Thursday, November 11, 2021

A New Short Story for Veteran's Day - ONE LAST ROLE TO PLAY

 This Veteran's Day, I wanted to write a tribute to another kind of veteran.  These veterans sacrifice just as much, and suffer just as much, and die just as bravely, as any who have ever worn the uniform.  But they receive no medals, no parades, and no public recognition.  Their heroism goes unreported, their sacrifices ignored, their very existence unnoticed by most.  Their own families do not know what they do, or where they go.  They see things and do things that leave scars both physical and emotional, but they cannot talk about them.  I'm talking about the men and women of America's intelligence agencies, the shadow warriors who operate all around the world, gathering information and foiling evildoers so that the rest of us can sleep safely in our homes.

This story is for all of you.  You know who you are. 

                          ONE LAST ROLE TO PLAY

                                            By Lewis Smith

 

 

          The twenty young agents ceased fidgeting and whispering among themselves as the Instructor entered the room. Every pair of eyes followed her as she took her place at the steel lectern.  She carried no notes, no briefcase, nor any other paraphernalia to designate her status.  She wore the uniform of a staff level officer in the U.S. military, but like the trainees, she was not active-duty military.  Their employer was a different branch of government altogether, affectionately called the “Beast with Three Initials” by those it employed.  All the students in this class were intelligence officers in training; most were Americans, although a few worked for countries closely allied with the USA.  Sixteen were men, four were women; all were young.  They had left homes, universities, and employers all across the world, where their cover ID’s were scrupulously maintained, in order to attend this four week course in field operations, although it was referred to under the humorous euphemism of a “Leadership Conference.”

          She swept the room with her eyes, mentally taking attendance and reading the posture and body language of each student.  For three weeks she had led them through the advanced training all field operatives must master; alternating between classroom lectures, physical fitness training, and one-on-one exercises in everything from reading body language to covert surveillance to reading micro-facial tics and expressions to determine if the speaker was telling the truth or not. So young, she thought sadly.  How many of them would live to be even as old as she was, much less to a ripe old age?  It was a dangerous world, and she knew the odds were that at one or more of these enthusiastic young agents-in-training would not make it to thirty.

          As she studied the class, they studied her in turn. The Instructor was a mystery that they had discussed in whispers ever since the course began.  Everything about her – her real name, her age, her history – was the subject of rumor and conjecture, but in the end, none of them knew any of those things about her, and it bugged them each in different ways.

          How old was she?  She was a remarkable specimen of physical fitness, trim and athletic and able to match them, stride for stride, jump for jump, and climb for climb in the most difficult obstacle courses.  But she wasn’t “butch” at all. The Instructor was a beautiful woman - tallish, curved in all the right places, with ash blond hair and piercing green eyes.  When she smiled, every man in the room sat up a little straighter.  There wasn’t a single male in the room that hadn’t thought about what it would be like to bed her - except for Agent Hoskins, who bragged that he was “so gay he made a Spirograph look straight.”  And yet . . . despite her lack of facial wrinkles and her well-toned body, despite the ash-blond hair that cascaded down her shoulders when she let it down during a training session on disguises, despite the laugh that made everyone in the room smile –the fact remained that none of them could tell how old she really was.  When she acted flirtatious as part of a lecture on the role of seduction in espionage, she looked somewhere just north of twenty-five, perhaps.  But when she talked about doing field ops in the late 1990’s, it was obvious she was quite a bit older than that. And her eyes . . . when she spoke on serious matters, the spark in those green orbs faded, and the weariness and sadness in her gaze spoke of long decades of service, sacrifice, frustration, and loss.  Once she made a passing reference to her memories of the mid-1980’s, and the men in the room exchanged puzzled glances, doing the math in their heads and coming up with an estimate in the low forties – a clear impossibility!  Could she be lying to them about those recollections?  After all, honesty was not a trait the Agency cultivated.  But no one knew for sure.

          Her professional and personal history was another topic of whispered speculation.  Rumors abounded as to her previous assignments, and no one could say where those rumors came from or how much credence to give them.  Someone said she had spent four years undercover in Moscow, becoming a mistress to one of Putin’s cronies, passing on critical intelligence about Russia’s latest strategic plans.  Others claimed she’d been the analyst who had pinpointed the location of bin Laden’s compound in 2012. Agent Henderson claimed to have heard that she spoke fluent Mandarin and operated as a fashion model and high-end escort in China, eavesdropping on government officials at cocktail parties.  The latest story making the rounds was that she’d done repeated deep cover missions in the UK to track down and arrest the financial backers of numerous terrorist organizations, from the Islamic State to the IRA.

          All of this led them to wonder, who was she when she wasn’t doing field ops or instructing younger agents in the art of espionage?  They tried to imagine this fearful competitor and demanding instructor as a wife or mother, and most of them couldn’t see her in that role.  The same woman who’d made them stand in place, stone still and silent, for six hours, and stood as cold and hard as a statue beside them the whole time, cuddling a child in her arms and reading bedtime stories?  The woman rumor claimed had completed the Crucible four times, asking some civilian man to open a pickle jar for her?  It didn’t compute.  A couple of the men in class were pretty sure she was a lesbian, with a soft young wife or girlfriend waiting for her at some upscale apartment.  There was no proof of this, but all agreed it made for a pleasant mental picture.  The truth was that none of them knew.

          And the Instructor liked it just fine that way.  Let them wonder, she thought as she looked at their serious young faces.  As long as they wonder, they will fear. And as long as they fear me, they will remember what I teach them here – and maybe that will help some of them stay alive!

          She leaned forward on the lectern and cleared her throat, and then fixed each agent with her gaze for just a moment.  The silence hung in the air for a few seconds, just long enough for anticipation to build but not long enough for boredom to set in.  Then she spoke.

          “There is a week left in this course by the calendar, but I do not know if I will be here till the scheduled end or not.  I hope to, and plan to, but as the old proverb goes – ‘Man plans, and God laughs.’  So today, we’re going to ignore the field manuals, skip the role-playing exercises, and I’m going to level with you as best I can.  I want to warn you of what all this career can involve.  You’re about to embark on a path that will take you to some of the darkest places in this world – and inside yourself.  Statistically speaking, one or two of you agents in this room will probably die ‘on the job’ in the next decade.  No one will know, not even your family, the true circumstances of your demise.  They will be told you died in a helicopter crash, or in a training exercise, or drowned while scuba diving – but the truth will be something far more painful and less pleasant.  Another one out of this group will most likely put a gun in his mouth because he can’t live with what this job made him do, or who it forced him to become.  Ex-CIA agents have one of the highest suicide rates of any job demographic in America, except for military combat veterans.  What about the rest of you?  Odds are, most of you will quit the Agency before you complete a decade of service.  One agent in ten completes the full twenty years of service, and about one out of thirty will make it to twenty-five years.”  She paused a moment, savoring the stunned silence of her audience, and then spoke again.  “As I have done.”

