Screenwriter Diane Hanks And The Woman With The Purple Heart

The Writers' Hangout Podcast has a special treat for you today.  Our guest is 2016 PAGE Awards winner Diane Hanks, who has joined us to discuss her stunning novel WOMAN WITH A PURPLE HEART.  

 The story of Lieutenant Annie Fox, the first woman to earn a Purple Heart, is told in "The Woman with the Purple Heart." Annie was the chief nurse at Hickam Hospital, located at Hickam Air Field adjacent to Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. The hospital was bombed heavily during the attack.

 You can purchase WOMAN WITH A PURPLE HEART at your local independent bookstore or on Amazon.

The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS' HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

 👍 If you enjoy the show, please remember to follow us and leave a review where you listen to podcasts. 
📸 Check out our IG for photos @thewritershangoutpodcast💙 If you have an idea for the podcast or would like to comment, please get in touch with us @thewritershangoutpodcast@gmail.com 
You can follow us on Twitter @pageawards.com and Facebook @pageawards

Transcript

0:11

Hello, my name is Sandy, the social media director for the page, international Screenwriting Awards, and your host for the Writer's Hangout. A podcast that celebrates the many stages of writing, from inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting a project made and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey, writers, it's Sandy. We have a special treat for you today. Our guest is 2016 Page Awards winner Diane Hanks, who has joined us to discuss her stunning new novel, Woman with a Purple Heart. Let's start the show.

