Query Letter 1st Draft

Camila Mason was daddy’s little girl until she witnessed her dad commit violence during a family vacation, changing their relationship forever.  As she attempts to resolve her feelings about the event, her father again deploys to Afghanistan and never returns.

Feeling guilty and confused over her father’s death, Camila sets out to follow her father’s Army career by attending West Point, serving in the infantry and becoming one of the first women to earn the coveted Green Beret like her father before her.  Throughout her Army career she is challenged by sexism, and hopes it will be different once she reached the ranks of the elite, but she is wrong.  Forced to do administrative work in Afghanistan, she finds solace in reading her father’s journal and learning about the last months of his life fighting in Afghanistan.  Additionally, she learns to do her job supporting other Green Berets on the front line and ensuring they returned home alive.

Finally, Camila is permitted to lead a team of Green Berets into combat.  Just as she is about to launch to her firebase, she finishes her father’s journal and discovers that his death might not have been caused by enemy fire, but that he was betrayed by another Green Beret.  Arriving in the same base where her father served during his last days, she wrestles with keeping her men alive and trying to discover her father’s killer.

The Soldier’s Journal is a 90,000 word military thriller featuring a protagonist that breaks the glass ceiling of Army Special Operations and explores the relationship between a military father and his daughter.

I am a new author from Texas and served 31 years in the army mostly as a Green Beret with numerous tours to South America and the Middle East. Also, I have a MFA in Creative Writing.