          Eyebrows shot up, and some of the men exchanged glances.  She allowed herself a bitter laugh.

          “Yes, that’s right, I was recruited at seventeen, while I was still in high school,” she said.  “And yes, that means I’m in my forties now.  Thank you for your astonishment!   But . . . that’s not something romantic or cool.  They needed someone young, someone attractive, intelligent, malleable, and willing.  I was a legacy, if you know what that means, and because of the family connection I’d been on their radar since I was twelve.  I was stalked, shadowed, traumatized, and thoroughly screened before they ever approached me with a job offer.  I was flattered that they wanted me, that they told me I could be of use, that I could help punish the evil and save the innocent.  That’s the shiny object they hold up in front of you, the lure they use to suck you in until the hook is set, and once it’s set, you are dancing on the end of their line - fish and bait all in one.”

          “So it came to pass that while other kids my age were worrying about prom dates and scholarship applications and boyfriends and making the honor roll, I was undergoing psychological screenings, medical evaluations, and classes like this one – on top of all that other regular high school and college stuff I had to keep up with, to preserve the illusion of normality.  You can’t begin to imagine the toll it took, how much my relationships with family, friends, and loved ones suffered.” She paused a moment, lost in memories of those stressful days, recalling how often the bliss of youth was interrupted and sometimes ruined by “them,” as she came to refer to her employer.

          “At nineteen, I was dropped in a foreign city, given a role to play.  I was surrounded by people who hated our country, hated our allies, and who would have killed me in a second had they known who I really was.  Some were active agents of terror, others aided and abetted terrorists out of a misguided sense of loyalty, or religious fervor, or family ties.  I lived among them, drank with them, joked with them, became one of them – and when the time came, betrayed them all.  Some are still in jail because of the information I gathered and the situations I maneuvered them into.  A few are dead.”

          “Another time I was placed in the path of a wealthy Arab emigree, a man whose hands were soft and clean, but who funneled millions of dollars to Al Qaeda and other such groups.  He had a weakness for soft, emotionally frail girls who were easily victimized, because his own daughter was one such, and had taken her life at fifteen.  I became a frightened little mouse, a shrinking, terrified wallflower who recoiled from his advances at first in terror.  Oh, he didn’t want to sleep with me – he had a whole harem of women for that purpose.  He wanted to help me – and in so doing, redeem his failure to help his daughter.  But he was so psychotic that even his sympathy and desire to rescue me were marred by fits of anger and violence.  He hit me more than once, and another time he fired a gun so close to my ear I suffered permanent hearing loss on that side.  And I took it.  I had to take it, because if I struck back, or broke character even for a second, I would lose my appeal, and the opportunity to take him down would be lost.  Today he is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison, and a financial conduit that armed his terrorist cronies with state-of-the-art weapons that they would have used to kill thousands of people was shut down for good. What was my reward?  I’m a target for assassination to this day and have spent a decade and a half watching my back.”

          “I could go on all day telling you about ops I’ve done or assisted with.  I’ve been the ‘eyes in the sky’ for troops in combat zones, and later on was dispatched to such places myself, even though it was illegal for me to be where I was. I’ve abducted people off the streets in first world countries, sometimes in broad daylight.  Bad people, mostly, or people who we could use as leverage with the bad people they were close to.   I’ve seen men killed right in front of me, and I’ve come within inches of being captured by terrorists who would have taken their time with me before they let me die.  Understand, agents, I am not telling you this to brag on myself in any way.  Truth be told, if I had it to do all over again, knowing what I know now, I would have told the Agency’s recruiters to go to hell, and pursued a career in academia instead.”

          Agent Moore gave a nervous laugh.  “Are you trying to talk us out of our commitment?” she said.

          “No,” she said.  “I doubt I could if I wanted to. All of you have swallowed the bait, and the hook is set.  By the time you reach this level of training, you’re committed.  What I want you to do is LISTEN!”  That last word crackled with an aura of command that caused every pair of eyes to fixate on her.

          “This may be the last lesson I teach you,” the instructor said.  “Or it may not.  But it IS the most important thing I will impart to you.  There is no wasted time in this course – everything I have done, everything I have made you do, has served a purpose.  But even if you forget or disregard every other lesson I’ve taught, please remember this one.  It can save your life – it WILL save your life, at some point, if you are committed to this career.  And it just might save your soul, if you believe in such things, or your family, if you have one.”

          The students stared at her, fascinated.  The mask of the Instructor had dropped, and instead they found themselves looking into the eyes of a mentor, a friend, a sage who was desperate to pass on something of great value.

          “You probably think the essence of covert operations is to pretend to be someone else,” she said.  “That’s a lie.  If you go out there pretending to be someone else, you’ll most likely bungle the operation and you may get yourself killed in the process, or perhaps get one of our other agents or foreign assets killed. You have to BECOME someone else. You have to take that identity that the Agency will craft for you and embrace it to the core of your soul.  Take the person you are, the parts of you that you value, the things that make you, YOU – and lock them away.  Store them in a secure place, deep in your psyche, and don’t touch them, don’t recall them, don’t even think about them, until the op is over.  Until you are home, where you can be you again.  When I became ‘the Mouse,’ I had to set aside everything I prided myself in being – my strength, my independence, my physical prowess.  I had to shrink – in every sense of the word – to become this nervous, frightened creature who would draw the pity of a man who funded terrorists around the globe.  I could not break character for a second.  Oh, how my true self pounded at the bars of the cage I’d shoved her into, longing to punch that smug, pitying face!  But I did it, I let him yell at me and then hold me, punch me and then weep with repentance.  I let him do it, knowing he would do it again. But I was the Mouse, and I did what mice do.  I cowered, and tried to run, and then froze in fear and let him catch me all over again.  Until the day came that I caught HIM.  Now he’s locked away for the rest of his life, and I’m here teaching you.  Become the role. Your life depends on it. Never break character, even when you are alone.  Never let your true self out of its cage till the op is done. Remember the smallest details of your cover story!  One of our agents was sent to London in the 80’s to infiltrate the IRA.  He had the cover ID down pat, the accent, the phony credentials, everything.  He’d spent a solid year training for the mission, but once he got in the field, he was dead within a week. Why?  Because he never got entirely used to the way traffic flowed in the UK.  He always glanced in the wrong direction first when he was about to cross the road, and someone noticed.  We never found his body, but a captured enemy asset told us he was tortured for a week, then cut to pieces and dumped in the Thames.  Pretending is not enough, playing a role is not enough.  Become your cover, period.”

          She paused, making sure she still had their focus, and then took a sip of water before continuing.