Sandy: 0:59

Diane, thanks so much for hanging out with us and congratulations on The Woman with the Purple Heart. Can you tell us a little bit about the book? yes, I'd be happy to. the novel is the story of Army Lieutenant Annie Fox, and she was the first woman to earn a Purple Heart. She was, Chief Nurse at Hickam Hospital, which was a relatively small hospital at Hickam Airfield, and, Hickam Airfield was, the largest U. S. Army airfield at that time in 1941, and it was adjacent to Pearl Harbor, and, not many people know that. I didn't know that until I Yeah, I did not know that. Yeah. so the novel is about her, but it's also about the consequences of what we did as a country just before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. So I try to highlight the extraordinary courage of ordinary people. while also being very honest about our prejudice and our fears during that time, which I think still echo to this day. Yes. And I hope to get into that. And you did an amazing job on this book. It is wonderful. I was caught up right away. I mean, Annie is a great character. She's amazing. I don't mean to start off controversially, but she's 48. She's 48, and that was one of the things that attracted me to writing about her was because, She, I believe, she was stationed in the Philippines, first of all, just to give a little teeny bit of background about her. She was born in Nova Scotia. In a small village, and at the age of 25 decided to enlist in the U. S. Army, even though she was Canadian. And she served in, World War I, which was horrific. I just finished working on a novel that was set in World War I, and the injuries are just horrendous. My goodness. and then she served in several other places. She was actually in the Philippines. right before she was transferred to Hickam and, also in the Philippines at the same time was Douglas MacArthur, who was the first man to earn a Purple Heart. but when she got transferred to Hickam in Oahu, she really thought that they were kind of. pushing her towards retirement. that, this was like one foot out the door. And in those days, 48, I mean, people who are 48 now look like they're in their 30s. Most often, we just, we're getting, as a society, a lot of us are just not aging in the same way because we're taking better care of ourselves. We get exercise. Women they have larger lives. but in those days, 48 was older for a woman and it really was, a lot of women retired in their fifties if they worked and she was really thinking, Oh, they're sending me to paradise because that's just one step closer to retirement. Yes, and she is all the more interesting because she is 48 and could you explain a little? she's real, but you have filled in blanks, correct? Yes, she is real. but, and this was the other thing that drew me to her. there was nothing to be found about Annie Fox except for a few brief articles. That the, military had come up with because she had been the first woman to win a Purple Heart, but there was, there were no newspaper articles. There was nothing. She hadn't written a book. There were no memoirs. There was, it was just nothing. I took from her character and her personality were comments made by other firsthand accounts of that day at Hickam and how she led and how she was very calm. and I think probably her service in World War I had a lot to do with that. what the other nurses said about her, the other, much younger nurses said about her. and so it was just putting bits of very, little bits together. so what I What I strove for, was to make sure that the events that happened that day were as close to true as I could make them. And, there were a lot of accounts about what happened that day from other people who were there. Yes, and you again did a great job and there's just such tense moments in the book and I was so attached to the people in the tense moments, which makes for a beautiful read. What inspired you to write? The Woman with the Purple Heart. this will give every writer, some hope. It was actually my day job. I've written screenplays for a long, long time, but as most people know, unless you're in the top echelon of screenwriters, you don't make a living doing that. So I have been a medical writer for 30 years and I've been at the VA for 25 of those years. And, I first heard about Annie at work. I was drafting an article on the Annie app, which is a VA text messaging service that helps veterans take a more active role in their health care by sending various self care reminders for them. and I was curious about who the app was named for, and that's how I found Annie Fox. what surprised me was that I had never heard of her before. And as I said, I'd never heard of Hickam Airfield, despite the fact that 50 dive bombers and fighters struck it during the attack on Pearl Harbor. And nearly 500 soldiers were killed or wounded at Hickam that day. But it became a mostly ignored footnote to Pearl Harbor. Because of the tragedy that happened there. But the more I read about Hickam, the more I wanted to tell the story. I think this was coupled with the fact that I'd been able to find very little about Annie Fox, which in and of itself spoke volumes about her character. Yes. would you mind, could you read a couple of the passages from the book for us? sure. I think probably one of the most dramatic is the, The attack on Hickam and I have Annie. She, Hickam was new. It was a very new, facility. Everything was sparkly and the wood, you could smell the new wood. And there was a million dollar, men's barracks that had just been built. And it was like, it had everything in it. You could imagine a tailor, a bar barbershop, So the mess hall was like, it could feed over 3, 000 soldiers. And Annie that morning had decided to go because they'd been on full alert, which had just been lifted the night before. and she decided to go to that, mess hall to check it out and have breakfast. And she was walking back towards the hospital across the parade ground. And this is where it picks up in the novel. The parade ground was nearly empty. Most men still asleep on this early Sunday morning after the party at the officers club. If they hadn't attended the dance, those who weren't on duty had gone somewhere off base to celebrate the end of full alert status. It had been a late night for almost everyone who had been on duty. Back in uniform and sensible shoes, Annie was on her way back from the large mess hall at the new enlisted men's barracks. She hadn't woken with a big appetite, but