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.

A most Unusual Christmas

Last Wednesday was Chanukkah, Thursday was the Winter Solstice, Sunday was Christmas, and today is Kwanzaa. I hope your holiday was a good one. Now that the holiday season is winding down, and many of us are beginning our recoveries from our holiday frenzy. The past few days have been quite challenging for me. I finished up the work I needed to finish for my college class, and then I planned to drive 120 miles to Springfield to meet my mother-in-law to pick up Christmas gifts on Thursday. I was hoping to pick up my husband who is now a truck driver so that he could spend Christmas at home. (I was to pick him up in the same town that I met my mother-in-law.) It didn’t go exactly as I had planned. He told me the morning that I was going to pick up the gifts that he wouldn’t be able to get in until early Saturday morning, and then had to go back out early on Sunday—the 25th so we decided that we—my husband, daughter, and I would spend the holiday in Springfield. This meant that I had to spend Thursday going to Springfield to meet my mother-in-law, come back home on Friday to get ready to go back to Springfield as early as possible on Saturday. My husband was leaving early on Sunday so I planned to keep the rest of the plans I had on Sunday to meet with friends after we saw him off, so I had to get food ready for that event as well. Friday night I found out that the friend whose house we were going to on Sunday, she was in an accident that wrecked her car (hit a deer), but she was having the dinner anyway. I decided to take the food that I was bringing to her house to her house early in the morning, so I decided to drop off the food at her house Saturday morning on my way to Springfield. I couldn’t get anyone to wake up at her house so I decided to take the food to her daughter’s house. I couldn’t get anyone up right away so I tried the door and it was open so I went into the house. The woman’s husband was in the kitchen when I entered. When I told him what I was doing, he didn’t have any problem with the fact that I was in his kitchen at 5:30 in the morning. So I was off to Springfield to meet my husband. We got there and spent the morning doing my husband’s laundry then shopping, then went to the motel room early. I picked up the keys to the room and went up, then couldn’t remember what the room number was. I went back down to the front desk only to discover that the room number was on the envelop that held the keys. My ability for keeping up with everything that I need to do was used up. Fortunately I had my husband with me now. He went to buy groceries for the trip he was taking on Christmas while my daughter and I decided to check out the pool and the Jacuzzi. After some relaxation, he came out to the pool to let us know that he was back; we then went up to the room and got ready to go out for dinner. We ate Italian. After we got back we opened presents, watched some television and went to bed. In the morning we ate breakfast and then my husband left in his truck for the northwest. When we left for Springfield the plans were to have dinner at noon, but when I got back to my friend’s house, they had changed it to six in the evening. I had been out of reach because I don’t carry a cell phone and I hadn’t been on the internet so I didn’t know the change in plans. So instead of going to her house, my daughter and I went home for a while and unpacked our gifts, then went back into town for Christmas dinner. The rest of the evening was enjoyed, uneventfully with friends. It was an unusual Christmas to say the least, but it will definitely be a memorable one. In less than a week now, a new year will begin. During this week of recovery, I plan to finish things that I’ve started, pay off bills that I’ve accumulated, pay the local taxes, and prime the pump for the upcoming year. During this time my class from school is taking a break, so I’m doing what I can to get ahead in that department. I have written a list of subjects that I will be using to write my 366 articles in 2012, and I have started a calendar that indicates which articles I will write on a given topic for each given day in January. I have started outlines for the articles I will write during the first week in January. This week I am also updating my website for 2012, believe me it needs it. Take a look at it this week and then take a look at it next week and tell me how you like the improvements. I have also started putting together a newsletter that I would be happy to send to you. In it are the articles that I have written that week. To sign up, just click here. The first issue will be out January 8, 2012.