          “There’s another thing,” she said.  “A relative of mine said something about our employer years ago: ‘We’re bastards, but we’re useful bastards.’  This job will require you to do horrible things.  Things the real you would recoil at, unless you’re a true sociopath – which I suspect some of our more successful agents are! Unless you are a person who can cheerfully live with innocent blood on your hands, who can betray people who trust you, who is willing to not just lie but to live a lie, and live it so deeply that it becomes your truth; someone who can spend months winning the trust and affection of another person and then see that person marched away in handcuffs to be interrogated and imprisoned - you have to become your cover story. That way, when you return to your “real” life, to your family, your parents, your spouse if you have one, you don’t wake up screaming over the things you had to do ‘over there.’  Because YOU didn’t do them.  It was that other person, that person you became, that person who ceased to exist the moment you returned safe to your native soil.  The real self, the self you kept under lock and key while you carried out the mission, would never do such a thing.  You have to not just tell yourself that but convince yourself of it.  Because the alternative is to admit you’re just as big a monster as the monster you were trying to slay.”

          “Here’s another thing – don’t expect rewards.  Your actions may save thousands of lives, but not a one of them will ever know it, ever thank you, or even be aware that they were saved.  Only your closest friends and family will even know who you really work for, and those who do know, will not ever know what you have been required to do.  They will just know that you’re gone, sometimes for weeks and months at a time, and never have the comfort of even knowing where you are or what you’re doing.  They don’t know when, or if, you will return.  Public recognition is not our thing.  Praise is not our thing.  There’s little glory to be had in this job.  Most of the time, even our fellow agents don’t know what all we’ve done, unless you do an op together – and when that happens, don’t count on being assigned that partner again.  The less we know about each other, the less that can be tortured out of us if things go south.  The only reason I am telling you as much about my career as I have is that my career is in its final weeks.”

          “Last of all, and most importantly – there is one last role you will have to take on, one last cover you will have to invent.  This one isn’t crafted for you by specialists at Langley, and it’s not designed to deceive terrorists, or foreign agents, or government investigators.  It’s designed to fool the people you love most.”

          She sighed, looked down at her hands for a moment, and continued.

          “You see, no matter how careful you are to become whoever the mission requires you to be, no matter how deeply you bury your true self, no matter how hard you try to return to normality, to deny that you are the one who did the things the job required – it’s all bullshit.  In your deepest self, you know and will always know that you did those things.  You betrayed people who trusted you, you lied, you deceived, you may have slept with murderers and thugs, or got drunk with them, or watched as they wreaked horrors on the innocent.  You may have caused ‘collateral damage’ – what a nice, sanitary phrase that is to describe blowing up the wrong people!  Why do you think the Agency employs so many shrinks?  No matter how good you are, you can’t always bury the things you’ve done.  Even if you don’t think about them in your waking hours, they will haunt your dreams.  That’s why you have to create this last role, and why you have to completely and totally immerse yourself in it.”

          “Most of you will fall in love at some point, and many of you will marry.  Agents have a very high divorce rate, primarily because most of them have never learned what I am trying to teach you now.  You see, that last role you have to create and immerse yourself in, the last person you have to become – is YOU.  The version of you that never did these things, that doesn’t remember them, that isn’t tormented by them, that doesn’t have nightmares about them. You have to become a normal wife, husband, father, mother, son, and lover.  You have to wrap yourself in a blanket of emotional normality for the sake of those you love, because if you don’t, they will pay just as high an emotional price for the things this job requires as you do.  And no one wants that for the people they love most.  So, when you are home, when you are with them – become that person you might have been if you had told the Agency’s recruiters to go to hell, and embraced a normal life instead.  Please, Agents, don’t forget this.  This last role, the role of the you that you would have been if you’d never set foot in this room – that is the most important character you will ever assume!  That is all.”

          With that, she stepped away from the podium and perched on a stool, the force of her words having drained her strength for the moment.  What happened next surprised her, and more than anything she’d experienced with this roomful of rookies, it touched her heart, reaching deep into her true self.

          For at that moment, they all began to applaud.  The Instructor rose to her feet and gave a small bow; acknowledging their gesture with genuine gratitude.  The agents fell silent, many of them regarding her with something approaching awe. Finally, Agent Moore raised her hand.

          “Just one thing I wonder,” she said.  “That last role – the role you play for your family and those you love – how long do you have to keep doing that?”

          The Instructor froze, and in that moment all semblance of youth fled from her, and the eyes that looked out at the class were a thousand years old.

          “I don’t know,” she said softly, and left the room.


Wednesday, September 15, 2021

After You've Read PRESIDENT HAMILTON - You Need to Read THIS!

       Well, I suppose you could read this whether you've read PRESIDENT HAMILTON or not, but be warned, there are some spoilers below!   What follows was originally going to be a note from the author tacked onto the end of PRESIDENT HAMILTON, but my beta reader and my publisher both thought it intruded into the narrative a bit too much - better, they said, to let the novel's ending stand on its own, and frankly, they were right. The story has more punch ending, as it does, with the inscription on the Hamilton Monument in Washington DC.   At the same time, I addressed a number of the reasons why I wrote this book in the proposed author's note, and answered (in advance) some questions I thought I might encounter.  So now that my novel of alternative history has been out for a couple of months (and enjoyed such a warm reception, for which I thank you all!), I decided to publish my Author's Note here on my blog for you all to read.  I hope you enjoy it, and, as always, I thank you for your time, attention, and support!

                                 FROM THE AUTHOR:

 

          This story is, of course, a work of fiction.  The real Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, of the wound sustained in his duel with Aaron Burr the day before.  America did fight a bloody Civil War over slavery from 1861 to 1865, killing a generation of young men from North and South, and a hundred and fifty-five years later, we are still dealing with the fallout from that war as we strive to achieve the principles set forth in our Declaration of Independence.  The evil legacies of slavery and Jim Crow continue to color our political discourse and poison our national good will here in the twenty-first century.  It didn’t have to be like this.

          I have always been fascinated by Alexander Hamilton, long before Lin-Manuel Miranda immortalized him in the Broadway musical that took the world by storm in 2015.  For a man who came from such an impoverished background to rise as far and fast as Hamilton did was a uniquely American story; he was indeed an immigrant who got the job done!  Many historians have speculated as to what might have happened if Hamilton’s life had not been cut short by Burr’s deadly pistol.  In 1804, Hamilton was something of a has-been, but would he have remained such? Could he have resurrected his political career if he tried?  Might he have become President, and if so, what kind of President might he have been?  I had considered that question before, but after seeing the musical for the first time, I decided it was a scenario I wanted to explore.

          The real Alexander Hamilton was not an ardent abolitionist, but he was a man who detested slavery and believed its influence was pernicious.  (I have read some recent research which suggests Hamilton may have bought and sold slaves after his marriage to Eliza, as well as articles arguing against that conclusion, and I will say the evidence appears flimsy and I am not convinced the accusation is true. I'm in good company here; America's leading Hamilton scholar Michael Newton pretty well eviscerated the charge that Hamilton was a slave owner in his "Discovering Hamilton" blog, which I highly recommend.)

