All I Want for Christmas is You: A Coming Home Novella
From USA
Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott comes an all new novella about a woman
who came back from war changed and the man who loves her enough not to let her
go.
All Major Patrick MacLean wanted was Christmas with the woman and child
who were his family in everything but name. But Captain Samantha Egan has come
back from the war a different woman than the one who left - and she doesn't
know if she can love him anymore.
But neither of them counted on the determination of a little girl they
both call daughter and if Natalie has her wish, her parents may have no idea
what's coming for them. It's going to take a Christmas miracle to
bring these two wounded warriors back from the edge of a broken
heart.
This story has been featured in Home For Christmas: A Holiday Duet
with JoAnn Ross.
Check out an excerpt!
It was
hell getting your heart ripped out right before Christmas.
And no
matter how much scotch he threw at the problem, Major Patrick MacLean couldn't
make the bleeding stop.
Sam was
gone. And she'd taken Natalie with her.
Patrick
knew all the stages of grief. The anger. The denial. Maybe not in that order
but he knew how to deal with Seriously Bad Sh!t.
Except
that he hadn't moved - not from the couch or from the bottom of the bottle that
he'd crawled into at the start of the holiday half-day schedule.
On the
coffee table in front of him, his cell phone vibrated violently.
He
blinked rapidly a couple of times, the angry gadget blurry and out of focus. He
was on leave. He didn't have to answer the damn phone if he didn't want to.
At least he didn’t
think he did. He was on leave, right? He'd signed out, right? He
rubbed his temples, trying to think if he’d called the staff duty. Hell he
couldn't remember. He groped in the dark for the bottle as the phone went
silent.
Except
the damn phone started vibrating again.
Someone
didn't know how to take a hint.
He
snatched the phone off the table too irritated to look at the number.
"Yeah?"
"Daddy?"
He
froze, the haze burning from his brain instantly. The wound Sam had left on his
soul ripped open at the sound of Natalie's voice. He closed his eyes, fighting
back the wave of raw grief and unbearable pain. Losing his family was worse, so
much worse than anything Iraq had thrown at him.
"Hey
sugar bear." He cradled his head in his hands, his heart breaking at the
sound of her voice.
Natalie
wasn't his daughter. Not by blood or legal paperwork.
But he
was still her daddy. The only daddy she'd ever known and in his heart, she was
his.
She was
his family. Sam was his family.
And
they were gone. Just. Gone.
Meet Jessica!
USA Today Bestselling 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.
And now to the fun stuff!
Lara: What sparked the idea for
this novella?
Jessica: You know, Patrick has always been
hanging around as a character and when I approached JoAnn Ross for the duet, he
kind of launched himself to the front of the line. [Lara: I love it when characters step up like that!]
Lara: What are some of the
things you enjoy about writing a novella rather than a full-length novel? What are some of the challenges of the
novella format?
Jessica: I’ve discovered I really like writing
novellas. I can do them relatively quickly so I don’t get lost in the
narrative. I usually end up going back to the beginning of any book I’m working
on multiple times throughout the process to make sure I’m staying on track
story wise. I think the biggest challenge is getting a full blown story into a
shorter story.
Lara: How did you hook up with
JoAnn Ross for this release?
Jessica: JoAnn has been a mentor and friend from
the very beginning when she stopped by my blog while I was in Iraq. I basically
just dropped her a note earlier this summer and asked if she’d consider doing
an anthology over the holidays. And she said yes!
Lara: What’s been the best/most
surprising thing about working with JoAnn on this release?
Jessica: JoAnn is just as wonderful to work with
as she is to interact with online. It’s been easy getting things agreed on,
getting things set up. She’s truly a pleasure to work with. Add in that I get
to pick her brain about things randomly. She’s such an advocate and mentor. [Lara: Very cool! :)]
Lara: It was great to see you at
RWA Nationals earlier this year! Do you
have a favorite moment from the conference?
Jessica: This RWA was a really great conference
on a lot of levels but I think my favorite part of the conference was Dana Beth
Weinberg’s presentation about what the numbers tell us about the industry.
There’s so much rumor and innuendo, it was really nice to see actual numbers.
Lara: Do you have plans for
future Duets or Anthologies with other authors?
Jessica: There’s some stuff in the works but I
can’t talk about them right now :) [Lara: Ooh! Exciting!]
Lara: How are the hamsters?
Jessica: Squeak passed away earlier this year
and Mako promptly moved in. Jerry Bear has started escaping more, which was
surprising seeing how she rarely escaped in the past. [Lara: Aww. RIP Squeak! Glad to hear the others are doing well!]
Lara’s Gotta Ask: Your non-fiction work (To Iraq and
Back; The Long Way Home) is really compelling.
Any plans for future non-fiction books?
Jessica’s GOTTA ANSWER: You know, I was thinking about
writing a memoir about dealing with my husband’s deployments while I was active
duty myself but I haven’t really done much with the idea. I was going to call
it Killing Spiders by Yourself. [Lara: I'd love to read that! But please don't put a spider on the cover--yuck!]
Where can you find Jessica?
********Jessica is hosting a GIVEAWAY!!!!********
Drawing for entire digital backlist plus a copy of the new release.
What's your favorite part of a holiday romance?
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As for Jillian, she's an emergency room physician. My background is in biomedical research, so I had a pretty decent idea of her job and what she would do in a given situation. Best of all though, my brother is a doctor. I lost count of the number of texts and emails I sent him, full of questions and asking for his opinion on different scenes. Bless his heart, he was so patient about it all. Still, I'm sure he breathed a sigh of relief when I turned the book in! 
