I want to write a snappy compelling one-sentence query in an effort to pitch a memoir. The book is a collection of true stories about amy wife and I buying 10 acres of raw land on an island at 22 and moving onto it at 23 with a one-year-old, clearing land by hand, building a cabin and trying to survive on our garden, deer from the woods and part-time work. We lived 8 miles from a small fishing town that was experiencing the benefits of large salmon runs and huge prices in the late 1970s. Because we were strangers not related to anyone in town, and our lifestyle we were considered "hippies" and were mostly shunned by the villagers and I could not get a job on one of the high producing fishing vessels. I had to take whatever part-time labour jobs I could on construction or in fish plants. When our daughter reached school age, she was treated poorly by the teachers, and picked on by the "townies" for her background. At the outset it looked like we could make a nice "back-to-the-land" life for ourselves, but it didn't work out that way. How do I put that all into a one-sentence pitch?