       But what might Hamilton have done if he had indeed been given a glimpse of the future, and seen the horrors slavery would wreak on America in the next generation? What might he have done if only he had more time?  I can't help but think that he would have done all within his power to spare the nation the horrors that would come.  His deathbed declaration - "If they break this Union, they will break my heart!" - gives ample testimony to his love for the nation he helped create.  How far would he have gone to save it from civil war? That question provided the genesis of this novel.

          I know some will say that this is just another “white savior” story, and in a way, I suppose it is.  But I would argue that blacks in America in the early 19th century were so thoroughly and brutally oppressed that they needed a white savior; their would-be black rescuers, like Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey, were brutally and quickly snuffed out.  They needed a champion who could wield the full powers of the Executive Branch to lift them from bondage, and few Americans were more adept in the use of political power than Alexander Hamilton.

      Some might also say argue that this story slanders certain Southern leaders, most notably John C. Calhoun.  I’ll remind you of what I said in beginning this essay: it is a work of fiction, and every story needs a villain.  Calhoun always seemed to thread the narrow precipice between passion for a cause and outright fanaticism; in the end, he was willing to sacrifice the Union itself on the altar of slavery and nullification in our own timeline.   Under the circumstances I created in my story, he might well have acted as I portrayed him acting as a much younger and less restrained man.

      Some might also say that I have made Hamilton too religious, but from what I have read, Hamilton was always a practicing Christian, and he turned to his faith for comfort after the death of his son Philip. The comment I had him make to Madison about the evidence for God standing up in a court of law is a paraphrase of a real Hamilton quote.  It is worth noting that his greatest concern, as he lay dying, was that he might receive communion and pass from this world in a state of grace.

          Could the unlikely turn of events I envisioned in this novel have ever come to pass?  I don’t know, but I wish they had.  An America where the Civil War was never fought, where slavery was snuffed out before it had a chance to extend its malign influence over such a vast area, would be an America where the Black Lives Matter movement was never necessary, and where Dr. King never had to shame the white majority into belatedly keeping its promises of legal equality.  

      What I have written here is above all, MY story – my own wishful thinking about a history that was never written, a vision of an America that might have been.  It is a tragic vision, in places, but it is fundamentally a HOPEFUL vision - a glimpse of what could have happened if the principles of liberty had been more universally applied sooner than they were in our timeline.  If you don't like the way I portrayed Hamilton and the other Founders, by all means, write your own tale!  There's always a market for good historical fiction.   I hope that you have enjoyed reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and if I could leave all my readers with one last thought, it would simply be this:  

          Be kind to one another.  Life is too short for meanness.

          Thank you for purchasing and reading my book.  If you liked it, feel free to check out my other titles, and please drop by Amazon and leave me a review!  Now, this journey into alternative history is done. Thank you for joining me, and I hope that the story of the greatest President that never was has brought you some happiness.  Feel free to follow my Facebook author page, or my Twitter account.  I also have a blog that I update once a month or so, which I’d be delighted for you to read.  Until next time, faithful readers!

 

 

                  FOLLOW AUTHOR LEWIS BEN SMITH:

 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:  www.lewisbensmith.com

 

FACEBOOK PAGE:  https://www.facebook.com/authorindianasmith

 

TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/AuthorIndySmith

 

INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/authorindysmith/

 

BLOG:   https://lewisliterarylair.blogspot.com/


Monday, August 2, 2021

A Tribute to my Friend - In Memory of Rand Scholet (1957-2021)

     It is a rare thing in life to know someone for only seven weeks, and then be able to honestly say that they changed your life for the better.  But Rand Scholet was just such a person, and my only regret now is that I didn't know him sooner.  Many tributes have been written to him over the last few days, most by people who knew him far longer and better than I did. Truthfully, I feel a little presumptuous writing about him at all, but I want my readers to know who this remarkable man was, and how much he meant to me.

    Last spring, when I finally got word that my novel PRESIDENT HAMILTON was going to be published, I began joining various Hamilton pages on social media in order to do some advance publicity for my book.  One of the sites I joined was Eliza Matic's "Alexander Hamilton: Life and Legacy" Facebook page, and Eliza quickly became a good friend and strong supporter.  She was the one who pointed me to Mary-Anne Hamilton, the widow of Alexander's great-great-grandson, whom I also befriended.  I asked Mary-Anne if she would like to read an early draft of the novel, and she agreed.  When she wrote me back, she said: "Rand Scholet, the founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society calls me every day and I told him how much I am enjoying your book.  I printed out my copy and will pass it to him when I finish, he lives close by me."  Of course I told her that would be fine, at that point I wanted my story to be seen by as many Hamilton experts as possible, so I could get their feedback.

     It was only a few days later, on June 7, that I got my first email from Rand, with the subject line "Hamilton! 'Gonna be President!' " (a reference to one of the songs in the musical, where Jefferson gloatingly says "He's never gonna be President now!").  That was the beginning of a lively correspondence, and just a few days later I called Rand for the first time - and that was when our friendship began.  One thing about Rand - the minute he picked up the phone, he made you feel like talking to you was the most important and exciting event of his day.  He had this huge booming voice that was just brimming over with energy and enthusiasm, and his optimism was so infectious that I told my wife talking to him was like getting a shot of pure adrenalin!

     As a writer, I can say that one of the rarest things in the world is to meet someone who is more enthusiastic about your book than you are.  But Rand was just such a person.  He loved PRESIDENT HAMILTON.  He wanted it to be sold at every National Park Service gift shop at every site connected with Hamilton; he wanted his fellow Hamiltonians to read it and endorse it, he wanted to get a copy in the hands of Lin-Manuel Miranda so he could endorse it (we did succeed at getting the book to Lin before Rand died), and he wanted it to be made into an epic mini-series.  Every time I called him (and in the last couple of weeks before he passed, that was nearly every day), he had new ideas about how we could promote the book.

     Early on, he was concerned about a couple of historical inaccuracies in the draft I sent him, and was deeply relieved when I told him that they had been corrected in the galley proofs of the book.  Later, after he got his personal copies of PRESIDENT HAMILTON in hand, he told me he was going through the book with a fine-toothed comb to catch any other small errors so they could be corrected in later printings - he thought that those corrections would help get some of the more serious-minded Hamiltonians on board with promoting it.  (In our last conversation, he told me he had that list ready, and if I can get it I am going to do my best to make sure those corrections are made, to honor his wishes).  He was constantly coming up with new contacts he thought I should make, and I reached out to every single person he recommended.   Thanks to him, I was able to connect with prominent Hamiltonians like Nancy Spannaus, Marianne Als, and Gary Wilser, as well as Sergio Villavecencio, the Vice President of the AHA society (and Rand's son-in-law).

