Amy Cefoldo

Climbing the Divide by Amy Cefoldo

“Are you ready for this?”  He whispered.  She knew what he was asking, and loved him even more for it, knowing the hard hike before them. 

“As ready as I ever will be.  You know I have to climb this trail again.  I need to see the view from the top once more.” 

What do you do when all that stands in your way is one last climb?  When Rachel moved to Colorado eight years ago, her only motive was escaping the pain and tragedy her life had become.  She never imagined experiencing life and laughter again but the night Lizzie walks into her life Rachel finds herself embarking on a journey of healing and love.

Climbing the Divide is not only a narrative about finding the physical strength to hike up a mountain; it is also about experiencing and discovering what it takes to heal a soul and repair a heart.  Journey with Rachel as she attempts to climb the divide one last time and discover the pain and tragedy coupled with the joy and love she endured to bring her to that fateful day.

Arielle & David: Any novel that deals with a pursuit that people are passionate about (like climbing), you know you’ve got a core audience you can rely on to read and help spread the word about your book. The idea of “one last climb” is a great one. And it sounds like there are really high stakes involved in this last endeavor. What can be improved? We were confused about the “he” named in the excerpt, but no mention of a man after that, just of a woman named Lizzie. Who is this guy? Who is Lizzie? There is also a host of generic phrases here: “escaping the pain and tragedy”, “experiencing life and laughter”, “embarking on a journey of healing”. These are all things we’ve heard before and they don’t give us any particular incite into your particular story. The more specificity the better. We need fewer overarching platitudes and more detail about the arc of this woman’s journey. Literally take us to the top of the cliff and then let us figure out how she’s going to get down.