About

Credit to Chris Armstrong Photography

Hi there. I’m Rosie Scott. While my standard store page author bio is at the bottom of the page, here’s some of the nitty-gritty about me you can’t find anywhere else.

I grew up with a pen in one hand and a gaming controller in the other. I started “publishing” books at the age of 3 by stapling notebook paper in half and writing the stories and drawing the cover art. As a little girl, my first genre obsessions were horror and tragedy. My video game obsession started in 1991 with MS-DOS, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis. I read multiple books per day as a child, but as I grew older I couldn’t find the kinds of books I craved. I have a severe aversion to the standard hero/villain dichotomy; like in real life, I believe there are nuances and shades of gray in every situation and they deserve to be explored. This is what I set out to do with my novels.

I love fantasy video games, but I can count on one hand the number of fantasy books I’ve finished reading in my lifetime (other than my own). Either the characters weren’t well-developed, or they were too heroic, or there was a very clear sense of good vs. evil, or every death was immediately “fixed” by a nonsensical resurrection. In grittier fantasy, perhaps the action and gore was better written, but the characters served only as fodder and weren’t well-developed or likable despite their flaws before their inevitable demises.

I wanted gritty action, grimace-inducing gore, and characters who were flawed, believable, and developed enough to be my friends. When I published the Six Elements series, I struck gold: not only do I finally have the fantasy books I’ve always wanted, but I’ve found a lot of awesome readers who share the same particulars.

The Six Elements wasn’t the first series I published, nor will it be the last. I published the gritty dystopian thriller New World series from 2012-2017. Though it doesn’t sell nearly as well as the Six Elements series, I owe it a lot of my current success because completing it forced me to grow as an author. The New World series explores oppression, tragedy, loss, despair, and the utter degradation of the human psyche due to the horrors of war. It is so utterly effective and devastating in its portrayal of these things that to this day I find it hard to reread. The ending is such a sucker punch to the gut and heart that I’m still surprised I pulled it off without resorting to writing a cowardly happy ending instead. Completing the New World series is what made me realize I have the guts to pull off stories that explore troubling themes, which led to the Six Elements series and its portrayal of moral ambiguity, the risk/cost of immense power, and figuring out the lesser of two evils.

My main focus with any story of any genre will be exploring the main character’s psyche. This is part of the reason I always write from a first-person perspective. Character-focused novels grip and immerse me, while plot-focused novels don’t give me what I’m looking for. I want to be in someone’s head, learning what makes them tick and watching their minds work behind the scenes while dealing with trials, tribulations, and opportunities their surroundings present to them. As an author, I find a main character’s insanity, mental illness, denial, warmongering, homicidal tendencies, and other “flaws” more interesting to explore than anything else. I specialize in anti-heroes, dark heroes, and troubled/insane protagonists. If you expect perfect characters or stories with a clearly drawn line between good and evil, please don’t read my books. You won’t like them any more than I’d like the stuff you read. 😉 I write the way I do not to imitate the success of other authors, but to experience the stories they chose not to write.

Relevant Social Media Links:

Feel free to follow/add me on any and let me know my books sent you. I promise not to bite. 😀

Steam Gaming Platform

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Fun Personal Tidbits

People “taking offense” to things is my greatest pet peeve. It is impossible to offend me. This should come as no surprise considering the themes in my novels. I consider no subject or sense of humor off-limits and gravitate toward provocative people and media.

While I do have particular religious/political/personal lifestyle beliefs, I try to write in a way that makes my own views ambiguous to readers. I believe in presenting all realistic sides to an argument in my books. Like in real life, even if I disagree with you, I can often see why you developed your opinions and why they differ from mine. To this day, none of the MCs I’ve written share one of my major lifestyle choices, for example. My job as an author is not to preach to readers through my characters; my job is to create a character who forms her/his own beliefs with conviction, even if I as the author disagree.

All of my novels–even the ones I wrote over twenty years ago–have darker and more depressing themes. One novel I wrote when I was ten was a coming-of-age story about a girl who befriends another girl who is dying of cancer (and yes, in the end, she died). I’m not sure where I get these ideas. I’m an extremely upbeat and bubbly person in real life. 😛

I am an avid video gamer. I have an entire room of my house dedicated to video games and memorabilia. I have multiple weapon replicas and collector’s video game artwork hanging up, along with my own gaming artwork. I have a few thousand games stretched over thirteen consoles and PC. More about my gaming habits/inspirations can be found on the Video Game Influences page.

This is part of my Xbox 360/PS3 collection (games without cases are kept in a separate collection). The DOOM Revenant at the top (I lovingly call him Bob) is my favorite video game related statue I own.

