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Logline: A 15-year-old American foreign exchange student arrested overseas suffers unbearably harsh conditions in her filthy dungeon cell as family, friends, and America’s first woman President desperately try to protect this teenage girl on trial abroad from being convicted, condemned to death, and shot as a spy by a military firing squad. ********************************************
While awaiting her trial, Colleen Lee Knight finds comfort and refuge in her faith in God and in her certainty of the love of her family and friends back in America. She tries to face this difficult time in her life with as much courage as she can, and her memories of reading Anne Frank's diary and Samantha Smith's book about her journey to the Soviet Union help her cope with the unknown future facing her in the Realm.
Will the USA's first female leader, American President Ginger Watker, find a way to save this innocent girl's life if the Grand Council of the Realm decides to sentence the young American teen to be brought from her prison cell to the death chamber to stand before their firing squad? And, how long can young Collie survive in her filthy and freezing ancient prison cell with just a dress and a thin blanket for warmth? An expert American nutritionist tells President Watker that the small portion of low quality food given to Collie once a day as her meal isn't enough to keep her strong and healthy. His expert opinion is that Collie's suffering terribly from the cold, serious malnutrition, and is in danger of very slowly starving to death in her prison cell or dying from an illness that her malnourished body is no longer strong enough to fight off. Will Collie sicken and die from the cold and living on the edge of starvation before she breaks down from the repetitive tirades and verbal abuse she must endure over and over again, or will the bitter cold, abuse, and near starvation cause her to abandon her dreams of being free, lose her will to live, and cease her struggles to stay alive? Knowing how much she's loved by friends and family, and her strong faith in God protects Collie far beyond the point at which her captors believe she'll suffer a nervous breakdown, as she prays in her prison cell and tries to keep her strength up physically, mentally, and spiritually while those who wish her well and those who love her do all they can to help her....
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"Collie's Captivity in The Monarchy of The Kingdom's Realm" is the first book in the "Collie in The Realm" series of books for teenagers and young adults. A young American teenage girl arrested overseas on suspicion of spying struggles to cope as she faces an uncertain future in a remote European Kingdom of harsh laws and strange customs. Due to the intensity of the plot and mature themes appropriate for teenage and young adult readers, parents are strongly cautioned to preview this book before allowing access to preteens.
******************************************** Imprisoned in a foreign land, a helpless and vulnerable young Anerican awaits her trial's end and the verdict that will determine her fate. Some persecuting Amanda Knox want to martyr this girl from America...and they are determined to do this for a number of different reasons: In a very real way, Amanda Knox has been sold into slavery by men and women who each did this for their own reasons, and their actions significantly increased the odds of her being forced to endure the misery, slavery, and horror of a sentence of decades imprisonment resulting from the wrongful conviction they helped to bring about for this poor innocent girl. Some of them persecuted Amanda for money or in the hopes that her conviction would further their careers and elevate them in their profession. Others sought to have her convicted and imprisoned out of spite and jealousy because she's a beautiful young woman who's been an honor roll student and they wished to tear her down to their own level. Cheerleaders know all about this kind of attitude --- that because they are beautiful young women of accomplishment, they have enemies among other women who are jealous of them and among men who want to date them, but who are totally inappropriate men for them to date and become angry and resentful when turned down for dates and want to punish them for their rejection. And then, some hate Amanda because she's an American and they hate Americans for reasons of their own. They wanted to punish Amanda because she loves the land of her birth, and she's proud to be an American. Each of those who contributed in the effort to convict Amanda and Raffaele for a crime they didn't commit had his or her own reasons for doing so --- for some it was for financial gain, for others jealousy, and still others hoped to increase their power and station in life by bringing Amanda and Raffael down. Then, there are those who cannot imagine decent young students who participate in casual youthful experimentation with some of the more mild controlled substances and are open in expressing their sexuality in their deep feelings for each other, and they see nothing wrong with condemning these students to serve decades of hard time in a maximum security prison for what, in their own children, they'd dismiss as youthful indescretion and experimentation -- and those who persecutes these students understood that this was an easy way to sell the idea to the public in a conservative society such as in Italy that these students should be in prison, and if you wanted to convict an innocent young foreigner for reasons of your own, then this was the best path to take.... Some twisted individuals wanted to cause Amanda to face the prospect of spending decades in prison for the pure sadistic pleasure they get out of participating in the torture and martyrdom of an innocent young woman, and they take great malicious joy and satisfacton in witnessing Amanda's pain and tears, as well as the despair of her loved ones. Amanda Knox could be forced to serve decades in prison for a crime she didn't commit --- please stand by her and become her friend and join her comrades and family in helping Amanda to win at appeal, and get safely back home again: Free Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollicito can be found at: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10975028253 Amanda & Raffaele Official Site can be found at: http://www.causes.com/causes/506038?m=c72a9263
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Plot Summary: American Girl in a Dungeon Abroad! An American teenage girl locked up and on trial abroad faces a sentence of execution for spying if convicted.