she hadn't wanted to run into Major Lance at the smaller dining hall at the hospital. It wouldn't be awkward for him, but it would be for her, at least for a few days. She couldn't remember having had a crush like this on anyone else. One in which her breath caught every time she saw him. She thought of other women who described feeling this way as suffering romantic insanity because they couldn't seem to focus on anything but their feelings for a particular man. Annie had been certain it would never happen to her. She was too practical, too tethered to reality. Therefore, she would nip it in the bud before it blossomed into something unmanageable. Gazing up at the clear blue sky, she smiled as a sea breeze gently lifted the wisps of hair at the nape of her neck, and she knew what she would think about instead of the dashing major. Surfing. Looking toward the ocean, she searched for the surfers, who, like Irene, were out there nearly every morning. Instead, she saw planes flying in low formation. Navy must be practicing dive bombing again, said a man from behind. She turned to see a private in uniform who kept pace with her as they crossed the parade grounds. Don't tell anybody I said this, but Navy has all the fun. He winked at her before gazing back at the planes that continued to come in at a very low altitude. And then they both turned toward the booming sounds coming from Pearl Harbor. Bombing practice, he said. Like I said, they have all the fun. Does bombing practice account for the smoke? Annie pointed at the black swirling up toward a cloudless sky. He shrugged. Could be one of the tanks they used to store oil had a leak, and poof! The sound of a loud engine came closer. They stopped walking to watch the planes approach. Descending so low they could see the pilot as well as the rear gunner. Annie and the Private both raised their hands to wave, but the pilot beat them to it. Then he tipped the wing so that the rising sun insignia, the mark of a Japanese long range aircraft called the Zero, was visible. Japs! shouted the Private. They're attacking! Stunned, Annie watched the pilot pull the Zero up before strafing the parade ground, bullets ricocheting off anything they didn't penetrate. I think we'll just stop there. Yes. Don't want to give away. Oh, wonderful. That's taken from, first hand accounts of, a Zero that came in low over Hickam and waved, tilted his wings so that, Those few soldiers who were on the parade ground could see that they were about to be killed. Get out of town. He did? Yeah. Yeah. There are several firsthand accounts of during the bombing that went on for a very long time. that one of the Japanese Zeros actually landed on Hickam Airfield and then swooped up. It was like, I can land if I want to. Watch how, good I am, how skilled I am. And, and then he took off again and they were just stunned. Wow. I had no idea. Now, How long did the bombing last? It lasted for well over an hour, I believe. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's just hard to imagine. Although, that's what they're dealing with right now. I mean, it seems so barbaric to Bomb people, but that's what is happening in Ukraine, and that's what's happening in Gaza and that's what's been happening you know, going through this research. At times, I, you must have had to just kind of walk away, I would think, cause those stories are so heartbreaking, While you were writing the woman with the purple heart, did you gain any new insight about yourself? I think, My confidence grew in being able to go back to writing fiction after spending so many years focused in screenwriting. I think as when writing a novel, you take on more responsibility. You can't leave things for the director or the actors or a set designer or a costume designer. You need to make all those decisions yourself. you need to get the details right. while I had written this as a screenplay first, It really served as kind of a detailed outline, and then you have to go back, and you have to start thinking more broadly, and you have to pay attention to details that you might not have paid attention to before. in that sense, it was, It was giving me that confidence that I can write novels again. and another more personal insight was realizing that I don't want people to be forgotten. I lost people, young in my life that were important to me. I just have This, I guess, connection to, or feeling that I just don't want to let people be forgotten. I, I hate that idea. And I think Annie, because she never married and she didn't have children, it was just important to me to make sure that. What she did and what everyone did at Hickam that day. Um, because we seem to have forgotten about Hickam Airfield. And, I just don't want them to be forgotten. So, that's important to me in everything that I write. I also think that when I was reading, especially like there's a scene in the morgue, in the book, and that was taken from a real life description of what was in that morgue that day, and scenes like that do take me aback a little bit, but I think, my personal history has given me, some resilience, so I don't need to take a break for a few hours and come back. I'm pretty good about that. Oh, okay. Yeah. a novel that I just finished the first draft of that one was more difficult that when I really, there were photographs, I had a book of photographs of these men who had been injured in world war one, facial injuries. And it was a hospital built just to focus on these facial injuries. And, I. got a book that just showed, and I deal with medical stuff all day because I'm a medical writer, but it was, that was tough. I had to take a break a couple of times from that. Um, but this is not, not as much. And I think it's probably because we do have some knowledge, all of us, a certain age, I'm not sure kids in high school spend too much time on World War II these days. and my father had served in World War II, so I knew a little bit about it, even though he hadn't really talked about it. and we've seen so many movies. yes. Thanks to Steven Spielberg for a lot of them. so we have some, we're educated somewhat on, on what's happened. I think that's lovely. you have taken on. Let's not forget Annie. because I'm certainly going to be talking about her a lot more now in conversations. And, we have a lot of nurses in my family and I think They're going to love this book. I'm just, I think I've got Christmas presents for all. Can you describe your research process? yeah. everyone who writes