The Army of Worn Soles launch blog tour continues! Read to the end for the clue that will help you win the Grand Prize of a signed paperback copy of Army of Worn Soles plus a $50 Amazon gift card. If you collect all the clues and put them in the right order, they’ll make a sentence. Send the sentence to the author for a chance to win and autographed paperback copy of Army of Worn Soles plus a gift certificate from Amazon.

For a chance to enter the early-bird draw, enter the clue at the bottom of the post in the Comments section.

To see where the blog tour stops next, and to find the next clue, visit the author’s blog, Written Words.

Excerpt twelve from Army of Worn Soles

Chapter 13: Crackdown

Peremyshyl, Poland, 1939

Oksana hauled him out the side door, and Maurice had only a second to wonder how the cops could have been so stupid as to raid a dance hall without covering all the exits.

He ran behind Oksana down a dark alley and into another street, across two blocks, then more turns. Within minutes, he had no idea where they were.

The neighbourhood had few streetlights. Maurice could barely see Oksana as he stopped to catch his breath. Oksana looked up and down the alley. “No cops. Come on.” She pulled Maurice around a corner toward darker shadows.

“Where are we going?”

“My place. Don’t worry, it’s not far.”

“Aren’t you worried about your friends? Irina?”

“The cops won’t hold the girls. They might try to kiss or grope them, but they won’t hold them. Your friends, though, they’re in trouble if they don’t run.”

Maurice looked back the way they had come as if he could see some of the others from the dance hall. “I wish I knew Bohdan was all right.”

“He seemed pretty smart to me. I think he can look after himself.”

She led him into a two-story apartment building. He hesitated at the door. “I should get back to the dorm...”

“It’s after curfew. Are you trying to get arrested?” Oksana pulled Maurice in, led him up the stairs and paused only to unlock the door to an apartment. Inside, she pulled his head down to kiss him, held his lips in hers and she pushed his jacket off.

When she let him go, she pulled him by the arm into a bedroom and unbuttoned her blouse. She started on his shirt buttons as Maurice bent to kiss her again.

About the book:

1941: Their retreat across Ukraine wore their boots out—and they kept going.

Three months after drafting him, the Soviet Red Army throws Maurice Bury, along with millions of other under-trained men, against the juggernaut of Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa, the assault on the USSR.

Army of Worn Soles tells the true story of a Canadian who had to find in himself a way to keep himself alive—and the men who followed him.

It is available in e-book form exclusively on Amazon.

Scott Bury is a journalist, editor and novelist based in Ottawa, Canada. He has written for magazines in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.

He is author of The Bones of the Earth, a fantasy set in the real time and place of eastern Europe of the sixth century; One Shade of Red, a humorous erotic romance;

a children’s short story, Sam, the Strawb Part (proceeds of which are donated to an autism charity), and other stories.

Scott Bury lives in Ottawa with his lovely, supportive and long-suffering wife, two mighty sons and two pesky cats.

He can be found online at www.writtenword.ca, on his blog, Written Words, on Amazon, on Twitter @ScottTheWriter, and on Facebook.

Today’s clue: comes