Viviana Enchantress of Books: Blog Tour Guest Post: "Anything for You" by Jessica Scott

I'm extremely excited to have author Jessica Scott with us today!!
Welcome!!

Thanks so much for having me here today!

One of the things that Viviana suggested as a topic was how/why I make my characters so real. I didn't actually set out to write that but my style of realism evolved over several years.

One of my very first conversations with someone from New York publishing was a phone call with the legendary Kate Duffy before she passed away. I was new, it was like six months into my writing journey and there I was talking with Kate. I didn't realize at the time just how awesome that really was.

But one of the things Kate told me that has stuck with me was that my characters aren't dealing with things any better than real people. Romance is about the fantasy, about the escape, and readers don’t want realism in their romance.

I didn't argue, even though my first reaction was hey, I like realism in my romance.

But over the years, Kate’s words to me have stuck with me. I haven’t been able to shake that tendency to write realistically and so I embraced it rather than argue with it. You’d think that was the key to happiness and everything went swimmingly since then? Yeah, not so much.

At one particularly rough spot in the road, Robyn Carr told me to be the best damn Jessica Scott I could be. Don’t try to write like someone else, don’t try to emulate someone else’s stories. Just write my stories with my voice. It’s the only reason to actually write in this business.

It would seem like both pieces of advice were mutually exclusive. Here’s Kate telling me I need to cut out some of the realism, and then here’s Robyn telling me I should embrace my strengths.

I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I've learned to somewhat ease back on my realism and figure out what stuff to blur out or gloss over but I haven’t sacrificed what makes my voice mine. And I've decided that if I’m the person on this journey, I need to write and be true to myself and the stories the muse is telling me to write.

Thank you again Jessica for visiting with us!!
Find out more about "Anything for You" and Jessica below.
Oh, there's also a giveaway!!

Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison has spent a year recovering from his combat injuries. A year spent in the arms of the woman of his dreams. But loving Jen comes with a price: every time he touches her, he faces the uncertain fear that loving her might mean losing her forever.

Jen is a breast cancer survivor and with Shane, she’s found a man who loves her despite her scars. But her scars may be too much for their love to survive.

As their love grows, so does the risk to Jen’s life. And Shane must make the toughest decision any man can make to save the woman he loves.

Available for purchase at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.

Anything for You: A Coming Home Short Story Excerpt by Jessica Scott

About the Author

Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper, but she's a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house.

Oprah has called her. True story.

Her debut novel BECAUSE OF YOU launched Loveswept, the first Random House digital imprint.

She's written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of OIF/New Dawn and is currently a company commander stationed at Fort Hood.

Most recently, she's been featured as one of Esquire Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012.

Connect with Jessica at

Website │ Facebook │ Twitter │ Goodreads