A Shoe in the Sand

A Look Behind for the Journey Ahead – A Memoir of the Gulf War

Availability

This book is available in multiple book stores worldwide in paperback and is currently an Amazon exclusive eBook for the time being but that could change in the future. The print edition is available in most major book retailers. Click here for Amazon paperback edition.

NOTE: If you are a book reviewer, we can provide an evaluation copy of the book in exchange for an honest review on Amazon or any of the other platforms. Contact us if you are interested.

Book Description

Come on a journey of self-discovery with the author who chronicles her time in the US Army as an Intelligence Officer during the Persian Gulf War. Filled with the original, poignant, moving, and sometimes raw entries from a journal she wrote in 1990 and 1991 while deployed to Saudi Arabia, this memoir will challenge you to think about things in a new way.

It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And it will challenge you to consider hard topics such as: Is any war just? And how much sacrifice is too much? While learning more about military life, the buildup to war, and war itself, whether military or not, every reader will find something that resonates in their everyday lives.

Take a walk in the past and a look behind, to discover new things about the future. Elizabeth Ciufo Waters was a US Army Combat Veteran and retired as a Major in the United States Air Force. Includes Group Discussion Topics for reading clubs that review this book.

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Author

Elizabeth Ciufo Waters

Elizabeth Ciufo Waters is a long-time writer, but a relatively new author. She delights in telling stories based on real-life events and experiences and is currently working on a children’s series called “Better with Betsy,” which is about growing up on a small farm, in a rural town in southwestern Colorado. She published her first book called “Skip’s Dog, Lola,” a non-fiction children’s book about her daughter’s experience volunteering for a non-profit organization that trained service dogs for disabled military veterans.

Elizabeth sometimes called Liz, and called Betsy by her family, has personal journals dating back to 1973, including one she wrote as an Army First Lieutenant during the Persian Gulf War from 1990 – 1991, which is the basis for this memoir.

Born in San Mateo, California in the early 1960s, she grew up in Santa Clara, then Rochester, NY, then Denver, but mostly in a small town on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. She graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, with a Bachelor’s in Education; and from Western Michigan University with a Master’s in Education.

Elizabeth served in the US Army, US Army Reserve, and the US Air Force Reserve consecutively, from 1984 – 1992, is a former Army paratrooper, Desert Storm combat veteran, and retired as a Major in 2005. She married an Air Force officer and traipsed around the country with him for 24 years, raising and homeschooling twins. They now reside in northern California on a small hobby farm.

Liz is the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who came through Ellis Island in the 1920s and carries a strong sense of family and roots that reach back to Europe. The name Ciufo (pronounced Choo Foe) is her maiden name straight from her first-generation Italian father. She loves: cooking; providing hospitality to friends, family, and Airbnb guests; hanging out with her young adult children; reading; crafting and trash-to-treasure projects; gardening; writing; and all manner of other things too numerous to mention.

Reviews & Quotes

Coming soon!

Publisher

Advanced Publishing Concepts

Advanced Publishing Concepts

3 months ago

Here's a piece of a response we sent to an author about their concern over the first editing draft coming back with a lot more suggested edits than they expected. Some portions were modified for this post:"Hang in there. Yes, book writing is indeed a difficult process. You are not unique. So many first-time book writers underestimate the quality of their first draft. It is often difficult for them to receive back those initial edits. The editing process will be the most difficult for you personally since it is a form of saying, 'What you thought was perfect really isn’t…yet.' Seriously, this is common. The writer has the benefit of knowing the whole story, and therefore, they understand what they mean. But when an outside reader (family doesn’t count because they are rarely honest enough to be helpful) reads the story, they get lost because they are missing key elements only the author knows, or the reader doesn’t know who the subject is in some sentences. This is normal stuff. We encourage you to mentally work through this humbling process placed on you by the editor. They are a stranger to you, but they are trying to help you make it better. Challenge the changes you don't agree with, but step back and consider the reasoning behind each suggested change. Once the editing process finishes, we'll begin formatting and getting your book published, helping you turn your dream into reality." ... See MoreSee Less

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