    Rand went on a lovely vacation with his family to the Outer Banks a couple of weeks ago, and we called each other several times during that trip - he was excited about my first speaking event after the release of PRESIDENT HAMILTON, and overjoyed at my successful book launch party on the 24th of July.  Last Tuesday night, he called me from Disney World, where he and his family stopped on their way home from North Carolina.  I was unable to take that call because I was at a dinner with one of our friends, but I called him back the next morning.  He said he was catching up on all the chores that had built up while he was gone, but told me he was looking forward to dedicating the month of August to helping me promote my book.  We talked for about 20 minutes, and later that day he texted me, giving me the name of a Hamilton re-enactor from Colorado he thought I should connect with.  I wrote him back that evening, saying I had sent the man a friend request, and he texted me back one word: "Nice!"  That was the last I ever heard from him.

     Thursday afternoon I was out on the lake with my son-in-law when my phone rang, and when I picked it up Eliza Matic tearfully told me that Rand had suffered an apparent heart attack and passed away that morning.  To say I was stunned would be an understatement.  Rand was gone?  That booming voice on the other end of the line, who always greeted me with such enthusiasm? That unquenchable volcano of energy and optimism, silenced?  But it was true.  My friend had left this world for a higher plane, and I can only hope that his beloved Alexander Hamilton was waiting to greet him on the other side.

     I'm not sure how to go on now, honestly, since my friend and tireless promoter has left us.  I don't have Rand's endless list of contacts, I'm not plugged into the world of Hamilton scholars and enthusiasts as he was.   But I do know one thing: I am going to press on!  I always wanted my novel to succeed, mostly for the same reasons that all authors do - I mean, obviously, there is a financial motive, and more than that, I want people to read my story and be entertained and educated and inspired by it.  But now I have a new reason that I want PRESIDENT HAMILTON to reach the widest possible audience: because Rand wanted it to.  This man, with so many other commitments and so much more knowledge than I had about all things Hamilton-related, found my work worthy of his time and his commitment.  And now I feel as if I owe it to Rand to make sure his dreams for my book come true.  I will miss him, to be sure, but I also want to honor his legacy by making PRESIDENT HAMILTON a part of it.

     Thank you, Rand Scholet, for inspiring me.  You made me believe in myself as a writer like no one else ever has.  I'm sorry our friendship was so short-lived, but I am still very glad it happened.  As was said of Hamilton, so I can say of you:

"You could have done so much more if you'd only had time."

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

WHAT A LAUNCH! WHAT A FIRST MONTH!

     Well, PRESIDENT HAMILTON is now out there for the world to read!  It's been a crazy, up and down first month (more up than down), but I'm happy to report that my alternative history epic has had the strongest launch of any of my books, and the momentum really doesn't seem to be slowing down much.  I thought I'd spend a little time this morning just sharing some of the feedback I have already gotten, and some of the cool things that have happened since the last time I sat down and wrote to you all.

     First of all, Amazon pulled a fast one on me and released the book two days ahead of its scheduled date - which meant that PRESIDENT HAMILTON was literally "born on the Fourth of July!"  It turned out that Christopher and Jesse, the owner/operators of Electio Publishing, had been butting heads with Amazon - they wanted me to get my copies of the book on or before the official release date, but Amazon would not ship them till the book was released.  So they agreed to release the book on Sunday instead of Tuesday, and I got my copies in the mail that Thursday.

     The first physical copy of PRESIDENT HAMILTON that I saw, however, was not even mine!  Several people ordered it on Sunday and had their copies in hand by Tuesday, including one of my favorite former students Riley Williams.  She messaged me Tuesday morning, saying she had gotten hers and wanted me to sign it, so we met that afternoon at Starbucks and I finally got to hold my "brain baby" in my hands - even if I couldn't keep that copy!  But I gladly signed it for her, and two days later my copies arrived - all 150 copies, some 13 boxes full of books. (Interestingly enough, Amazon shipped me one single copy that arrived a day before the pile of boxes, which made me wonder why on earth one out of 150 would have been packed and shipped separately.)   I did have my wife get some video of me opening the boxes and reading the blurb from the back of the book and some of the advance reviews, I was REALLY happy that day!  If you are so inclined, you can watch that video HERE on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDGNPatj7iw

     Several people had already requested signed copies by mail, so once those boxes arrived I packed up nine copies that were already paid for and shipped them out first thing the next morning.  Over the next two weeks I would sell forty copies of PRESIDENT HAMILTON, either to fans on Facebook who wanted a signed first edition, or to friends and family in the community.  Reviews started dropping right away, too - from sources as varied as one of my 14-year-old history students named Avery, to Hamilton scholars Marianne Als and Nancy Spannaus to Mary-Anne Hamilton, the widow of Alexander's great-great-grandson!  As of this morning, I am now up to nine Amazon reviews and two additional Amazon ratings, with an overall rating of 4.9 stars.  The reception this book has received has warmed my heart and given me a sense of vindication that I really have accomplished my original goals in writing this book, which were to tell a good story first, and do full justice to the memory of a great man, second.

     The slate of public events lagged behind the book release by a couple of weeks by design.  With every single one of my books (and, I imagine, with every book they publish), Jesse and Christopher have warned me not to schedule any events until 2-3 weeks after the release date, since there might be a delay in shipping my copies.  It would, after all, be embarrassing to schedule a book signing and wind up having no books to sell!  But I did hold my first event on Wednesday, the 21st of July - a speaking engagement at a Lions Club meeting in McKinney, TX.  I got up and did a 35 minute lecture entitled: "Alexander Hamilton - Who He Was, Why He Was Important, and Why He Still Matters Today."  There were 17 people in attendance at the meeting, and when it was over I wound up selling nine copies of my book.  After packing up, I drove over to Recycled Books in Denton, TX.  This is one of my favorite bookstores, but they aren't doing live signing events yet after the COVID pandemic last year.  However, the manager of the store said he would be willing to purchase a few signed copies to sell, so I made the trip and left three copies and a poster for them to put in the store window.

     Saturday, June 24 was the big day, though - my first formal book signing, at Half Price Books in Rockwall, TX.  The store manager, Jordan, has always been very helpful and supportive, and my friend Eliza Matic showed up with her husband, Tommy, in costume as Alexander and Eliza Hamilton!  We had a lovely time visiting and swapping Hamilton stories in between customers, and at the end of the day, I had sold 30 more copies of PRESIDENT HAMILTON!  So as of this morning, 23 days after the book was released on Amazon, as near as I can estimate, my alternative history novel has sold between 80 and 90 copies on Amazon (maybe more, those algorithms are hard to track), and I have personally sold some 82 copies.  For a new book by a relatively unknown author, those are excellent numbers!  I am confident that, as more people read and review the book and word continues to spread, that they will go nowhere but up.   My videographer, Austin Thomas, also came to Rockwall and shot lots of video.  He's still in the process of editing it, but when the episode is done, it'll be posted on my YouTube channel, Indiana Smith.  I'd invite all of you to like, share, and subscribe - it's a fun channel where I talk about my books and also take you along on many adventures in my ongoing quest for artifacts and fossils.