historical fiction begins at a very basic level and with every discovery, you kind of go deeper into the story. it's very much like being a detective. You find one clue, it leads you to another clue, and then another. And you often are taken down roads that you didn't imagine. and it can change your story. it changed mine, especially when I, took the screenplay and turned it into a novel. Kay's story got much bigger. Kay's story was smaller in the screenplay. I loved Kay. can we just have a little bit of background on Kay? Yeah, Kay is a fictional character, but she represents the, community activists, who, and what would we do without them these days? What would we ever do without them? but after, in the few hours after the bombing took place in real life, the FBI. Rounded up all of the community, like hundreds of Japanese American community activists because they suspected them the most of being in cahoots with the enemy. and so I wanted someone to represent those people and Kay was that woman. in the novel, she runs the Japanese American Community Center and she's also a nurse and she and, any bond over their love of their profession. so She just has a much bigger part because I wanted to focus on, the fact that Honolulu got hit. and that I had never known that before I started looking into some government documents because there were a lot of, there was a lot of investigation after the attack on. Why we pretty much got caught with our pants down and, what happened and, Right. I loved Kay's secret throughout the book and writers out there. It's such a good secret. Yeah. how do you know when to stop researching and start writing? Because that's for some people, for some writers, researching is that lovely spot. You're learning so much and it's really exciting. I can see you at your desk piled high with books. and articles and printers spitting out pages and you close a research book and declare, I have nothing more to learn. It is time to write. Am I close to what happens? No, not with me. Um, I don't think, uh, that you can ever assume, you know, everything about anything. I always feel like I know a drop in the bucket about. You know, lots of things. but I think you get to a point where you know the story that you need to tell. And you've got enough of the historical blocks to make it authentic. and I really believe authenticity is the key to good historical fiction. let us hang a lantern on that. I love that sentence. Could you please repeat it? I believe authenticity is key to good historical fiction. And it's really, if you don't get your facts straight, it can take the reader right out of the story. for example, if a character doesn't react the way you believe they should, a reader might be willing to wait to find out why. Because, you know, maybe something's happened, you don't know, you don't know about all their motivations yet. But if, for example, I wrote that our soldiers picked up an M 16 to shoot back at the Japanese heroes rather than the 45 pistols, which is what they really had, a reader might put down the book if they knew that the M 16 didn't come into existence until the 1960s. They'd be like, Whoa, what the hell? Wait, let me think. And it takes you right out of the story. I think you really, you really have to be careful of that because it can make the reader, or if you're watching a movie, it can really make you hit the pause button. Like I've literally watched movies with my husband and hit. Pause because I'm just like, do you see that? Am I wrong? That like, why is that there? and it's something I think a college professor told me a long time ago in a creative writing class. And he said, just make sure you don't give your Reader, you don't make them stop when they're reading a scene, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait, is, did they have quad drops back then? Did they use this expression back then? So I'm like, really, kind of anal about checking, especially verbal expressions. I read a book recently. I won't name the book. but there were, expressions that are used today and it was a book set in World War II. And every time one of those expressions came up and made me cringe. I agree. No one from World War II should be saying, Hey, chill bro. Yeah. Yeah. what for you defines a great historical fiction novel? Obviously being correct, being accurate is important. And I love that Merriam Webster chose authentic as the 2023 word of the year. Gaslight was last year and Authentic is this year. So, I, I, you know, we should, every, I think every writer should have Authentic taped to the wall somewhere. and I think another great characteristic is bringing someone or something new to light. In my book, it's Annie Fox and Hickam Airfield, and I think it's because, readers appreciate learning something new. Especially in historical fiction. What a good point. You're absolutely right. Yes, love that. Yeah, and I think everybody loves a good story. And I think that, all the years I spent screenwriting, If there's one thing that you learn after years of rejection letters, and you know, a nose is, that you really have to know what story you're trying to tell and tell it. In a way that keeps the plot moving forward and, I think with fiction, I've read books that meander and that are so focused on character that there is barely a plot. Um, But I think you can lose a reader that way. I think you need to keep things moving and personally for me Some people enjoy this, but I do not enjoy books that describe a tree for three pages. I Don't it's like, you know, let's keep moving. I love character development. Love it But I also want the plot to keep moving I want you know, I know I want to know what the stakes are and I want to know, I want to be invested and I want to keep moving forward, even if there are backward steps, which there always are in any good story. I want to feel like I'm in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story. And I think screenwriting, like I would never tell someone, you need to learn how to be a screenwriter before you write a novel because Learning how to be a screenwriter is difficult enough on its own. But I am not sorry that I spent the time that I spent screenwriting. I think it's only made me a stronger writer. as, you know, the more you write, the more you should become a stronger writer. Yes. Oh, I love that. I'm interested in discussing the Times complex radical and political dynamics. And your writing. Really helped me understand it better. And