I’m thrilled to announce that after a long way, the cover for The Long Way Home is finally out. The fabulous Shawntelle Madison did an amazing job with this, didn’t she?
Want your own copy? Buy it at: Barnes & Noble| Smashwords | Amazon | Kobo
The Long Way Home cover
From the back cover:
My name is Jessica Scott. I am a soldier. I am a mother. I am a wife.
In 2009, Army second lieutenant Jessica Scott deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. She thought deploying was the hardest thing she’d ever do.
She was wrong.
This is the story of a mother coming home from war and learning to be a mom again. This is the story of a lieutenant making the grade and becoming a company commander. This is the journey of a writer persevering through a hundred rejections. This is the story of a soldier learning to be a woman again. This is the story of a wife waiting for the end of a war.
This is the journey as it happened, without commentary.
This is her blog. There are many blogs from the Iraq war, but this one is hers.
Check out the trailer :
Foreword
In 2009, I kissed my children goodbye and deployed to Iraq. I thought deploying would be the hardest thing I’d ever do. I was wrong. Coming home from war is not an event, not a solitary moment on the parade field. I never knew what it would take to walk through my front door and become a mother after a year away. This is my story of coming home from war. Of kissing my children and learning to be their mom again. Of taking command of my company and growing up from a smart-mouthed lieutenant to more thoughtful commander. Of being a wife at the end of the war. A mom. A soldier. A writer. A wife. If you’ve been following the journey thus far, thank you for joining me again. If you’re reading it for the first time, I hope you enjoy.
COMING HOME
2010
UNPREPARED
December 27, 2009
WHEN YOU GET HOME from deployment, the Army sends you through all this reintegration training. Some of it is worthwhile, a lot of it is a waste of time and even more is a check-the-block exercise. I understand the intent behind it, but frankly, I didn’t need or want most of it. There was, however, one class that I really got a lot out of and it was taught by the chaplains. They discussed reintegrating with your families and I paid attention because honestly, I’ve been worried about reuniting with my kids.
They talked about expectations and reactions and how you and they are different now than when you left home. I knew all this but still I paid attention. There was a lot of anticipation within me about seeing the kids and getting my family back together.
I thought I was prepared.
So when we’re in the middle of a busy rest stop in New Jersey last night and my youngest starts crying out of the blue, I wasn’t prepared to hear why she was upset. She had real, painful tears, the kind of crying that sounded like her little heart hurt. When I asked her what was wrong, she sobbed, “I don’t think you love me.”
It was not a fake cry. It wasn’t a cry for attention. And I had no idea how to react. Instantly, I started crying. In the middle of a rest stop, with people wondering what the heck was going on, I was trying to get my oldest’s coat on her while trying to get my youngest to understand that I did love her and I had missed her.
My husband freaked out when he walked up and saw me and our youngest both in tears. My oldest rested her head on my shoulder and told me she knew I loved her. But none of that helped until I could make my youngest understand.
It was a brutal episode and one I did not expect. They tell you about the babies not knowing you or your grade school kids wanting to talk incessantly but nothing prepared me for my three year old’s confusion and true heartache.
It’s better today. She’s back to normal and so am I, but the pain from last night lingers. So today, I’m hugging both of them more and telling them I love them. I’d already been doing that but apparently, it wasn’t enough to make up for a year of no hugs and no up close “I love you”s. The web cam was good but it wasn’t enough.
I don’t know if I can ever make up to either of them for being gone. I don’t know what else is coming.
And I don’t know that I’m prepared to deal with it.
THE UNEXPECTED MOMMY BOX
January 4, 2010
IN DAVID FINKLE’S THE Good Soldiers, Finkle describes a “Bad News Bucket,” an emotional coping cache that, once filled, puts a soldier near the breaking point. According to Finkle, who heard of the idea from General Petraus (I believe), soldiers need good news in order to drain the bad news they carry around inside them.