I’m a huge car lover. I grew up in a family who didn’t do any car work for themselves, so I’ve taught myself over the years how to do lower-risk mechanical work. I love cars, trucks, and semis of all classes. I love racing games, watching rallycross videos, watching car races (anything but Nascar), and the only reason I’d ever want to travel to Europe would be to visit the Nürburgring. The only non-gaming magazine I subscribe to is Road & Track. I also love anything transportation: trains, construction equipment, boats, even monorails. Riding them, building models, collecting models, etc. No one in my family or close circle of friends loves this stuff as much as I do, so I have no idea where I get this obsession from.

I carry a camera with me and take pictures of construction equipment in the wild.

…It is best not to ask why. 😛

The protagonists in my novels share common traits with me, though each person is their own character as well. For example, Kai’s (The Six Elements) obsession with warfare and battle tactics is also mine. Most of the books I own other than graphic novels and Warhammer fiction are non-fiction books on the war generals/leaders/civilizations of history. Kai’s sometimes overbearing loyalty to those she loves also comes from me as well–I nearly was fired from a job years ago because I fought for my best friend and co-worker when he was being mistreated. I ended up quitting because I had the choice to either back down or be demoted, and I didn’t accept either option. Melanie’s (The New World) distrust of technology comes from me. I don’t use a cell phone in real life and refuse to fly as long as the TSA is in airports, for example. Each character is also so unlike me in other respects. Kai is a risk-taker, while I tend to play it safe. Melanie has an overall negative view on the future for herself and her country given past traumas and circumstances, while I’m an optimist. And, of course, both women are trained killers, and I swear to you I’m innocent. 😉

I have a really weird dual-career. I let my inner artist out through being an author, and I’m hands-on as a landlord. While I’ve been writing for over twenty years, I went into the real estate business when I was in high school (2004). I used my own money I’d been saving from both part-time jobs and holiday/allowances my whole childhood and made a down payment on a one bedroom condo. Since I was fifteen at the time, my father put his name on the deed (everything has since been transferred to my name, of course). I taught myself how to handle most odd jobs (painting, installation of hardware, etc.) in order to save on costs of hiring out the work. I bought more properties just after high school and during college, and until my books started selling, real estate was my main source of income. I love both jobs, but writing is my first love. I have since sold most of the properties so I can focus on writing.

My favorite things to write are gory battle scenes, character banter/arguments, and major character death scenes. It is extremely hard to make me cry at anything, but when I’m writing the death scene of one of my favorite characters, I tend to break down into a mess. It seems to make the scene even better and more emotional because of my mental state. Thanks to The Six Elements series, I’ve also learned that I love to write and read haggling/diplomacy scenes. Who knew bartering could be so interesting?

Though I publish bloody spec-fic under my real name, I’ve written contemporary coming-of-age m/m romance novels for years and finally started publishing them in 2019 under the pen name J. Boise. The pen name is just for branding purposes since my spec-fic fanbase would be totally confused if I released these books under the same name. If you’re interested in checking out my work in this other genre, here is J. Boise’s website.

Have any questions about me or my books you’d like to ask? Email me at rosiescottbooks@gmail.com!

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Author Bio

Maybe this is why many of the characters I write about wear a hood and multiple rings.

Rosie Scott started writing novels in the mid-1990s and has been publishing since 2010. She writes unconventional action heavy fantasy and science fiction novels that focus on the psychology of their dark, troubled, or morally gray main characters. She believes there is nothing more tiresome or unrealistic than righteousness and instead strives to explore the dark side of human nature.

Rosie refuses to abide by genre conventions and writes the stories she craves but could never find. She proudly pushes limits and explores controversial themes, plot developments, or scenes of depravity and gore. No character is safe from demise. Morality is always subjective. Yet, she also focuses heavily on the good times to be had within interpersonal relationships and how they affect a character’s psyche and development. Rosie seeks to mimic real life in her work by combining life’s brightest and darkest moments. Her books are at their best when they explore the unique juxtaposition of crude humor, hope, friendship, and the brutal realities of war, mental disturbances, and tragedy.

When Rosie isn’t writing about bloody warfare, conquest, or tales of beautiful vengeance, she’s likely leading an army with a mouse and keyboard. Her main inspiration for her art comes from video games, of which she owns thousands over thirteen consoles and the gaming PC on which she writes her books. Her website, www.rosiescottbooks.wordpress.com, is a continually updated source for official and fan artwork, book excerpts, lore aids (extensive timelines, maps, character profiles), and fun facts about world-building and book development. Follow her mailing list at http://eepurl.com/c6SRB9 to be informed of new releases. All business inquiries can be sent to rosiescottbooks@gmail.com.

I have to be honest, I’m just posting this picture to my website because it took a lot of work to get my hair to do this fancy little thing it’s doing. Take pride in the little things, you know?

I don’t think I’m even in this photo. The hat is just so epic it outshines everything else. The hat has a name, by the way. Jorge. Jorge tags along with me throughout the cooler months of the year. It also responds well to the nickname “B.A.M.F.”