Why Did I Write My
Book?
Some nameless, late night many moons ago, I was doing what I
do best when trying to write, namely surfing the web and finding every
excuse—and inventing a few more—I could to not look at MS Word and actually
type something out. Somewhere between articles telling me that “These ten
unexpected, cuddly things will kill you” and “which type of mason brick are
you?” I stumbled upon an article dealing with the Night Witches and was
mesmerized.
For those who know little or nothing about them (and most
don’t) the Night Witches were a group of female pilots in the Red Army Air’s
588th night bomber regiment during World War 2. The group was one of
three all-female regiments that had been put together by Major Marina Raskova,
a national heroine at the time and a fantastic pilot. The young women of the
588th flew the Po-2 biplane, which was made in the late 1920s and
was really only good for training and crop dusting. It wasn’t a combat aircraft
by any stretch of the imagination. But they flew it nonetheless to drop bombs
on the Germans. They got the name Nachthexen (Night Witches) by the Germans
because the girls quickly learned to cut their engines just before they went on
a bombing run, so they were completely silent until the bombs exploded.
Fascinating stuff, I thought, and something that deserved a
book or two. Also, since I love flying and in a prior point in my life, I was
intent on flying for the USMC, I thought writing a book that centered around
the Night Witches seemed to be a great idea.
So with that thought in mind, I began fleshing out a plot
and characters, but the more I did my research into the Night Witches, I
realized that their sister regiment, the 587th (who flew the Pe-2
medium bomber), met my needs in terms of the story better. So I shifted my
focus to the 587th and kept at it.
I kept at it for a few weeks and soon discovered that some
of the historical characters I wanted in my book didn’t survive the timeline I
was after as the 587th didn’t see combat until 1943. And since I was
writing historical fiction, I couldn’t exactly have one of them pop up in the
story when he or she was supposed to be dead.
It was about that point when I realized I really wanted more
dogfights in my book overall, and thus, settling on the 586th
fighter regiment was an easy choice. My decision to go with the 586th
was reinforced even more when I realized that there weren’t any books on these
women at all, at least on the historical fiction side. There were a few dealing
with the Night Witches and some female pilots who were in male units, but the
586th was untouched, which is very appealing as a writer.
So with the 586th firmly settled, it was just a
matter of changing a few things from my rough outline because my main character,
Nadya, was going to be a fighter pilot and not a bomber pilot.
Building Nadya as a real person took a lot of work, and the
details of her life came from a variety of sources, mostly interviews that had
been recorded with surviving members of the 586th, 587th
and 588th.
The stories I read were not only from the pilots, but the
navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, and ground crews, and I drew a lot of
inspiration from all of them as their tenacity and bravery was nothing short of
legendary. I really wanted to capture that with Nadya’s War with not only Nadya
herself, but with all of the supporting characters, too. Most of all, I wanted
to ensure that Nadya was crafted in such a way that her story would slide
neatly in between all the others I read, not overshadowing any of them in terms
of what she goes through, heroics, etc., but accurately mirroring what each
young woman in all three of these regiments dealt with day in and day out.
I like to think I managed to pull that off. Hopefully
readers will agree.
About the Author
His latest book is the historical fiction, Nadya’s
War.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
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BOOK BLURB:
For the latter half of 1942, she struggles against crack
Luftwaffe pilots, a vengeful political commissar, and a new addiction to morphine,
all the while questioning her worth and purpose in a world beyond her control.
It's not until the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad
that she finds her unlikely answers, and they only come after she's saved the
life of her mortal enemy and fallen in love with the one who nearly kills her.
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