How did you choose the Coast Guard over the more obvious branches like Navy, Air Force, or Army?

I was first attracted to the Coast Guard because I wanted to have a female lead character, and the Coast Guard is the only branch of the Armed Forces that has no restrictions on what a woman can do. And that's how I got to a helicopter pilot as well, because they do all the rescues. But that choice came with a lot of other bonuses.

I was able to explore a lot of ideas like What makes a hero? Is what you are doing heroic if you're doing it for the rush? And if your job is to take risks, how do you draw the line between brave and foolhardy.

What research did you do for this book? Did you know anything about helicopters or the Coast Guard before you started? I had very little knowledge about either.

One of the first things I did was to read a manual about how to fly a helicopter. You'd think that a three hundred page book about the technical aspects of how to fly a helicopter would be somewhat dry, especially as I'm a dedicated fiction reader, and I'm not usually drawn to non fiction in ... more.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.