     I still haven't heard back from Lin-Manuel Miranda, but I did ship him two signed copies of PRESIDENT HAMILTON last Friday, and hopefully they have found their way into his hands by now. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for some sort of public endorsement from him.  I also have a very full schedule of signing events coming up - I'll be showing up at bookstores all over north Texas in the next few months. You can see my upcoming schedule of events at my personal website, here:

https://lewisbensmith.com/meet-lewis/

    (Looks like I need to update that calendar, BTW!)

    This weekend I'll be at the Half Price Books store at Firewheel Mall in Garland, TX - they've already got my posters in the window and I am hoping for a great turnout!  For all of you who don't live in North Texas but are intrigued by the idea of Alexander Hamilton becoming President, please feel free to order the book on Amazon today.  And please, when you're done, leave me a review and let me know what you thought!  Thanks for taking the time to read this update.   Till next time!

(Oh, and here's the Amazon link below)

https://www.amazon.com/President-Hamilton-Novel-Alternative-History/dp/1632137100/ref=sr_1_23?dchild=1&qid=1624931942&refinements=p_27%3ALewis+Ben+Smith&s=books&sr=1-23&text=Lewis+Ben+Smith

Monday, June 28, 2021

PRESIDENT HAMILTON – Last Post Before Launch! Lots of Cool News!

 

Only ONE WEEK to go before the official release of PRESIDENT HAMILTON: A NOVEL OF ALTERNATIVE HISTORY, and I wanted to share all the latest info with my faithful blog readers as I prepare to promote what I firmly believe will be the most successful book I have written yet!  Several interesting things have transpired since my last update, so let me talk about those first.

          Last time I mentioned how I had connected with Doug Hamilton, the five times great-grandson of my protagonist, and how he had enjoyed and agreed to endorse my novel.  Since then, I have gotten in contact with another Hamilton family member, the delightful Mary Anne Hamilton.  She is the widow of Alexander Hamilton’s great-great-grandson, Laurens Morgan Hamilton, and has become a caretaker of the family’s legacy since her husband’s death thirty-five years ago.  Mary Anne is a wonderful, fiery 87-year-old with a great sense of humor, and when she accepted my friend request on Facebook, I sent her a PM explaining who I was and what my book was about and asked her to read it.  She agreed, and I emailed her a copy that day.  She finished the book within a week and told me that she found it to be absolutely enthralling.  She sent me a lovely, signed letter of endorsement, along with a photograph of her posing with Lin-Manuel Miranda, taken after she attended a Broadway performance of HAMILTON a few years back.

          But besides endorsing my story, Mary Anne also put me in touch with Rand Scholet, the founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society.  Rand also read the book and fell in love with it, and we’ve conversed on the phone several times now.  He is wonderfully well-connected, with a wide range of friendships and contacts in the historical and entertainment communities.  He informed me that he wants to do all he can to help me promote PRESIDENT HAMILTON, because he thinks it is both a wonderful story as well as a positive portrayal of Hamilton that may help counter some of the negative publicity the “ten-dollar Founding Father” has endured recently.  Without giving away a lot of details (because some of the necessary networking is still going on), I think Rand is going to make sure this book is available in many venues that I could only have dreamed of a few weeks ago.  He’s also reached out to my publishers at Electio in order to make sure their promotion efforts are coordinated.  I’m thrilled and honored to have him in my corner, and I can’t wait to see what results our collaboration might yield.

          When the book is officially available on July 6, here are some things that you can do to help me increase its visibility.  If you’ve read this far, I would assume that you are willing to help.  So, here goes! 


1. BUY THE BOOK!  It will be available at all online bookselling platforms (which means Amazon for 95% of you, but also at places like iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and, as always, from my own publisher, Electio Publishing).  If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, please consider coming to my launch party at Half Price Books in Rockwall, TX on July 24, or at one of my later signing events in the Metroplex – you can see the schedule of appearances at my website,
www.lewisbensmith.com, by clicking the “Meet Lewis” tab.   One other thing – if you live in the USA but not in North Texas, and would like a signed copy of PRESIDENT HAMILTON, you may purchase one directly by messaging me on FB.  I will, of course, have to charge you for the shipping, but sending books by Media Mail rate is only about $4.   As far as price goes, the paperback version on Amazon goes for $24.99.  I’ll be charging $26 for signed copies at my events (still cheaper than paying postage).

2.  SHARE THE LINKS!  Help me get the word out about PRESIDENT HAMILTON by posting the Amazon link to it on your personal media, and any social media groups you belong to where you think people might be interested.  Nothing helps more than word of mouth advertising from happy readers!

3.  LEAVE A REVIEW!  I love hearing back from my readers.  If you loved the book, tell me!  If you didn’t like it, tell me why!  I’d rather have an honest one-star review than an insincere five-star rating from a bot account.  The more reviews I get, the happier I am.  So please, after you’ve read the book swing by Amazon and leave your thoughts!

4.  Follow me online!  I have an author page on FB, and I’m also on Twitter and Instagram.  I love interacting with my readers.

          It’s been a long and bumpy ride.  I knew this story was special as I was writing it, but at this time last year I was wondering if it would ever be published.  Now we’re just a few days away, and I want to say “Thank You!” to everyone who has encouraged me along the way. May PRESIDENT HAMILTON live up to your fondest expectations!  Special thanks to Annee Helmreich for the marvelous cover art, and to Christopher and Jesse at Electio Publishing, for taking another chance on me as an author, and bringing PRESIDENT HAMILTON to you all, and finally to all the good people mentioned above who have endorsed my humble story.

          Till next time!

 

Saturday, May 29, 2021

PRESIDENT HAMILTON Updates! Lots of News!

     Let me begin this post with the blogger's usual lament:  I am SO SORRY that it's been so long since my last update!!  Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!   The end of the school year is a very busy time for teachers, and I have a lot of other irons in the fire, so to speak, besides just teaching school.   But, to be perfectly honest, I've also spent a lot of time on the local river looking for fossils and arrowheads, because I know once this book comes out I am going to be doing signing events most Saturdays and opportunities for "treasure hunting" will be few and far between!  Still, that is no excuse to go over two months without updating what was originally supposed to be a weekly blog.  I have not been idle on the literary front, however; in fact, there have been a number of exciting developments there that I'm itching to tell you about!

     First of all, let's talk endorsements for a moment.  I've been reaching out to various people in the historical community and especially to those who have a special interest Alexander Hamilton, and I've sent out a number of copies for review.  First on that list, as with all my books, is my dear friend and long-time beta reader Ellie.  I typically write a chapter at a time, and then send the chapter to her for review and commentary.  For nearly ten years now, she's helped me catch typos, close plotholes, avoid redundancies and anachronisms, and more than that, she's asked probing questions and challenged me on the purpose and direction of the stories I've told.  Never have those questions and challenges been more searching and potent than they were for PRESIDENT HAMILTON, and I feel the finished work is a better book for her input.  Tip o'the hat, Ellie, and I hope you enjoy your upcoming retirement!

