TALES OF STRONG WOMEN

JAMES SCOTT (formerly writing as B J Scott) is a writer and speaker.  He is the multiple-award-winning author of five historical novels set in the Old West in the last half of the 19th century, a novel set in 1929-1940s southern California, and a speculative fiction novel set in the near future.  His stories are often built around actual historical events and have a common theme:  they feature strong, courageous women.  Though the stories revolve around women, these are men’s adventure stories, but with female protagonists—fast-paced and action-packed.  His novel, Light On A Distant Hill, won the 2011 WILLA Literary Award for Original Softcover Fiction sponsored by Women Writing the West. His latest novel,  Reach for the Sky, was released July 2020.

The Old West is a relatively recent period in history, and yet the men and women of that time were so different from us.  They displayed an astounding mental and physical resilience and determination that I wonder if we possess today.  The severity of the hardships they encountered can hardly be imagined or appreciated.  Yet they persevered.  For some, the price was the loss of their sanity.  For others, the loss of their life.

I have a fondness for the women of that era, who dutifully followed their men westward into a vast and largely unknown land.  The three books that form the Angel Trilogy (Angel of the Gold Rush, Angel’s Daughter, Legacy of Angels) all feature my trademark women—steel-strong, loyal to family, and afraid of no one, woman or man.  Far from perfect, they also emotional, hot-headed, and adventurous.  As one reviewer put it, these are “women who want men in their lives, but don’t need them to succeed”.  These traits generate spirited escapades—and danger.  Ellen, the heroine of my fourth novel, Light On A Distant Hill (sixteen as the book begins) is not an outwardly strong woman as are the women of the Trilogy books, but her inner strength is revealed as the book progresses, and she meets severe challenges to both her womanhood and her choice in a husband. The heroine of my sixth novel, The Electric Woman, is an entirely different matter. An artificial human born in a laboratory, she learns to become a woman, and learns to love along the way.

I consider myself an entertainer who likes to inform, and I never forget that.  The loyal followers I have acquired over the past seven years know they can count on me for fast-paced books that have a high can’t-put-it-down factor.  I know you’ll find them the same.