Jessica Scott

Well, its official. On Monday, I move from the brigade staff down to a platoon leader position. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the structure, I’m going to move from being in charge of no one and only responsible for planning communications, to being responsible for a platoon of soldiers. I’m getting a really good platoon sergeant, which is good and I’ve got a good group of soldiers that I’m falling in on.

So, in the grand scheme of things, what does that mean? It means I go from planning the mission to making the mission happen. It will be good. I’ll get to actually experience the relationship between a platoon sergeant and a platoon leader from the platoon leader side of it (I’ve been a platoon sergeant before in my past life as an E7, sergeant first class). And I get to get back to what’s really important, taking care of soldiers. I’ve got a bunch of young talent and that’s exciting.

So that’s all for now!

Tweet This Post

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/moaa/mo0209/

If anyone is interested, there was an article in this month’s Military Officer Association on military romance writers. You can find it at the above link. It mentions the ROMVETS and several of their members in the article that talks about how military romance novels indulge in fantasy but also delve into some issues, such as PSTD that our men and women are going through.

Take care
Jess

Tweet This Post

So you’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to the last couple of days. I buried myself in a new project, having finished the first draft of All that Remains (the novel formerly known as Saving Trent).

The new book is tentatively titled The Last Sunrise and I’m indulging my religious side a little. For those of you that know me, you know that studying religion has been a particular hobby of mine for a very very long time (I earned my BA in religious studies). This book explores what happens if the man is the driving force toward bringing about the apocalypse instead of some divine plan. 

Oh and my very first book, After the War, the book I keep putting under the bed but keeps resurrecting itself has taken 3rd in the Silicone Valley RWA’s Gotcha Contest. Another Austin RWA member Lexi Connor took second with her ms Dance Away Danger. Congrats, Lexi!

See the other winners here. It was a great contest with some great feedback for my novel.Â
Take care!

Tweet This Post

Yay! I finished my 4th book, once titled Saving Trent. Thanks to the input I received I’m going with All That Remains as a title.

So now, the book is off to the fabulous and brutal critique partner for a shredding, then its edit time for me and the query process begins again. Who-hoo.

In the meantime, I’ve still got that pesky writing challenge from the Austin RWA, where I have to write every day for a month and dang it, the month is only half over. So I’ve got to come up with the next one. I’ll let you know what I come up with!

That’s all for now!

Tweet This Post

A sincere thank you to everyone who has responded to the call for school supplies. I’ve had an overwhelming number of people and several chapters of the RWA (Austin RWA, CTRWA, Montana and Oklahoma RWA chapters as well you all rock!) pledge their support, as well as fellow ROMVet members and folks off the Clues and News Loop from the RWA Kiss of Death chapter.

I can’t thank all of you enough for your support, not only of me and my soldiers while we’re over here, but for the Iraqi people as well.

Thank you for being willing to get involved and make a difference in the lives of Iraqi kids. It means so much to all of us over here.

Take care
Jess

Tweet This Post

Hi Y’all,

As most of you know by now, I’m stationed in Mosul Iraq and we’ve got an education problem (like most of the middle east). See, there are schools over here and some of them have like 800 kids, 4 teachers and 10 books (this is a number from an actual school and I’m sure these numbers are reflected across our footprint). Anyway, I’m asking for help.

Can you round up pencils, crayons and kids books (text books, abc’s, learn to count, coloring books, anything at all) (not sure if you can find any in Arabic but that would help tremendously, too, as the literacy rate is abysmal).

The only way we have a chance in changing the hearts and minds in this region is through education and showing the children that there is a better way. I figure we can start small with coloring books of kids playing instead of throwing rocks, you know?

Soccer balls, stuffed animals, all of that sort of thing would be greatly appreciated. So can you all pool together and ship as much of those types of things as you can?

Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your support!

Tweet This Post

I absolutely HATE the title of my book Saving Trent. HATE IT. So, I’m opening up the bidding for suggestions. You don’t win anything super cool but you’ll have my eternal gratitude.

So here’s the blurb/summary: Laura Davilla loves her husband but the war has kept him from her for four long years. When she learns that he’s been volunteering for deployments to stay away from his family, Laura’s had enough. The threat of losing his wife is enough to force Trent home, but is Laura’s love enough to save him from the nightmares he’s spent four years running from?

