Reading: #65: Shattering Stereotypes Of Women In The Army (Jessica Scott)

“Every narrative about the army is negative,” says romance novelist (the Coming Home series and former officer in the army, Jessica Scott. “It’s about PTSD. For women, it’s about sexual assault. I wanted to tell stories of how fun the army is, to tell our stories.” Scott details for CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, how she began writing romance novels because she was bored in officer-training school, wanted to change how women in the army were portrayed, and to find a way to work out the serious emotional issues (like life and death) presented by her previous profession. She talks about learning to edit and revise from Stephen King’s On Writing and doing a “beta read” while deployed to Iraq. “[Novelist] Robyn Carr gave the best advice,” Scott says. “Write the story only you can tell.”