comes up in conversation. They’re passionate about books whereas readers simply read. There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. People are passionate about different things. My eyes glaze over when sports talk comes up probably the way my husband’s glaze over when I start talking to him about the changes in the publishing industry. But he’s a book lover, too. A relaxing day for us is hanging out at Barnes and Nobel.

Stella: Your first novel Because of You, a contemporary romance featuring military heroes will be published in a couple of days, congratulations! Why do you write military romance/contemporary romance with military characters? Some would wonder you’d want to write about something you don’t spend all your waking hours with. 🙂

Jessica: You know, I wonder about that, too but I’ve tried writing things not related to soldiers and I keep coming back to it. Soldiers are in my blood and part of my soul. I can’t seem to get anything off the ground that doesn’t deal with some aspect of the military soul. Maybe some day I’ll branch out but for now, the muse keeps digging into my army life. I want people to see soldiers as people, not statistics, you know?

Stella: Your debut novel Because of You is the first book in a trilogy (Book #2 Back to You and Book #3 Until There Was You will be released respectively in April and September 2012). Can you tell us what we can we expect of Because of You and the two sequel stories?

Jessica: Because of You is one of my favorite stories I’ve written. It’s about this guy, Shane Garrison who lives for the Army. I mean, let’s his marriage go, his social life, everything because he’s driven to stay with his troops. He lives to take care of soldiers and he’s always been able to make a difference. When he gets hurt, he’s got to figure out who he is without the Army. And Jen is there to push him out of his comfort zone and remind him that he’s a man, first, a soldier second.

Back to You is the 2nd book in the series and picks up Trent and Laura’s story where Because of You leaves it (somewhat hanging, I hope readers won’t be too angry). Laura has been waiting for her husband to come home for years and the whole time, he’s been volunteering time and time and time again, subconsciously fighting for a second chance for a battle that went horribly wrong for him. Trent, too, has to face what his love of the military has done to his personal life and ultimately has to choose between military life and his family.

Until There Was You is book 3 in the series and will pick up where Back To You leaves off with Claire and Evan. Claire has got to be one of my favorite female characters as she a tough, ball buster but she’s hiding some serious damage. Evan actually can’t stand her in Back to You, but slowly starts to wonder about the woman behind the façade. Theirs is going to be a much more intense story because they’re both such passionate people.

Stella: You are a career soldier, what made you decide to try your hand at writing a romance novel?

Jessica: I’m not really sure how this happened, to be honest. I was in Officer Candidate school and started writing my first book just to keep myself busy. When I wrote the end, it was the first time I’d ever really finished a book. I had no idea how much went into writing a book that was saleable but I figured this was something I wanted to do. So I started querying (waaaay to early but that’s another story. I’m just glad all the agents in New York didn’t blacklist me) and eventually, found Sue who loved Shane and Jen as much as I did.

Stella: What was the most challenging about it?

Jessica: Wow, there are so many tough parts but I’d say making sure that everything on the page has a purpose. There are scenes that I absolutely adored but had to cut completely or combine because they didn’t progress the story. But I love the revisions process. There’s nothing cooler than seeing a story go from rough draft to polished final version. It’s pretty cool.

Stella: Can you summarize Because of You for us twitterstyle (140 characters or less)?

Jessica: What’s left for a soldier when he no longer has the Army he’s lived for?

Stella: Could you introduce to our readers the characters of Because of You? 

Jessica: Shane Garrison is completely tattooed out. He’s got sleeves of tribal lines running up both arms and across his chest. Think of Daniel Conn from the Gods of Football calendar (see photo left) only tats across both arms. He’s also bald, which is very common in the Army and can be very, very sexy. But he’s also scarred, both physically and mentally. Jen St James is a nurse at Fort Hood but she’s somewhat skittish. She never let the cancer beat her but she’s struggled and the thing she struggles with most is being self conscious about her own scars. But through pushing Shane out of his own self pity, she learns that she never really finished healing and it’s Shane who helps her that last step of the way.

Stella: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read Because of You?

Jessica: Wow, um because it took me 4.5 years to sell and I’d love it if you’d read it so I can write more? No, really, how about this:

1. You want to learn about the Legend of the Great Penis.
2. You can learn which characters is also known as Thundercock (hey, I write about Army guys 🙂
3. You can see what guys really want to be sent while they’re deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan even if it’s less than authorized (it’s not chapstick)

Oh wow. Um, okay.

Stella: What shall we expect from you, what is next on your schedule?

Jessica: Well, I just turned in Trent and Laura’s revised book to Sue, so now I’m working on Claire and Evan’s story. I’m working on a proposal for books 4-6 in the series so hopefully the numbers are strong enough that Sue and the wonderful team at Random House will want to help me get more out to the readers (that sounds so funny to see me write that sentence). I’ve got a YA novel that needs some serious revisions but that I’m passionate about so that may come down in the pipes in the future.

Stella: Reading your bio on your website, I can’t help but wonder: how do you manage to fit so many hours in a day and wear so many hats? You are a company commander in charge of 130 soldiers, you are a wife, mother to two little girls, and now a debut romance author, how do you do it all? What’s your secret? 🙂 lol

Jessica: Crack. No seriously, I write fast and I’m constantly working. I don’t watch TV hardly at all and I actually left command about two weeks ago so I’ve been on leave. I just have to have a schedule and a to do list because if I don’t, I’ll forget something important. I write at night after the kids go to bed and try to knock out 5-10 pages before I go to sleep. Writing is my me time so I really do use it as a way to decompress from work. And when I’m really pushed up, sometimes, my kids have to entertain themselves on the weekends so I can do a hard push to meet my deadlines. But they’re pretty good about. Most of the time:-)

Stella: Have you always loved romance novels? Which books are your favourite/or did you read recently? Or any other genres you like to read? Any favourite authors/novels you’d recommend?

Jessica: I have always loved romance ever since my grandmother let me read her Danielle Steel’s when I was in 7th grade. I actually hate being asked about favorite authors because I always feel like I’m leaving someone out. But one of the best books I’ve read this year is Nalini Singh’s Archangel’s Blade. It’s paranormal but even if you’d never read a paranormal, read this book. It’s absolutely amazing and so intense. I love when I have a book stick with me for days and Dmitri and Honor have definitely stuck. Their story is about healing across time and across death and its positively beautiful.

I read a ton of nonfiction too and the single best book I’ve read this year across any genre is Brian Anderson’s No Turning Back. Brian was blown up in Iraq and No Turning Back is not about his soul searching after his injuries, it’s a reminder that just because someone lost a limb or two, they’re still people and they’re still soldiers. His book had me laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. I still laugh when I think about it. It’s really a great, great book.

Stella: Can you share with us some little secret trivia, something that not many people know about you?

Jessica: I’m partially crazy? Oh wait, everyone knows that. Um, I can paint my own French manicure and I have a serious home improvement fetish that involves frequently repainting my kitchen.

Find out more about Jess and her books at http://www.jessicascott.net/. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

 

Random House generously offers an ebook copy of Because of you to 2 lucky commenters!

 

 (You can read our full giveaway policy here)