Radio-Free FLYGIRL, Or Why I Wrote This Book, by Sherri L. Smith

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"Hey, Sherri," people ask me, "how did you come up with the idea for Flygirl?" I chuckle and say, "Voices in my head told me to do it." Those voices were actually part of a Radio Diaries story about the WASP that played one evening on National Public Radio. I was sitting in the gleam of another Los Angeles rush hour, taillights facing the ocean, headlights going nowhere, jamming the buttons on my radio for some good entertainment or at least a traffic update. I've got two NPR stations programmed into my car radio, KCRW and KPCC. I believe I ended up on the former when, with a burst of bugles and some old-timey songs, the WASP story came on.

To give a little background, I had just finished my second novel, Sparrow, and was casting about for what to do next. Then this story bursts into life and I was sat at rapt attention (to the radio, not the traffic, I'm sorry to say...but we were at a standstill...really.). And then one of the WASP, Ethel Meyer Finley, says, "And here are all these women from different walks of life, millionaire heiresses like Florsheim Shoes, Upjohn Drug Company, and then you had poor kids like me from the farm. And everybody was in the same boat, had the same ill-fitting clothes." Just like that, I was hooked. I loved it. Slobs and snobs, studs and scrubs all in the same drab olive green boat. It was romantic, it was terrifying and exhilarating. I went to work the next day and my friend, Karen, said "Did you hear that piece about the WASP last night? I think that's your next book." She was right. I went online and ordered a tape of the story, then I did my mea culpa and actually renewed my lapsed subscription to public radio. (Confession: I let it lapse again, then renewed when I sold the book. You have to pay the piper if you want to dance!)

But, wait a minute, doesn't that sound too easy? Doesn't that sound like only half the story? That's because it is only half the story: Ida Mae Jones joins the WASP. The part I didn't tell you about is-why did I decide to make Ida Mae a black woman in a Jim Crow world? The truth is: I have no idea. I was reading up on the WASP and I thought to myself, "Boy, it was hard for women. Imagine being black, too." Never tell a writer to "imagine" anything without expecting big things to happen. I wrestled with the concept. At first I thought, what a great way to bring this story to the next level. I could talk about all kinds of biases-gender and racial, class and culture. Then I reminded myself, there is so much to the story of the Womens Airforce Service Pilots already, why do I need to season the soup any further? Not to mention the fact that, while there were at least two Asian women accepted into the WASP, there is nothing to indicate that any African-Americans made the cut. In fact, quite to the contrary, I have read memoirs of black women who were turned away for the very same reasons Ida fears she will be denied.

So, then, what made me choose the path of most resistance? Simple. I wasn't just making a soup, I was making a three course meal and I wanted it to be rich and interesting and satisfying from start to finish. As much as I might personally want to live a simple life, it just won't do for my characters. Every once in a while, I thought about pulling back, but I didn't. And I'm glad of that.

After Flygirl came out, I did a virtual book tour, visiting five different blogs to talk about the story. This book has started some very interesting conversations about identity and passing, including some off-the-blog email revelations that I found wonderful. In asking the question, "Where are you passing in your life?" to the blogosphere, I've learned so much about the world we live in today, and how it has (or hasn't) changed from Ida's time in the 1940s. By sharing a not-so-well-known chapter of our nation's history, I've opened up a chestful of memories for some readers, and a wide-eyed curiosity in others. What a joy it is to know that one crummy rush hour can lead to the moments this book has given me and my readers. It just goes to show, you should always listen to the voices in your head. They might be saying something worth hearing.

Sherri L. Smith, Flygirl, Putnam Juvenile, Penguin Books