Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Book Cover for LINES—

Here's a first attempt at writing the book cover synopsis.  Your input matters... too wordy? interesting?  Comments are encouraged.


In the 1870s and 1880s, railroad lines converge near Lake Michigan at the Great Central Depot, a hub for our country’s expanding commerce and travel.  Livia Haas knows these lines well, for they carried her from the serene tobacco fields of Quakertown, PA to the tumultuous urban life of Chicago just prior to the Great Fire. 

Class and culture lines are witnessed by the grid-like pattern of city streets designed to keep apart the wealthy and poor, to define immigrant groups.  A prayerful Livia comes to understand that these boundaries offer little hope for mingling in a society where lines are unjustly drawn.

Strike lines—sometimes effective and sometimes violent—commence in an era of struggle for the eight hour day.  The main character gets entangled in the fight, against the wishes of people who fear the consequences of disturbing those lines.

Affected by a first love, a deceased brother, and a sinister acquaintance who endangers herself and family, Livia Haas is forced to question literal and personal lines, as well as those that exist in the lineage from which she is born.