     Next came my longtime friend and fellow history and artifact enthusiast Dr. Jerry W. Jones, a professor of history in the Texas A&M system.  Jerry was the first one besides Ellie to read the finished book, and I appreciated his professional opinion.  He gave me a solid thumbs-up and told me that the story was "historically plausible," which was something I was truly hoping to hear.  He was also kind enough to write a nice testimonial for the book which I am hoping will be included in the published work.   Getting some buy-in from a fellow historian meant a great deal to me, as you can imagine.

     Back in March, I sent four digital copies of the manuscript to four different Hamilton fans: one to Hamilton biographer Michael Newton, one to Douglas Hamilton (the 5X great-grandson of Alexander), one to Lin-Manuel Miranda creator and star of HAMILTON: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL, and one to Elizabeth Matic, who is a moderator/admin on the "Alexander Hamilton: Life and Legacy" FB page.  I wound up hearing back from all four of them!  Michael Newton, who has written two books on Hamilton and also runs the "Discovering Hamilton" website, found several historical errors in the early chapters and told me that, while the story was lively and well-written, he felt he could not write an endorsement for it at this time. (I did correct a couple of the errors he pointed out in the galley proofs, however, and I value his input and honesty.)  Douglas Hamilton, who is one of the keepers of the family legacy, told me he thoroughly enjoyed the work and wrote me a very nice testimonial which will be featured on the back cover of the book.  Eliza Matic told me the work was "heartfelt and poignant" and wrote me a beautiful testimonial; if it's not shared in the published version of the book (it came in later than the others), then I will be sure to publish it here.  And Lin-Manuel Miranda, despite the many demands on his time, took a moment to write me a wonderful letter of encouragement that included this line: "I can't wait to dive into PRESIDENT HAMILTON!"  I sincerely hope he's reading it right now, but even if he doesn't, his letter is sitting, framed, on my mantel.  (And showing it to my classes gave me temporary rock star status with my high school students!)

     One thing I really wanted for this book was an original, commissioned painting to serve as cover art.  Electio Publishing has always done great jobs on my book covers (all of them are good, but REDEMPTION OF PONTIUS PILATE is hands down my favorite so far), but they have all been a combination of stock images combined with classical artworks.  There are many paintings of Hamilton out there, of course, but I wanted to have something created just for this book; a study of an older, more thoughtful Hamilton, as he might have appeared if he had lived another decade.  I have taught some incredibly talented artists at the private school where I am employed, and I approached a couple of them about doing it, but ultimately it was our art teacher, Annee Helmreich, who accepted the challenge and finished her work this week.  It's a beautiful portrait, with a smiling Hamilton posing in a blue frock coat, looking very Presidential.  A million thanks, Annee, YOU ROCK!  I can't wait to see how the graphic design team at Electio incorporates your work into the finished book cover.

     Last of all, this week I received the galley proof of PRESIDENT HAMILTON.  For those not familiar with the term, this is a PDF file that shows exactly how the interior of the printed book will look. It's also the last chance an author has to go through and make any changes or emendations.  The editing team also sent along a number of questions about various words, phrases, and names that struck them as odd for one reason or another.  It took me five days to read all the way through the story (this is, I believe, the longest book I have ever written - the galley proof is about 660 pages!), and I spotted maybe a dozen places where I needed to make corrections or alterations to the manuscript (besides the ones the editors had already asked about).  I finished my revisions yesterday, and sent my changes back to the publisher.  It's a heady feeling, being DONE with a book - knowing that the next time that I see the text I read, it will be in a physical copy of the book I can hold in my hands!

     One more step between now and publication is the book cover!  The central image will be Anne's portrait of Hamilton, of course, but there are so many other things that will goo into the finished work - background color (I am thinking crimson, fading to black, or perhaps maroon), typeset and size of the title, a back cover image (crossed dueling pistols, perhaps, since my story begins with the duel at Weekawken?), and maybe even a small image to go on the spine.  In the past, my publishers have sent me an image and I have told them whether or not I liked it, and suggested alternatives, and we've gone back and forth multiple times before settling on the final version.  I expect this part of the process to be concluded in the next couple of weeks, and then it's time for my least favorite part of the writing game: WAITING.  Waiting for the release date, waiting for my copies of the book to arrive in the mail, and above all, waiting for my most favorite part of the writing game: the BOOK LAUNCH!

     This will be my sixth published book, and I've been excited for all of them, but I don't remember being this giddy since my first novel, THE TESTIMONIUM, was published in 2014.  I think that PRESIDENT HAMILTON is going to outsell everything else I have ever written, and my fondest hope is that it will be the one thing every writer hopes and dreams of: a book that captures a national audience and maybe even achieves that most elusive goal of all: the "Best-Seller" lists!  I smile and sigh just typing those words; I've been writing since 2012, but nothing I've done has ever gained any kind of national recognition.  With the widespread interest in Alexander Hamilton and the wonderful endorsements I've gotten so far, this is my time to dream big!  So thanks to all of you, my faithful readers and friends who follow my musings here.   The time is getting short!  July 6 will be here before you know it, and I hope as many of you as can make it will come and meet me in person and get your signed copy of PRESIDENT HAMILTON at Half Price Books in Rockwall, TX on Saturday, July 24, 2021.  I'll be at the Half Price Books store in Firewheel Mall in Garland the following Saturday, July 31, and will list other events as they draw near!

     Thanks for coming with me on this literary journey, and hang in there with me for a while longer! That release date is coming soon.  In the meantime, if you just can't wait to read something I've written, may I recommend one of my previous works of historical fiction, THEOPHILUS: A TALE OF ANCIENT ROME.  Mad Emperors, courageous Senators, apostles, miracles, monsters, and all the splendor that was Rome comes to life in this story of courage, faith, and redemption.  Check it out here, on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Theophilus-Ancient-Lewis-Ben-Smith/dp/1632132729/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1622332303&refinements=p_27%3ALewis+Ben+Smith&s=books&sr=1-4&text=Lewis+Ben+Smith

   That's it for now, faithful readers.   Thanks, as always, for your support!

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Creating the Perfect HAMILTON "Blurb"

      Once a novel has been accepted for publication, one of the tasks generally left to the author is creating the "blurb" that will go on the back of the book.  Other than the cover (because, contrary to popular opinion, many people do judge the book by what they see on the front!), the blurb is the most critical component of persuading people to buy your book.  You have one paragraph, maybe two, to set the hook and persuade a total stranger that your story is worth spending their hard-earned money on. A poorly written blurb can turn readers away from a perfectly wonderful story; a compelling blurb can sometimes sell a bad book.   The choices are intimidating.  How much of the story do you want to give away? Should you go for short and punchy, or try to explain your plot a bit more fully?

