Links to Liberty Father Son Duo Release Third Title In Revolutionary War Series by Tara DeLorenzo
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hildren’s author Robert J. Skead with his father, Robert A. Skead, of Wykoff, are marching into adventure again with the final installment of their American Revolutionary War Adventure series with the release of American Revolutionary War Adventure Series –Links to Liberty on Oct. 5. The trilogy’s conclusion American Revolutionary War Adventure Series – Links to Liberty follows series protagonists John and Ambrose Clark as they pursue the spy who gave away the secret of their father’s mission. When there is an attack on America’s new defense on the Hudson River – the Great Chain at West Point – they go to protect it, quickly discovering things aren’t always as they seem. The American Revolutionary War Adventure series began long before this writing team put pen to paper, when Robert J. Skead was on a family trip visiting the Van Allen house, a place George Washington stayed during the American Revolution on July 14, 1777. It was as they were reviewing the history marker at the house that he realized they were visiting on the same day George Washington had been there, and he started to form the idea.
Skead told his father of his idea. Within a couple of days, his father took the elevator pitch of a story concept his son shared and created story treatment that he shared with his son. “It had characters, and he had named the character Lamberton Clark after our ancestor who was in the American Revolution and his sons Ambrose and John after this gentleman’s sons and he had a treatment of a story that had a beginning, middle and end,” Robert J. Skead said. “It was probably like 7-8 pages long, and just for fun, I banged out the first scene of the book in a story format where the twins and their dad are running away from redcoats, shooting at them with a secret spy letter from George Washington. I emailed it to him and just like any kid wants to show their work to their parents and they’re excited about it, I called him and told him to check his email, so he does and 20 minutes later, he calls me back and he said the two scariest words, ‘Keep going.’” And with that, the American Revolutionary War Adventure series, a series targeted for middle grade readers, was born, and the first book Patriots, Redcoats & Spies was started. Robert J. Skead would write a scene or two a day, sending drafts to his father who would, in turn, edit, give feedback and write his own sections.
It wasn’t until years later though that he pursued this story. His father had started working on the family Something important to father Robert A. Skead was genealogy and found they had a relative in the American making sure the characters throughout this series were of Revolution. Excited about this piece of history, his father good moral character. joined the Sons of the American Revolution and as he “My father was in his eighties at the time – he’s 95 now showed his son his certificate for it one day, Robert J.36 | Fall 2021
