I had planned for a 2012 release for Blood Stripe: The Susanna Marcasi Chronicles. And here we are releasing November 10, 2015.

The Black Panthers took center stage instead.

While on the train to New York City to pitch what was then the bloated, 137,000-word The Three-Legged Dog, ( I am not kidding) I met the pitch coordinator … on the train. I hid. He found me and asked about my work. His response “Don’t pitch that crap. What else have you written?”

I wanted to pass out. In my mind, I had written nothing. Ever. I sat stunned . But I regained some semblance of composure (and memory) and rattled off my better defense articles.

He yawned.

Then I mentioned the 761st. “What’s that?” he asked. I cringed and told him.”World War II, The first black tank unit in combat.”  He lit up as I thought he might. “That’s it! You must write that story.”

I had no interest in writing about the 761st.  I had published on the topic in 2006 and knew pitfalls and controversy surrounding the unit. It would take a lot of work — a Herculean effort to compose what I thought the unit and market needed. But I moved forward with it and had the time of my life. Lived with the unit as I wrote the combat chapters. We grew tight. I had never worked so hard, but the book you see made it worth it. Get this: Even my publicist is having a love affair the 761st. (Scott– Blood Stripe! Black Panthers comes later.)

After publication, I went back to The Three-Legged Dog. Clarity came. (Like some religious experience, things clicked.) With the help of editor David White, I cut 43.000 words, one-third of the book. The right title appeared to me like a vision at Lourdes. Blood Stripe comes in at a sleek and tense 91,000 words.

I could kill (can I say that in today’s world?) Michael Neff for the insane idea that I had the talent to create the magic of The Black Panthers: A Story of Race, War, and Courage. But I owe him big time.

Go big or go home — which brings us to our girl, Susanna Marcasi and the fight of her life in Blood Stripe: The Susanna Marcasi Chronicles.

Next time: An Blood Stripe review.