That’s the teaser. I’d love some suggestions for a title. Post them here or email them to me. I’m really wanting something classy yet serious.

Thanks!

Tweet This Post

I just finished reading Heid Squire Krafts book Rule Number 2. You can find it at Amazon or BN.com, if you’re interested. Even though this is my first deployment and is in now way the same as Dr Kraft’s deployment near Fallujah, I can relate to a couple of things she wrote about.

First, and probably the most humorous, is the Legend of the Camel Spider. Not only do I live in absolute terror of ever stumbling across this thing, but her chapters about the legend of it are absolutely true. You’d think these things could get as big as a dog from the way soldiers talk about it. One soldier in the S2 spoke about being chased by one last deployment. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to seeing one and I’m pretty sure my husband is going to go out of his way to show me one at the first opportunity.

The second part I really relate to. Dr Kraft talks about disconnecting from her family, from her kids. She writes about not crying about them and being unable to be both mom and deployed soldier (my term not hers). She had to make a choice and for the time she spent in the war zone, she chose to focus on being a wartime doc. When she got home, she had trouble reconnecting with her patients and with her family.

I have to say, even though my homecoming is a long way off, I worry about reconnecting with my kids. I’m also worried about how being over here in this environment is going to change my relationship with my husband. Things aren’t business as usual over here, no matter how much I might wish them to be or might joke about them being just that. 

Things change, people change and war changes people a lot. Dr Kraft’s book takes one woman’s journey through a pretty horrible time during this war and brings her home again. Most of us won’t go through what she went through, many of us will go through something worse. We’ll just have to see what the outcome is for each of us, as individuals, don’t you think?

Tweet This Post

Don’t panic. Not in an our base is being bombed kind of way. I just feel…edgy. Like I need to be doing something more than I am. Or like maybe I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe I need to go shopping (God forbid, get that girl away from the computer) not that there’s anything to buy over here or anything that I can really justify. 

So let’s talk about this writing thing I keep doing. I’ve spent a huge chunk of time over the last two years learning, reading and writing, working on this project or that and somehow I feel like I’m standing in the same place that I was last year at this time, when I received my first every agent request (that was a heady feeling, let me tell you). Since then, I’ve gotten some great rejections and lots of helpful comments and yet, I continue to work on that next book.

Over here in Iraq, I find myself watching how people look, how they carry themselves because here is the heart of the stories I tell. How people are impacted by being over here. It dawned on me (and there’s no way for this not to come off condescending because I’m here with my husband but that is not how this comment is meant) that it is incredibly lonely over here. For folks that have been here before, the loneliness is something they’re used to, something to be dealt with by meet ups at chow or at the gym. But I don’t think anyone can truly grasp the aloneness that soldiers feel being away from everything that is familiar and comforting and…home until you’re actually here.

So as I watch people adjust to these conditions, I realize I’m learning about myself, too. How am I adjusting and changing because of my experiences over here (which have been incredibly mundane, so don’t worry Mom:). We’ll have to see how this changes my writing.
Take care!

Jess

Tweet This Post

The folks at the Austin Romance Writer’s of America have a monthly writing challenge. The winners write every day for a month and we have a blast encouraging each other to park our behinds in front of the computer every single day.

So I’d started this a bunch of times last year but toward the end of last year and this year, despite being in Iraq, I am going to participate and finish each month ( I still have to finish my novel, Saving Trent) and get started on the next project.

Thanks to the awesome folks at ARWA, ROMVETS and other RWA chapters for sending along the care packages, too. I get to play Santa every day because of my writer friends around the country.Â
THANK YOU!

Tweet This Post

So I’ve officially been gone for a little over a month now and I’ve learned a couple of pretty important lessons.

One: no one is irreplaceable. I’ve said before that Jesus Himself could command the first cavalry division but the day would come when He would change command. I have to keep reminding myself of that and also instilling that in my soldiers. I have one guy who works his ass off but hates sharing information because he feels like it will make him less valuable to the team. He’s getting better though, under the guidance of our outstanding new Automations NCOIC (you know the kind of sergeant who is not only technically proficient but also a solid leader: a new lieutenant’s wish come true).

Two: prioritize. Everyone over here thinks their mission is important and we are all part of the team that helps the commander make informed decisions but some folks are unwilling to work around the system. They want their own SIPR drops (classified network) as opposed to just logging on to someone else’s computer. These folks tend to get pretty upset when you tell them they have to wait, but eventually, we’ll get to them.

