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In the summer of 1900, foreign diplomats living in Beijing’s Legation Quarter were besieged by Chinese imperial soldiers and “Boxers,” members of a secret society determined to rid China of foreign influence. Defending the Legation Quarter was a small international guard that included 56 American sailors and marines. To survive, the Americans communicated with their foreign allies via hand signals, improvised as food supplies and artillery dwindled, and fought fiercely despite nearly impossible odds. But they could not hold out forever. Relief of the Legation Quarter required additional U.S. sailors, marines, and soldiers to join an international coalition and face the significantly larger force of imperial soldiers and Boxers. The conflict was the U.S. military’s first taste of coalition warfare on a global stage and its first time meeting China on the battlefield. This monograph tracks the critical role of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the defense of the Legation Quarter and in the campaign that led to its relief.

Publisher: Naval History and Heritage Command

ISBN:  978-1-943604-81-4

I am seeking an agent for this unpublished, completed manuscript.

Eighteen-year-old Esper has trained her entire life for the knight trials. And it all comes down to a single knife throw before an audience of royals.

She faces her wooden target. Raises her knife. Glimpses the gray-eyed prince.

And misses.

Lifeforce-wielding spiritual leaders preach Esper’s failure is proof women are too weak for knighthood—can’t have them swooning at every handsome enemy on the battlefield. But the village hag refuses to believe Esper failed due to infatuation. She suspects the spiritual leaders rigged Esper’s downfall, and their next plot is to assassinate Rain, the gray-eyed prince.

The hag offers Esper a second chance at knighthood: a potion that will give her the body of a famous knight named Sebastian, who the hag has drugged into a deep slumber. In return, Esper must become Rain’s protector, despite blaming him for her failure. Desperate to escape a life of sewing ribbons, Esper swallows the potion and her pride.

Unknown to Esper, she and Rain each possess a secret that, if shared with the other, would give them the power to destroy the spiritual leaders—before the silver-eyed immortals kill everyone, including Rain, who questions their regressive doctrines.