there were things I had no idea that was going on. Can we talk about the fear? I don't know why I never thought about this, but while the attack is happening, they don't know. If it's going to continue after it stops, if they were going to double back, there were rumors that Japanese soldiers were in the mountains that they had parachuted down and they were going to come in and slit everybody's throat. How scary. It was very, I never knew any of that either until I, read, a lot of the government reports and the articles and whatnot. and, it had to become part of the story once I found out. And I thought it was important to talk about how the civilians felt. because they were in the dark about what was going on at Pearl Harbor and Hickam. Honolulu is about 10 miles away from Hickam. So they knew, where the smoke and the fire was. but they probably thought, that was our big, Pacific fleet and how. How could anyone attack it? And if they attacked and everything is burning there, then are we going to be invaded? So I think that was probably especially, anxiety provoking for all the Japanese Americans who had decided to live in the States and not in Japan. there were, one class of Japanese Americans who, Had been born in Japan who would probably they thought might be welcome if they decided to, if they were given an ultimatum, but then there were others who had been born in the States who might not be and might have been executed. They didn't know what was going to happen. And it was also just thinking about. the bombing. they still don't know with the bombs that hit, uh, Honolulu and the people who were killed, whether they were killed by the zeros going overhead and just dropping the bombs on purpose or by accident on Honolulu or whether it was anti aircraft missiles that we were trying to hit the zeros with. The fact is, they were hit. And so, as a parent. because I always think of it as a parent, how do you protect your child from a bomb? It would be like a tornado coming. you know, it's going to come near you somewhere. It might hit your home and you have no basement, you have nowhere to hide. So what do you do? And for Kay, she thinks, well, under a table is where she takes her children. And then, you know, she's hearing the bombings. She doesn't know if it's going to hit her. apartment or not. and she's thinking as I put herself in my place and in, you know, and I thought the same thing when, you know, you watch the bombings in Ukraine and in Gaza. And what do you do as a mother? You'd think, well, if I lay on top of my child, will that even protect them? It's just, it's a horrifying scenario. But I wanted to make sure that the reader understood what was happening Outside of Pearl Harbor and Hickam because you're thinking, well, my defense is getting blown apart. So now we're on our own. And then after it was done, martial law took effect. Again, because of the Japanese Americans on the island. And that lasted for, I believe, three years. It wasn't just an overnight thing. and everybody had to put like this blue cellophane over headlights, if you went out and all the windows were darkened. And everybody assumed that night that they're going to come back and finish this off. And if they had, who knows what would have happened or how the war would have turned out. But for whatever reason, they didn't. But I think anyone on that island that night would have thought they're coming back what's going to happen. it was a very terrifying, time. I can't imagine. I'm so glad I had the privilege of reading it in your book and learning what happened on that horrible day. It was such a horrible day. Let us switch to something nice. Yeah. You are part of the Writer's Guild Initiative. Can you tell us about that program? yes, it's a wonderful program, where writers mentor, people who want to write and are in underserved populations, so it can be, I've worked with Wounded Warriors, the Body Politic, so Different groups of people who suffer from long COVID and might still be bedridden. We just, worked with a group where, I think, there were only two of the mentees who weren't working from bed. you had to build in breaks. We had to build in breaks. So they, because they just didn't have the strength to, to carry on that long, but the writing. And I've always believed this about myself. I mean, my writing is like therapy. if I'm having a really bad day and I write, I feel better. And, for these people, and I have worked with so many talented mentees. they have such talent and such empathy and understanding of the human condition because of what they've been through. it's been a privilege. They're really inspiring. so, if you just don't feel like writing, or if I don't, which rarely happens, but if I don't, I just think of and it's just, You know, it is a privilege to be able to do it, to have the energy and the health to do what you love doing. these people really struggle and the Writers Guild Initiative gives them an opportunity and not just for the three weekends or two weekends that we work. with them, but a continuous, giving them writing prompts and they have a spring gala where they showcase their work. And, it's really a really wonderful, group, that is so beautiful. I guess I never thought about writing in health, that it is to be healthy is a privilege and to be able to get your words out there. I think some people don't think writing takes a lot of energy. It does. I mean, mental energy and physical energy are pretty close as far as, you know, even burning calories. it takes the same kind of, energy to write. I mean, people struggle to even write, a few pages if you're, health is not good. I feel very fortunate that I've been able to write, and I'm still able to write. it makes you not take things for granted. Yes. For sure. have you read, watched, or listened to anything recently that you'd like to recommend to the writers out there? It could be educational, it could just be entertainment. the book that I have most recommended to other people was Demon Copperhead, which of course won the Pulitzer Prize, but I was recommending it before it won the Pulitzer, so I'm just going to say that. it's a wonderful book by Barbara King Solver about, um, Opioid addiction and it's like an American David Copperfield story, which is why it's called Demon Copperhead I have two siblings, one who passed who was addicted to, to heroin and one who is still, living who is addicted to heroin and it is, it just takes your life away. whether you live or die, it