Framed by America's enemies for a crime she didn't commit, fifteen-year-old cheerleader Colleen Lee "Collie" Knight is on trial for her life in a foreign land. If she's found guilty, then exactly nine months after the reading of her official sentence, the Captain of the Monarchy of the Kingdom's Realm military firing squad will offer the shivering young American teenage girl a blindfold after she is brought before those assembled as witnesses to her execution, and many of her friends and family members gathered to comfort Collie during her final hours on earth will watch as she's lashed to a wooden post and stands before them tearfully trembling as she prays softly to herself while awaiting her execution.
Will Collie be spared from sitting in her cramped prison cell waiting in fearful anticipation of the day she will kneel and receive the last rites of her Roman Catholic faith just before standing and having to decide if she will accept or reject the offer of the blindfold before she must face the rifle barrels of the firing squad being pointed straight towards her heart and then hear the command given to fire? Can the efforts of her friends, comrades, family, and American President Virginia Watker save Collie if she's found guilty by the Grand Council of The Realm and condemned to die before her sixteenth birthday?
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This book is dedicated in love and gratitude to:
Anne Frank and Samantha Smith
The courage and grace with which you lived your lives will be forever in our hearts.
The lessons you taught will guide us forever & ever and always & always to the end of time....
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Author's Notes: When my first novel, "Collie's Captivity...." was published in 2004, I wondered if I'd be able to recognize Colleen Lee "Collie" Knight if I ever were to see or hear of her in real life. And, in fact, a young American foreign exchange student in Italy in 2007 was virtually identical to Collie in the unjust persecution she's endured, and was recently convicted in spite of her innocence of the crimes of which she's accused. I believe my comrade Amanda Knox is innocent of the charges against her, and with the help of her family, friends, and comrades will have her innocence recognized by the Italian court at her appeal as she is granted her freedom. Those who were willing to convict Amanda Knox and sentence her to the terror and horrors of decades in prison on the basis of fuzzy & flimsy circumstantial evidence as well as flawed & contaminated scientific testing tend to consider accused individuals guilty until proven innocent, and some of them were easily swayed and pressured by those determined to steal Amanda's youth from her and keep her imprisoned until she's a middle aged woman for a crime she didn't commit. To those who believe that Amanda should be considered innocent until proven to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, there has never been evidence presented by the prosecution that comes close to meeting this standard, and that is why those who persecuted Amanda are doing everything they can in the court of public opinion to turn the world against her and get the public to accept their efforts to deny her appeal of her wrongful conviction. I believe Amanda when she claims to have been struck during her forced interrogation session without her lawyer present. Led to believe that she was helping by giving theories of how the crime was committed and by whom, Amanda was betrayed by the cunning and crafty authorities she'd trusted when they twisted the statements they'd bullied, browbeat, and demanded she produce, and then cruelly used them to falsely arrest her. Under intense pressure to produce suspects to satisfy the public outcry, protect their tourism industry, and satisfy parents that their city remained a safe place for parents to send their young adult children to study abroad, they decided Amanda would be one of their most suitable sacrificial victims to calm the crisis of public confidence. And all this makes me wonder...is this city still one of the best places for foreign tourists to visit and for parents to consider when searching for a nice place to send their kids who want to study abroad? Most people would be horrified to think that they were contributing in any way to the enslavement of another human being. However, in essence, that is precisely what some in the media did when they slanted and sensationalized their stories to suggest that Amanda Knox was guilty of the charges against her. What they did is to take an innocent girl wrongfully accused of a crime she didn’t commit and make the circumstantial evidence against her appear as damning as they possibly could to make their story more marketable. They would never do this to anyone they know, yet they acted without mercy or remorse to ruin the life of this young woman who was a stranger to them. Sadly, young men and women over the centuries have been sold at slave markets by those who think of them as valuable property and not people just like themselves with hopes and dreams for their future, and those willing to sell Amanda Knox into the slavery and horror of a lengthy prison sentence are as evil as any of those who have ever participated in the slave trade.
Amanda has a strong network of friends, comrades, and family members who have stood by her during her terrible ordeal. They understand her innocence and are determined to do everything in their power to help her in her darkest hours....Pleae pray for her and Raffaele!
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