Synopsis for the dust jacket

This is my first pass at a synopsis for the dust jacket's inner flap:

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All Brendan Kinsella wanted was to be left alone to live his life. He has hopes and dreams, but he slowly comes to realize that history has a way of intruding on one's plans.

It is 1966 in Derry, Northern Ireland. The Catholic minority has begun their push for civil rights against discrimination by the Protestant majority. One-man-one-vote. Decent housing. Good jobs. But even these minimal requests are too much for the ones in power to accept, so the push back and forth grows harsher and more violent.

A Place of Safety begins with the murder of Brendan's father mere days after his tenth birthday. Because the man was a brutal drunk who kept the family in extreme poverty, Brendan is not sorry he is dead. But he also has a difficult relationship with his mother, Bernadette. The third of her six children, he is the one she constantly belittles as simple-minded, despite his knack for repairing things. He is also quiet, observant, and consistently goes his own way. Even though it sometimes leads him into trouble.

Over the course of more than six years, the story follows Brendan through: 

• the Civil Rights demonstrations in Derry 

• the attack on peaceful marchers at Burntollet Bridge

• the lead-up to The Battle of Bogside, the following August 

• the arrival of British troops to separate the two warring sides 

• the re-introduction of internment without trial

• Bloody Sunday

There is also Brendan's growing relationship with a Protestant girl, one that has to kept secret for fear of reprisals -- from both sides -- as he fights to find a place of safety in a world careening towards chaos.

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I ordered my new laptop, today, but won't have it till October 25th. Doesn't give me a lot of of time to work up the dust jacket before submitting to Publishers Weekly for a review. I'd like a review I could add to the book's dust jacket. They're kind of picky so won't guarantee anything, but it doesn't cost me a dime. Going through BookLife would be $400. Can't afford that, right now.

Set to have my skin cancer cut out on December 14th. Six days later, I'm flying down to San Antonio for Christmas with the family. It'll be my last visit to Texas. Like Florida, I no longer feel safe there. But I can handle 5 days. I think.

I'll concentrate on eating lots of real Tex-Mex and BBQ.