Description and Title for My First Novel

I've been trying to write a "back cover summary" description for my first novel to use when friends ask, "what's it about?"

Here's my attempt:

Rica grew up at a strict military school in an isolated village. She's been trained to obey orders without hesitation and knows little of the world beyond the school except what she's been taught. Her teacher doesn't believe she has what it takes to become an officer, so she's about to start her life as a mercenary when a heavenly being appears. He indicates that she's the new queen of the kingdom of Norida by decree of the kingdom's god.

Norida's high ministers have ruled for twelve years, since the death of the last king. Rica tries to learn her new duties and what powers she holds as Queen, but her High Ministers are more interested in manipulating her into doing as they wish than in educating or obeying her. But she's too stubborn to let that stop her.

When two assassins attack her, Rica realizes that her ministers and perhaps her own guards want her dead. Now she has to discover who her enemies are and bring them to justice while hunted by the very people who should be protecting her.

I've been calling this novel Queen's Justice for some time now, but I'm changing the title to Justice Rising. It hardly matters, though, since any publisher who buys this novel will probably change the title to something else.

The Big Day

Back on October 21, 2006, I was watching a movie that inspired the question, "What would happen if a queen had to join a rebellion against her own government to regain her power?" I immediately had a scene pop into my mind of what would start the whole situation. I started writing that night. By November 17, had the first draft of the story done at about 60,000 words. I knew that I needed about 80,000 to 100,000 for a saleable novel, so I was worried by that. Still, this was only the first draft. I purposely hadn't done any revising during first draft because I tend to get myself bogged down if I do.

I went over the story to polish things up and add description ("show, don't tell" that I hadn't taken time to put in the first draft). I also made sure that everything was consistent. I then had four readers look my whole manuscript over. I also had numerous critiques of the first few chapters by a number of aspiring writers. In the end, I did five main revisions of the manuscript. The final draft of the manuscript was finished by May 13, 2007 and now has a 82,800 word count.

My query letter is now written and revised, so now it's time to see how the publishing industry likes my novel!