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Submission Synopsis
Acquiring Elizabeth Length: Genre:
Author's Representative: The Book in One Sentence:
Blurb/Logline: Synopsis: When fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Dove disappears from her bed one night in late spring, her Utah parents are frantic. Local police launch an all-out campaign to locate the girl as they try to piece together what few clues are left behind. They are baffling: a cut screen too small for human access, an eye-witness too young and too frightened to provide any meaningful information, and a mother in the habit of picking up vagrants and bringing them to her home to rehabilitate.
As the community mobilizes to locate the girl—or any sign of her abductor—Jaime Wilson, an investigative reporter for The Desseret News, interviews Richard, the uncle of the patriarchal Dove family. Wilson leaves the interview with the distinct impression that Richard had been hiding something from her. She begins an investigation into the man’s own leanings toward polygamy. Her investigation takes her to a remote community of practicing polygamists and several frightening encounters with some of the communal leaders. After receiving an anonymous threat warning her to back off the story, she returns to the news room to begin a laborious search of Salt Lake City’s polygamist underground.
When she stumbles across a drifter who was excommunicated by the main body of the Church of Latter Day Saints, she sets out to find him. After several close encounters, she receives a call from a friend who works at the city morgue: the drifter is dead.
Refusing to give up on her theory that Elizabeth was abducted to become the cornerstone of the drifter’s New Church of Holy Day Saints, she learns that the identity of the man in the morgue was actually not that of the drifter but of his brother. She decides to go underground to locate the drifter—the beginning of a journey that takes her to the throbbing underbelly of Chicago, Sun Valley, and San Diego before finally bringing her back to Utah, where she returns to the polygamist community to come face-to-face with the drifter and his “two wives.”
Barely escaping abduction, herself, she enlists the aid of a special undercover agent and close friend who helps her to set a trap for the drifter. After being warned off the case by police-department officials, the two investigators finally manage to trap the cultist in an action-packed climax, when they recover Elizabeth, only to come face-to-face with Elizabeth's uncle and all of his maniacal political wrath. The surprising climax is stunning in its sweeping dramatic scope. * * * Author's Credits: Novels and Single Titles (32) Rings of Fire ("Rings" Series - Unpublished, Option
Not Renewed) Published Books in Series (47) Landmark Supreme Court Cases Series (Enslow Publishers) Famous Supreme Court Justices Series (Enslow Publishers) Historical America Series (Millbrook Press) Published Magazine Articles and Short Stories (400-Plus) Published in Parade, True, Ski, Consumer Guide, Conde Nast, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Northshore, Chicago/FM Guide, Detroit Monthly, Miami Southwest Florida, Milwaukee Magazine, Denver Magazine, San Antonio Monthly, Mpls/St. Paul, Twin Cities Magazine, San Diego Magazine, Rockford Magazine, Utah Holiday, Holiday/Travel Magazine, Catholic Digest, The Elks Magazine, VFW Magazine, The Lions Magazine, Computers and Electronics, Outside, Success Unlimited, Cross Country Skier, Organic Gardening, The Writer, Writer's Digest, Writer's Annual, etc. Published Newspaper Articles and Short Stories (4,000-Plus) Published in The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Oakland Tribune, The San Diego Union, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Milwaukee Journal, The Milwaukee Sentinel, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Miami Herald, The Dallas Times-Herald, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Star, The Toledo Blade, The Houston Post, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Arizona Daily Star, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Orlando Sentinel, San Antonio News-Express, etc. Published Newspaper Columns (260,000-Plus) Former author of several nationally and internationally syndicated columns, including "In Focus," "Photographically Speaking," "Skiing Today," "Traveling Today," "Travelers' Cove," and "Traveling Photographer," appearing in as many as 1,100 newspapers and reaching more than 20 million readers weekly. Television Former writer, director, producer of nationally syndicated weekly television spot, Skiing Today. Video Writer, director, producer of two consumer videotapes on photography. Photography Exhibits in the Russell Rotunda, Dirksen Senate Building, U. S. Capitol Bldg., Washington, D.C.; Nikon Galleries, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY; Graff Fine Arts Center, St. George, Utah; and in galleries and collections throughout the U.S. More than 50,000 photos published in most major magazines and newspapers. Book Production Designer, producer, and co-publisher of the award-winning 18-book children's series, "The American Scene," examining key issues affecting Americans and their country. Editorial Reporter, The Southtown Economist, Chicago; Articles Editor, The Elks Magazine, Chicago, producing an award-winning monthly publication for the B.P.O.E.; Managing Editor, The Madison News, Madison, Wisconsin; Book Editor, The Raintree Press, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Theatrical Wrote and directed The Trouble with Pirates, Chicago, 1969; wrote for production The English Carpheads, Muse Theatre in the Flats, Cleveland, 1972. Art Pieces Award-winning creator of paintings, sculptures, pottery, and miscellaneous art pieces in galleries, shops, and private collections throughout the country. Represented worldwide by Galleria Eros Artists Lounge. Web Sites Former Editor-in-Chief and exclusive provider of travel content for several high-end web sites, including Traveler’s Cove, Galleria Eros Writer's Lounge, and Galleria Eros Artist's Lounge, with combined visitor hits of more than 20,000 monthly. Miscellaneous Former ghost writer for Ronnie Schell, Lawrence Welk, and Art Linkletter, etc. Former ghost writer/photographer for Sammy Davis Jr. Scriptwriter for educational and consumer cable television, in-flight airline, etc. List Any Pre-Publication Sales: List Any Prominent Persons Willing To
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