takes your life away. so I recognized, the characters in The Struggle when I read the book, but she just does an amazingly good job and is, authentic in her writing to not overuse that word and then I'm reading Educated by Tara Westover and it really I mean with it seems like we always have a celebrity memoir coming out But this is the kind of memoir that makes you Um, still believe that memoirs are a really important part of, writing and they're a really important genre when people, get it right. And it's Love the memoir, I love reading memoirs. This memoir is, is so good. It's, about a young, girl who is growing up in a, Mormon family and the father's very strict and, but it's not about Mormonism. it is about. To me, I haven't finished it yet, but it's very much about, a man, a father's control over his family, the physical control, the mental control. It's the importance of education, of being educated so that you know what your options are and expanding your world that way so that you're not trapped in a smaller life. And The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line is by Mary Etter and she's a retired major general. It's a collection And what's good about it is you can read a story in, like half an hour, 40 minutes. And, then read more when you feel like reading more. But each story is about a woman in World War II, most who I had never heard of, who did very heroic things. sometimes changed the path of where the war was headed. Just amazing stories. I'm a Trekkie, so Discovery Strange New Worlds, I think it's the best one since Star Trek, since the original. it's the one, this one focuses on Christopher Pike, who was in the pilot. this is, brings back that character. It's a very strong ensemble. Is it Anson Mount? Is this someone Anson Mount is? Yes. Oh, okay. I work on a television show with Anson Mount. that's a good looking man? Oh, yes. He's a very kind human being on top of that. Oh, did you work on Hell on Wheels or was it another one? Yes, yeah, Hell on Wheels. Oh, my husband and I love that show. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, I'm going to have to, I have some CDs and some signed photos and things I will send you. we'll do that off the air. We'll do our admin off the air. Okay. I'll send you some things. do you want to share where people might be able to follow you? I'm on Facebook, which you can link to. On my, website, which is www. diannehankswriter. com. you can get the book at, Amazon, through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or at your favorite, independent bookseller. Can you read us, please, one more passage to take us home? Now this gives a little something away, but not much. Hikkim has been attacked. They need more help because there are hundreds and hundreds of men dying and bleeding and whatever, and women too. And so she has gone off to Honolulu and she's brought help back. Only the help. is in the form of, sex workers, and Japanese American nurses. So this is when she arrives back at Hickum. The gate to Hickum field was twisted like a pretzel, and the guardhouse looked like a pile of toothpicks. But four heavily armed guards stood across the road as the three cars approached and stopped. Annie got out of the jeep, telling the others to stay put. Taking out her ID, she approached the soldier who appeared to be the oldest and had the stripes of a higher rank, assuming he would be less apt to overreact. Lieutenant Fox, she said, holding up her ID. I brought supplies and nurses. He looked at Rita and her girls and back at Anna. Those women are nurses? No, they came to give blood. There's a nurse in my car and more in the last car. Walking closer, the corporal got a better look at the faces in the car Mac was driving, and put his hand on his holster. They're nurses, corporal, said Annie firmly, and they're all Americans. You've got permission to bring them on base, ma'am? He asked skeptically. I do, said Annie. If you'd like to drive to the hospital to verify that with Major Lance, we'll wait here until you get back. He's likely in surgery, though, and won't appreciate the fact that you'll be wasting time that could be used to help our soldiers. Every second counts today, as you can imagine. Fine, but I'll have to conduct a search, he said. Excuse me? I'm in charge of who passes through this entry point, and every person who doesn't belong here is getting searched for weapons. I'll take responsibility for With all due respect, this is my responsibility. Then make sure your search is conducted with due respect, Corporal. Yes, ma'am. Annie quickly explained the situation, and in short order, though reluctantly, Kay and her nurses were standing in a line near the ruined gate. Mac stood by Kay while a Annie stood next to ami, watching the corporals. Every move, the nurses took off their sweaters and nursing aprons and laid any purses and medical bags on the ground. Search. Those, the corporal told two of the privates, the corporal approached Kay for a more personal search. Like the others, she wore only her white uniform. Anything in your pockets he asked. Peppermint chicklet, said Kay. They're in my right pocket. The peppermint soothes my stomach. The corporal stepped forward to check for the gum. Mac followed. Look at her pocket, said Mac. Do you see the bulge of a gun or the outline of a knife? Your name, sir. McCanny Hale. Mac stood several inches above the corporal and moved a little closer to emphasize his height. And if you touch her, I will break every finger on your Annie stepped between the two men. Mac, please back up. He only took half a step back, but the concession was enough to diffuse the anger in the corporal's face, at least somewhat. Corporal began, Annie. As you can see, these nurses are hiding nothing, including their love of country. Why else would they come to the biggest second target on the island? So unless you see something I don't, please return their belongings and let us pass. Every minute we're delayed is one That could be used saving a soldier's life. And I assure you that's not an overstatement. And I'll leave it there, Diane, thank you so much for reading that. Oh, you're welcome. And this has been such a pleasure. I hope you come back again. I hope so. Thank you so much.

36:05

And that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writer's Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, producer Sandy Adamides, and myself, Terry Sampson. And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller.