Guest Author: Jean Johnson

Jean JohnsonToday, Literary Escapism would like to welcome Jean Johnson, who has just released her new science fiction novel, A Soldier’s Duty.

Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.

Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away copies of A Soldier’s Duty and The Flame to one lucky winner.
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Hi, I’m Jean Johnson, author of the bestselling Sons of Destiny fantasy romance series, starting with The Sword, and author of the new military science fiction series, Theirs Not To Reason Why, A Soldier’s Duty. Wait…what did I say? Fantasy romance, and military science fiction? Well, I’ve answered this one in a few different ways elsewhere, but it’s always been the short version. With your indulgence, I’ll explain how it really went down…

When I was in the first grade, my teacher couldn’t get me to read for the first half of the year. She finally hit upon making a contest of it against my best friend at the time. Alas, at first it was boring. I mean, I was reading “See Jane. See the red ball. See Jane pick up the…” and at that point I was bored and wanted to put the book down, but my teacher patiently explained there were other stories waiting to be discovered. She motivated me to go find them, so I learned to read because I wanted to find anything better than “See Jane pick up the red ball.”

Hoo, boy, did I find them! By the time I finished the 6th grade, I had devoured half of the elementary school’s fiction section and even explored some of the non-fiction stuff. Now, somewhere around the 2nd grade, when I was 8 or so, I read an okay story but didn’t like the ending of it. I don’t even remember what story it was, but I sat down and I wrote my own ending. It was crap, and I knew it was crap…but I discovered something: Oh, how fun it was to write a story myself!

So I wrote stories all the way into junior high, where there were so many more fascinating fiction stories to be read in junior high. I read a wide variety of them, but eventually, I discovered two magical genres that really hooked my attention: “Fantasy” and “Science Fiction.” I suppose the science fiction was easy enough to explain, considering how religiously my father, sister, and I watched Star Trek on television, heh…but Fantasy was right up there, too. And then one day, when I was about 15, my mother’s best friend snuck me a Harlequin Romance novel. I read it…and I was hooked on Romance, too. So I added it to the list: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance.

JJohnson-FlameAlas, the more I read, the more I realized that, while the world was filled with wonderful tales…and mediocre tales, and outstanding tales…there were stories out there which I wanted to read, but nobody else was writing them. So, giving up on looking, I sat myself down and started telling them myself—you’ll note it took me twenty-plus years to actually get good at telling them, of course; it definitely didn’t happen overnight.

I built up story after story, world after world…broke them down, revised them, finished some, left others languishing…and received rejection letter after rejection letter, after rejection letter. It happens. It didn’t stop me from writing though; I didn’t want to stop.

And then, one day, something magical happened: I got invited to submit a story, rather than rejected. Admittedly in women’s fiction, which includes romance, but I was invited! So, skipping over the plain fantasies and the science fictions backlogged on my computer, I grabbed a finished fantasy romance manuscript, polished it off, and submitted it: The Sword.

I merely got published first in fantasy romance. So, if you think my romances are good—or my science fiction—I’ve put the same effort into everything else, I promise.
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Jean Johnson lives in the Pacific Northwest, somewhere north of Seattle, in a house with zone heating, decent plumbing, internet access and a middle-aged cat. Alas, she is a very long ways from getting her own castle–but a lady can always dream, right? She is still writing so much that she has little time for anything beyond research reading, but promises to produce books that are worth reading.

Contact Info
Website: http://www.jeanjohnson.net
Social Media: Facebook / Twitter

Want to purchase Jean’s novel?
Sons of Destiny

  1. The Sword at Amazon or the Book Depository
  2. The Wolf at Amazon or the Book Depository
  3. The Master at Amazon or the Book Depository
  4. The Song at Amazon or the Book Depository
  5. The Cat at Amazon or the Book Depository
  6. The Storm at Amazon or the Book Depository
  7. The Flame at Amazon or the Book Depository
  8. The Mage at Amazon or the Book Depository
  9. Finding Destiny at Amazon or the Book Depository
  10. Shifting Plains at Amazon or the Book Depository
  11. The Shifter (2012)

A Soldier’s Duty: Theirs Not To Reason Why at Amazon or the Book Depository
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JJohnson-A Soldier's DutyThank you Jean for taking the time to stop by Literary Escapism!

Contest Time! Jean is giving away copies of A Soldier’s Duty and The Flame to one lucky winner. To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: Do you remember which novel made you jump into the PNR/UF genre? What was it? Remember, you must answer the question in order to be entered.

Even though I’m not giving the additional entries any more, you can still help support the author by sharing their article, and this contest, on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere you can. After all, the more people who are aware of this fabulous author ensures we get more fabulous stories.

The winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.

The contest will stay open until August 15th at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the snazzy new plug-in I have.

I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

8 Comments

  1. i started with JD Robb, then it was one of laurell k hamiltons..in an anthology. i fell in love! since then ive read just about everything i could get my hands on

  2. I had been reading a lot of Paranormal Young Adult, but had pretty much read everything available at the time, so I ventures over to the Fantasy/SciFi section on a whim. I figured, what the hell? I’m 20 so I should probably read big girl books. I ended up grabbing Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. And that’s where my Urban Fantasy obsession began. I ventured over to PNR without even realizing it after purchasing Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost because Amazon told me I should.

  3. I think the first paranormal romance I read was Dragonfly in Amber. It was mis-shelved in the fantasy/sci-fi section and I didn’t even realize it was a romance until I started reading it.

  4. It was Bitten by Kelley Armstrong that got me into UF and shortly into all the other PNR and related genres. I was at uni at the time and ot felt so different to any of the other books i had read up until that point! :)

  5. I honestly can’t remember the first PNR/UF I read but I think it might have been Tanya Huff’s Blood Price.

  6. Of course, I remember :] I think it’s a thing that a real bookaholic and paranormal romance geek can’t forget. My first was Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. One of my friends recommended it to me because I’ve always fallen for the vampires and other supernatural creatures, and she said Cat had a special sense of humour that I would probably like. Yeah, she was right, I loved it and I still do, and can’t wait to get my hands on the next Night Huntress novel :)

    Thanks for the giveaway,
    mikki-mano@hotmail.com

  7. I honestly cannot remember my first SF/Fantasy novel, or even my first PNR/Fantasy Romance, it was so long ago. (I do remember my first plain romance, but only because my mother’s best friend snuck it to me behind my mothers’ back.) A few of my favorites do stand out, though: Nor Crystal Tears by the fantastic Alan Dean Foster, a story about futuristic human contact…as seen through the eyes of an alien race; By The Sword by the equally talented Mercedes Lackey, following the life of a female mercenary in a world of sword and sorcery; and The Devil Earl by the delightful Deborah Simmons, a pseudo-goth (tongue in cheek) Harlequin Historical Romance about a young lady who, inspired by her scarred, brooding neighbor’s castle, writes gothic stories in the Regency era.

    ~Jean

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