When I read Finkle’s description, I thought, this was it exactly. There were days in Iraq where I simply couldn’t handle anything else, that I was barely holding on and needed to get away and pull it back together so that I could continue.
I did not expect this once I returned home but apparently, I have my own version of the bad news bucket: the Mommy Box. I discovered very early on in my deployment that I needed to stay busy in order to keep my mind on the tasks at hand and not sit and mope about my kids. They were happy, they were healthy, and they were in my mom’s more than capable hands. I didn’t need to worry.
What I was doing, apparently, was shoving everything inside the Mommy Box and closing the lid. I shut those emotions down and ignored them. Except that sometimes, the Box got too full. Like on my oldest’s first day of school. My husband and I both agree that the hardest day on this deployment was missing that event. Birthdays we could recreate. Anniversaries, we would ignore. But the first day of school is something we can’t get back and we don’t get a do-over.
But having put everything aside for the duration, I fully expected to come home and simply go back to normal. I did not expect to be crying the first weekend back with the kids every day for four days. It seemed like I couldn’t stop. And I also discovered that drinking makes the Mommy Box even harder to handle. Apparently, alcohol unleashes the flood of emotions that I’ve still got boxed up inside me.
I can sit back and pretend that everything is fine now that we’re all home, having hauled the entire family back from the diaspora, but that would be lying to myself. I’m not fine but I am one hell of a lot better now that I’ve got my family back together. There are still a slew of emotions inside me that I still have to handle and I’m sure they’re going to leak out, a little at a time (because I’m not drinking anymore, but that’s another post).
The Mommy Box was set in a corner for an entire year. Now, I guess, it’s time to clean it out.
BANNING NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
January 8, 2013
I’M NOT ONE TO start the New Year off by saying I’m going to loose fifteen pounds by February 15. It’s never happened before and I’m not sure why I would think starting now is anything different than on December 31st.
But I am a big fan of goals and I’m an even bigger fan of attainable goals. So this year, I’m setting goals and I’m telling y’all about them so at the end of 2010, I can come back and let you know how I did. Last year, I didn’t really have any goals, other than come home from Iraq and landing an agent. I managed to do both, except that the agent part didn’t really stick. So I’m on the agent hunt again, and that’s okay. And making it home safe and sound from Iraq is an extra bonus that’s a whole ’nother adventure in and of itself.
This year, however, is different. This year, I want to get an agent who really wants me and my body of work as a client and is willing to say “here’s what we need to do, let’s go.” I hope the book I’m working on now will be the book that gets me out there.
This year, I will be better at being a mom. Granted, last year, I had no time to be a mom, other than an absentee one, but this year, I’m going to focus on what’s really important: my kids. I don’t get that time back and they need me more than anyone else does.
The only other thing I’m going to do is keep reading. I’m absolutely positive that I won’t have the same amount of time to read in the States as I had in Iraq, but I’m not going to give up the passion I was able to rediscover this past year. There are books I’m simply dying to read that are coming out soon and I’m going to read them, not just stick them on my book shelf!
So that’s it. Those are my goals. You might notice I did not put sell a novel on there. I can’t control that. I can’t control if I land an agent, but I certainly hope I do. So we’ll see how it goes.
Make sure you check out the reviews on Goodreads and if you haven’t already, add it to your shelf!
Get your copy today: Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Amazon | Kobo
As an added bonus, and because Jessica Scott is awesome like that, she’s offering a giveaway of all her backlist books. This is including both her fiction and non-fiction books. This is a real treat because I have personally loved her Coming Home Series and can’t wait until Back to You, book 3 in the series, is released. The series currently includes two full length novels (Because of You & Until There was You) and one Novella (Anything for You.) She has another non-fiction book titled To Iraq and Back. The only thing that you have to do to be entered to win is to leave a comment on this post. That’s it! Good luck and enjoy!
The Long Way Home Official Page • Trailer • Goodreads • Amazon
Barnes & Noble • Kobo • Smashwords
About Jess:
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: www.jessicascott.net • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads
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