Picture of the USS Lexington CV 16 taken March 1944

As I have indicated before Madi Preda of Author’s promotion put together an interesting set of questions for the author interview which is HERE.  The one which caused me to do a complete retrospective on how I actually constructed the story of My GRL was simple enough on the surface: “What sparked the idea of My GRL? In a few words what is the book about?” When I started to concentrate on supplying the answer a whole range of thoughts came into my head. I finally put some organization around them and was able to answer the question. (Short and sweet) Here is a little more background on how the story took shape.

My GRL was not an idea born of concentrated thoughts on any particular subject. The germ of the story was generated when I visited the aircraft carrier Lexington which is moored in Corpus Christi bay. You see, my dad was a naval aviator and served aboard the Lexington during World War II. He was part of the dive bombing squadron taking part in the invasion of Iwo Jima,  the sinking of the Japanese Battle Ship Yamato and strikes on the Japanese homeland. Since my dad passed away when I was ten, I was very interested in visiting a place where he served. He was not a direct casualty of the war but died five years later.

It is not often families can be part of the space where loved ones fought to preserve the liberty we enjoy today. The last battles on American soil took place so long ago even the survivors of survivors are no longer with us. Most do not have the resource to travel to the place where epic battles took place involving loved ones as the locations are generally thousands of miles away. The Civil War was about the last time these places of honor were somewhat accessible. The beauty of a large floating ship taking part in the historic battles of World War II is the fact it is docked in the states and can be visited. The trip to the Lexington was in reality a pilgrimage to a memorial to my dad and his service.

While my sister and I were standing on the great flight deck, a thought came to me wondering how a ship like this could be protected should someone want to make a point of destroying her? There are no armaments or defensive systems which could be used to thwart such a move.

After leaving the ship, I began to construct a story on how a group of terrorists could destroy this or any other symbol of America’s naval strength. Once I figured out how it could be done, then it was a matter of developing a way to prevent a disaster from happening which makes up the story line of My GRL. From there, I allowed the protagonist to get involved and shaped the story to a final conclusion.

The general plot came out of one quick observation. The story itself had to be built and as we all know, word by word.