Top 5 Ingredients for Keeping a Series Fresh with Jessica Scott of IT'S ALWAYS BEEN YOU (#Giveaway)

I'm a huge fan of Jessica Scott. and her Coming Home series was my first introduction to her work. I can't believe we've already reached the fifth and final book in the series, and I can't wait to read It's Always Been You! 

Top 5 Ingredients for Keeping a Series Fresh
It is so hard to keep a series going. I look at long running series that have remained solid book after book and I always wonder what it is the author is doing that keeps me from getting bored and coming back for more.

1. I think the first thing you have to do is keep the story arc moving along. You can't get stuck telling the same story over and over again, which is a really easy rut to get into.

2. You have to care about the next book as much as the last. Which is really tough, honestly because at some point, you the author might get bored and if you're bored writing it your readers will be bored reading it.

3. Keep the characters interesting. You have to keep pushing the characters beyond what you think you're ready to deal with as the author. Pushing your own boundaries is a great way to keep the reader coming back for more, too.

4. Take a break. I think if you write and write and write, you run the risk of burning out. I've done it at least three times now. But when I take a break and go on a reading bender, I usually find my way into a new story. Sometimes it takes me by surprise.

5. Write something completely different. I wrote Before I Fall over Christmas break in 2014. I hadn't written anything other than the coming home books prior to that and it felt so amazing to write something completely new and divergent from what I normally wrote. Coming back to finish up the military romance series then felt like coming home. I missed them, if that makes sense? 

It's Always Been You 

(Coming Home #5)

by Jessica Scott 

Paperback, 352 pages

Expected publication: March 31st 2015 by GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING

ISBN 1455553808

She plays by the rules . . .

Captain Ben Teague is many things: a tough soldier, a loyal friend, and a bona fide smart-ass. He doesn't have much tolerance for BS, which is why he's mad as hell when a trusted colleague and mentor is brought up on charges that can't possibly be true. He's even more frustrated with by-the-book lawyer Major Olivia Hale. But there's something simmering beneath her icy reserve--and Ben just can't resist turning up the heat . . .

. . . and he's determined to break them

The only thing riskier than mixing business with pleasure is enjoying it . . . and Olivia can't resist locking horns--and lips--with Ben. He's got more compassion in his little finger than any commander she's ever met, a fact that makes him a better leader than he realizes. But when the case that brought them together awakens demons from Olivia's past, she will have to choose between following orders--or her heart . . .

AMAZON | B&N

About the author:

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. She's written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View: Regarding War Blog, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn and has served as a company commander at Fort Hood, Texas. She's pursuing a PhD in Sociology in her spare time and most recently, she's been featured as one ofEsquire Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012. http://www.jessicascott.net/

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