     PRESIDENT HAMILTON isn't my first rodeo.  I have five novels already in print, all of which have gotten excellent reviews.  I've written some blurbs I'm proud of and a couple I wish I'd taken another run at before submitting.  For my last three books, I have composed two or three different version of the blurb and let my family, friends, students, and co-workers take a look at them and tell me which ones they liked.  So, for my latest work, I came up with these three options:

On July 11, 1804, a single bullet changed the course of U.S.         

                                           history . . .

                      BUT NOT IN THE WAY YOU THINK!

 

          After nearly perishing from an infected bullet wound suffered in his duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton returns to politics. A vision of the future compels him to dare anything and everything to stop the spread of slavery in the young United States, and fight for its abolition in the states where it already exists.  He sets his eyes on the Senate, and then the White House, enlisting former allies and reconciling with old enemies in his quest to become President and crush slavery.

            Overcoming incredible odds, facing down enemies at home and abroad, Hamilton moves with steadfast perseverance towards his goal – to prevent the Civil War he has foreseen by removing its cause in advance.  But there are some who will stop at nothing to derail President Hamilton’s crusade for liberty.  Will they succeed? Can one man change the course of history? 

            PRESIDENT HAMILTON will take you on a thrilling ride through a history of America that never was, but could have been, and answers the question of how much he could have done - if he’d only had time.


      This blurb had an interesting history.  My beta reader Ellie, whose advice means a great deal to me, hated this one.  When I submitted it to a couple of Hamilton forums online, most readers didn't like the copy, although several said the tagline was very effective. But when I let my students read all three of these, this one was their overwhelming favorite.  The other two versions got maybe a dozen votes between them, this one over 80.   I think what sold it was the last line, which links it to the HAMILTON musical.  But I wasn't sure of the legality of using such a direct link, and I thought the first paragraph was rather weak.  Still, it was hard to ignore such a "strong popular vote" among the teens who, admittedly, are a big part of my target audience.

 

                What if the most famous duel in history . . .

                              Had ended differently?

 

          Alexander Hamilton lies wounded and feverish after a deadly duel that ended the life of Vice President Burr.  As he hovers near death, he catches a glimpse of what lies ahead for his country – and sees a Civil War that will consume a generation and poison America’s future.  Upon his recovery, Hamilton returns to politics with a new vision that compels him to risk everything to achieve his goal – to stop the spread of slavery and prevent the horrors he has foreseen.

            Making new allies and reconciling with old enemies, Hamilton is filled with a new sense of purpose, determined to use the powers of the Presidency to save his adopted country from the peril it faces.  Many Americans join him on his crusade for liberty, but others will stop at nothing to protect the “peculiar institution.”  Can President Hamilton change history?

            PRESIDENT HAMILTON will show you the Founding Fathers and their successors in a whole new light as you join them in a thrilling battle for the future – and the very soul – of America!

 

           My online readers favored this version by a three-to-one margin, and Ellie thought it was the best by far, but I had some problems with it.  The tagline at the top was the weakest of the three, and I thought that it left out too much of the scope of the novel.  A little tease is one thing, but a writer has to "show a little leg" to make the sale sometimes.  Still, adult readers seemed to like this one.  

 

                         ONE BULLET CHANGED THE WORLD

 

            What if the duel with Aaron Burr was the beginning of Alexander Hamilton’s political odyssey, instead of its conclusion?  After nearly dying from an infected bullet wound, Hamilton returns to politics with a new purpose, derived from a fevered vision of America’s future.  Determined to prevent a civil war that will consume hundreds of thousands of lives and poison the nation’s future, Alex re-enters politics and launches a bid for the Presidency.  Mending fences with old enemies and rekindling former friendships, Hamilton uses every political stratagem he knows, and invents some new ones along the way, all focused on stopping the spread of slavery into America’s new territories and rolling it back where it already exists.

            PRESIDENT HAMILTON reintroduces the founding generation – the brilliant, crafty Thomas Jefferson, the diminutive genius James Madison, and professional curmudgeon John Adams – and introduces us to the next generation of American leaders – Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson – in a lively epic of alternative history that begins with the famous duel at Weehawken and rewrites the history of the early 19th century.  Can Alex persuade the Southern states to abandon their “peculiar institution?”  Can his powers of persuasion move the conscience of a nation?  Can one man change history? 


     I originally wrote only the first two versions, but after sleeping on it and thinking about it, I put this one together.  Several of my students and co-workers liked the fact that I mentioned some of the founders who are characters in my story; but others pointed out that the tag line was a bit . . . brutal, perhaps?  As I re-read it and looked at the comments that people made, I came to see that the first paragraph was a bit too wordy.  However, my friend and co-worker Tom Witt made the best suggestion of them all.  He wrote a question beneath the tag line that summed up the heart of my story so effectively that I read it and let out an involuntary Sheldon Cooper "Bazinga!" on the spot!  So after mulling over all three versions,  reading all the comments, and discussing things online,  I came up with the final version of my blurb:


       On July 11, 1804, a single bullet changed the course of                                           American history . . .

                         BUT WHAT IF IT DIDN’T?

 

            Alexander Hamilton lies wounded and feverish after a deadly duel that ended the life of Vice President Burr.  Hovering near death, he catches a glimpse of what lies ahead – and sees a Civil War that will consume a generation and poison America’s future.  This vision compels him to return to the political arena.  He sets his eyes on the Senate, and then the White House, enlisting former allies and reconciling with old enemies in his quest to become President and crush slavery.   Overcoming great odds while facing down enemies at home and abroad, Hamilton moves steadily toward his goal - but there are some who will stop at nothing to derail the President’s crusade for liberty.  Will they succeed?

            PRESIDENT HAMILTON reintroduces us to the founding generation – the brilliant, crafty Thomas Jefferson, the diminutive genius James Madison, and professional curmudgeon John Adams – and brings on the next generation of American leaders – Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson – in a lively epic of alternative history that begins with the famous duel at Weehawken and rewrites the history of the 19th century.  Can Hamilton persuade the Southern states to change their course? Can his powers of persuasion move the conscience of a nation?  Can one man change history?    

Turn the page and see. . . 


     I put this version online for commentary and got universally positive feedback, plus a couple of minor grammatical corrections that made it smoother and more compelling.  The more I read over this one, the better I liked it.  It combined the best elements of all three versions, and included Tom's brilliant question in the tag line.  After letting it set for a few days, I read it again to make sure I was truly satisfied with this version, and then sent it off to my publisher.  Now comes the hardest part . . . waiting.  July 6 can't get here soon enough!!!


     In the meantime, as I mentioned earlier, I do have five other titles in print.  Feel free to surf on over to Amazon and check them out!

https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ALewis+Ben+Smith&s=relevancerank&text=Lewis+Ben+Smith&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1