I’m fairly certain my Internet searches over the weekend landed me squarely on the NSA watch list.

This piece I’m writing for the NYCMidnight Short Story contest is coming together beautifully. I have to say, I’m extremely grateful to all the other contestants who willingly trade beta reads.

Where else in the world do you find a group of supposed competitors coming together to help one another bring their best game? Seriously, writers are amazing.

My favorite part of this story, though, has been the research involved. I got to hear a bunch more Navy stories from my husband. I could listen to him forever. My web searches ranged from Navy ship terminology to military jargon to cryptography technology used in the First Gulf War. I also had to pull up specific geo coordinates in Iraq, figure out the Desert Storm timeline to the hour, and reminded myself of the who’s who of the real-time war broadcast that overtook all the TV stations in 1991.

It was a serious walk backward in my own life, and a deep-dive into a piece of history that we all watched.

I really can’t wait to share this story with the world!