The Spark

Behind every book there is a story.

Here's the story, at least the one that has taken root in my mind, about how I came to write my latest, Nightmare in the Pacific. I think it's more or less true.

I was driving in the San Francisco Bay Area foothills; this was maybe 15 years ago, and I was visiting my parents in Palo Alto as part of a trip to check in with my McClatchy editors in Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno. I believe I was on my way back from a little hike in an open space preserve. The NPR station on the car radio was tuned to some conversational show; it might have been 'Fresh Air' with the great Terry Gross.

The show happened to be about the band leader Artie Shaw, a name I was only a little familiar with, as my tastes in jazz had not yet fully ripened. The announcer said something about how Artie had joined the Navy in World War II and led a band in the Pacific until he had a nervous breakdown.

Library of Congress

Bam.

The idea hit me, right then and there: A big band leader goes to war and breaks apart. It was like an elevator pitch that would not let me go. Years went by. I finished other books and went about my reporting work, all the while keeping in the back of my mind that sentence: A big band leader goes to war and breaks apart. At one point, a publisher randomly sent to my bureau for possible review a book by Annegret Fauser called 'Sounds of War: Music in the United States During World War II.' I snatched it up and stashed it away, with the vague notion that it could come in handy down the road.

Little bits and pieces kept piling up like that until, finally, following publication of my third book, 'The Ministers' War,' I realized I had received my new marching orders, and I started out for thed world of Artie Shaw.

--Jan. 6, 2025.