Work on the story started in 1980 while working on a third shift in an envelope factory. The story began as a simple murder mystery and evolved over twenty years. My career changes led me into the field of direct marketing where I had the good fortune to work with companies like Discover Card and Meredith Magazines which provided me with some vital information that I was able to use in the story.

As I explored motivations for my characters’ behaviors, I spent many hours in libraries researching the development and use of the atomic bomb and the resulting horrors.

Books with first person interviews of survivors were extremely helpful. The majority of the survivors were witnesses to the two worst days in the history of human warfare. Interestingly enough, the majority chose the same path to continue down. That path was not one of revenge, but of a determination to explain the details so that others would understand the scope of the horrors in hopes of preventing similar events from ever again happening

My AIDS research actually coincided with history. It started in 1981 as I was returning on a plane from a trip to Washington, D.C. I had been looking for a "weapon" to use in my story.

On the seat next to me was a copy of the Roanoke Times with a front page story about a mysterious new disease, unnamed at the time. As I worked that description into my story, I began to follow the progress of the research regarding that condition through newspapers and magazines. It would later come to be known as AIDS. I still have that newspaper.

The attitudes toward the need for a cure evolved over the years, and I took the opportunity in my story to plant a seed of "what if." What if the NRA had been the first group to contract AIDS? How much money and political pressure would have been put forth to find a cure early on?

When it was just the gay population and drug addicts being affected, little attention was being paid to finding a cure. Almost an entire decade of research was lost as this disease spread throughout the world. Now the continent of Africa, as well as the rest of the world, is witnessing a pandemic greater than the bubonic plague. Had we started earlier with a greater investment in research, could we have prevented the spread?

If you look through news and research periodicals since 1981, you will see an interesting change in attitudes toward the need for a cure for AIDS.

As I read more about nuclear horrors, wars, and AIDS, I found myself becoming more involved as a world citizen. I believe this historical research helped me to write a story that reflects my developed convictions toward solving all of those problems.