Sneak Peek of Soldiers Don't Cry

My newsletter is coming out in one week! In it I am compiling the 7 articles that I will have published the past week in various article venues around the internet. You can sign up for it today and have access to every one of them without having to look them up yourself. I have been spending a lot of my time lately working on my novel: Soldiers Don’t Cry. I’ve been working on the edits, trying to get the book up to the length that I want it to be, as well as get some of the major aspects of each of the scenes how I want them to be. One of the things I am working on is what some call “my elevator speech”. You know, it’s what you tell someone when they ask you what you do and you tell them you’re a novelist. You know what they always ask next is “what’s your book about?” That’s where the elevator speech comes in. I have been following Author Kristen Lamb’s Blog http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/. One of the things that she says is imperative is that a writer writes what the novel is about in one sentence. The sentence must provide an active goal for the main characters. As the birth pangs of the American revolution intensify, patriot smuggler and spy Elizabeth Thorton is caught between her loyalty to her countrymen and the love of her life— Philip Randolph, a British Army officer who equally dedicated to his work of bringing the American colonists back under subjection to the king. Does this sound like a plot that moves you to want to know more? I’ve also been working on the blurb for the back of the book. Here’s what I’ve got so far. When parliament closes Boston’s port in the summer of 1774, Yankee smuggler and spy, Elizabeth Thorton is caught between her loyalty to her countrymen and the love of her life—Philip Randolph, a boy she knew when she was a child, returns to Elizabeth’s life as a British Officer in the King’s Own. Philip Randolph, who was, as a boy, so traumatized by an ambush by Seneca warriors where he was left a sole survivor that he is left without any memory of anything that happened before or during the event, now returns as a British Officer in the King’s Own—the enemy of the liberty-seeking Colonists. Can Elizabeth keep from getting caught as a Yankee traitor? How does the loss of Philip’s memory of that traumatic experience affect who he is in 1775 Boston? Is there any hope for their love for one another, or will the threat of war forever keep them apart? I would love to hear your feedback! Don’t be afraid to be critical, either. I would love your honest opinion. Remember to sign up for my newsletter. The premiere edition is coming out next week.