Cover Reveal, Excerpt and Giveaway!! The Long Way Home by Jessica Scott

Available today
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.

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

Website: http://www.jessicascott.net

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessicascott09

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jessicascottauthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5131118.Jessica_Scott

Excerpt to The Long Way Home by Jessica Scott

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.

LINKS:

The Long Way Home Official Page: http://bit.ly/1043hwW

Trailer: http://bit.ly/YfFriF

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/YcxIOk

Amazon: http://amzn.to/YixRRh

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/ZK2U8H

Kobo: http://bit.ly/Wor6RU

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/YfHR0U

Jessica has graciously offered her entire backlist in eBOOk form  to one lucky person who comments on this post Please leave your name and email to be entered. I need to be able to contact you to claim your prize. Giveaway ends Friday March 22nd.