Three: no one is exempt from guard duty. I was pretty upset the other day when in the middle of digital RIP, every one of my soldiers was taken from the helpdesk either for guard or detail or something else that at the time was WAY less important that what we were doing. However, the mission continued (though I did walk away for a few minutes to avoid losing my temper) and over all, the digital RIP has gone much better than expected.

Four: this year is a marathon, not a sprint. This may turn out to be my most important lesson yet. When faced with eating an elephant, you can only take one bite at a time. Slow down and plug away at it. You’ll get there.

So one month is already gone and it’s gone by pretty quickly. I only hope the rest of the year goes as quickly and I’ll be home with my kids before I know it.

Take care!a

Tweet This Post

So by now everyone has heard about units replacing other units on the news and in the paper, but what really happens? Here’s an OPSEC approved RIP/TOA brief.

RIP: relief in place. What it really means is the outgoing unit pulls out bits and pieces once ours are up and running and ready to step in.

TOA: Transfer of Authority. The outgoing commander controls the battlespace until this date when the new commander assumes responsibility.

So how does this influence the signal world, which I’m a part of? 

Well, for starters, each brigade has its own organic servers and other equipment that allows us to communicate. So the incoming brigade has to put its equipment in the same place and get it stood up so the outgoing unit can leave. It should be a relatively simple process, but like everything in the army, no plan survives first contact. Equipment is broken, parts are missing, it’s a never ending process of holy crap this isn’t going to work. Eventually, everything falls into place one way or another but long days and competent operators helps tremendously.

We also have to transfer phone numbers and computers from their servers to ours and ensure that the outgoing commander still has the ability to command and control his battlespace.

It’s been a huge learning experience so far and digital RIP is still several days off. 

The TOA is a physical transfer, much like a change of command. It symbolizes the outgoing commander’s transfer of responsibility for the soldiers on the ground to the incoming commander.

Speaking of commanders, my brigade commander, COL Gary Volesky and his CSM James Pippin have some interesting history if anyone is interested. COL Volesky was involved in the first big fight for Sadr City in 04 and CSM Pippin is legendary in his own right (instead of running from an ambush, he directed his driver to head for the shooter). You can read about them online or about the Sadr City battle in Martha Raddatz book The Long Road Home. It gives a great perspective on how this commander views his responsibilities as a leader of soldiers.

Anyway, that’s all for now!

Take care

Tweet This Post

Laura Griffin once asked me what I carried in my uniform pockets and I’ve been updating her periodically but I thought the rest of you  might be interested in what I lug around every day.

First, my M4 goes with me everywhere, except to shower in the morning. I have a bad habit of setting things down, so I wear it over my shoulder almost all the time. I usually only set it down when I’m going to be at my desk for a minute (not often right now). Around my belt, I wear a Spitfire flashlight and a Leatherman multitool (which has a knife). In my cargo pockets, I have my green notebook that also doesn’t get set down (it goes in my pocket, otherwise, I’d set it down and walk off and spend half the day looking for it). In my other cargo pocket, I carry a kabuki brush (to knock the dust off my weapon and computers) as well as baby wipes. When they’re not being worn, I have my gloves, eyeprotection glasses and my patrol cap in that pocket as well. 

I have pens in one shoulder pocket and a couple of markers as well as a laser pointer (the hallmark of a good lieutenant, according to the signal schoolhouse:) In another pocket, I carry my ipod, because the only way to get any  work done is to plug in and ignore the world around you (plus it has my ebooks on it, I just finished the Twillight series, thoughts on that later). Another pocket contains my wallet, which I also put right back.

In one lower leg pocket, I carry a 30 round magazine (the rest of my basic load of ammo is on my IBA) and in my other pocket I carry a reflective belt and a headlamp (it gets really really dark at night here).

So that’s what’s in my pockets on a daily basis. I figure my pants probably weight

Tweet This Post

Hi All,
Just incase you were wondering, internet access is sporadic and will continue to be for the next couple of weeks until we get settled in.
All in all, things are going well. If you feel like sending anything, send coffee and coffeemate, all different flavors. The army runs on coffee, some more than others.
I’ll post more later, once things settle down about life, mud, and things over all in Iraq.
Take care!

Tweet This Post