After eight years of thinking, breathing, researching
B-17s, I was ready to disembark and concentrate on something else. But what? I
had a vague idea of three friends who joined the WAC, the WAVES, and the WASPs,
but nothing crystalized. Except for the WAC.
I didn’t want to completely turn away from flying, and
I prefer topics that aren’t commonly known. How about a grasshopper pilot? My
second character was on board.
I had toyed with the idea of a family generational
series. A World War II story paired with a World War I story. But no, too
unwieldy.
The WAC could have a sister, though, who stayed on the
home front and did factory work. Oh, dear. I couldn’t completely stay away from
B-17s. She’s building them.
She also needs a husband. He’ll be in the navy, and
not on an aircraft carrier. A destroyer! (This was in the works before Sarah
Sundin signed a contract for her just-concluded series about destroyer men. I
checked with her: She was writing about the Atlantic war; my guy’s in the
Pacific. No problem.) I studied the list of Pacific destroyers and, oooh, the Spence. All kinds of possibilities
there.
So there I had it: a sailor, his Rosie-the-Riveter
wife, her WAC sister, and a grasshopper pilot. They’re all doing their part to
help win the war, but sometimes the enemy isn’t obvious.
In two weeks, the new book is available!
