I Wrote A Book!

​To my family and friends (including those that I haven’t met yet):
 
This year I decided to sit down and force myself to write.
 
When I was an elementary school, middle school, and high school student, I loved to write short stories for class assignments. The hardest part for me was thinking of an idea, but once I had one I really went for it, researching the topics that I had chosen (usually some kind of war), infusing my stories with as much drama and suspense as I could, and taking creative liberties right and left (usually because I wanted my characters to fall in love).
 
But once I was no longer forced to write for a grade, I didn’t do it anymore.  I thought that I didn’t have any ideas and decided that the writing thing was a fluke.
 
This is what I learned from forcing myself to sit in front of my computer: I was scared to try to write, I wasn’t a disciplined writer, writing makes me incredibly happy, and I can finish a book if I want to.
 
I just self-published a romance novel, Finally You, on Amazon and I’m blogging regularly on my website, jessicashuck.com.
 
Finally You is a contemporary romance set in Louisville, Kentucky (yay, Louisville!) and features a high school English teacher named Eliza, her long-time crush, Luke, and her long-standing foe, Theo. It’s available exclusively on Amazon for $2.99 (and free through Kindle Unlimited). I tried to include the same characteristics in Finally You that I enjoy in the romance novels that I read: snappy banter, frequent literary (and other cultural) references, humor, and lots of emotional/physical chemistry.
 
Thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog and sending me encouraging comments/giving me an endorphin rush with your Facebook likes. I would so appreciate it if you would give my book a chance, too.  If you get a chance to read it, I’d also appreciate it if you would complete an Amazon review and/or share your reading experience of Finally You with others.
 
I was (and also, remain) incredibly nervous to put myself out there, but I’ve also discovered that it feels really good to be doing something that I love and to know that I went for something that scared the hell out of me.
 
I hope that you’ll like what I’m writing/have written, but if you don’t, you can blame me, but also my amazing friends* and family, who have given me SO much encouragement, support, and love my entire life that I had the confidence to pursue what makes me happy.
 
Love,
Jessica

P.S. I'll write more about this later, but I'd like to say a special thank you to my amazing BFFs, Mary Catherine Starr and Laura Whitaker, who served as my beta readers and gave me invaluable advice.  Mary Catherine Starr also designed a fabulous book cover for me (so check her out for any and all creative projects.  She is a marvel!)

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