WGI Mentor Diane Hanks has recently released her new book, “The Woman With A Purple Heart.” Check out our interview with her below and find out where to read it!
Tell us about your book, The Woman With a Purple Heart.
My novel is about the first woman to receive a Purple Heart—Army Lieutenant Annie Fox, Chief Nurse at Hickam Hospital, part of Hickam Air Field and adjacent to Pearl Harbor.
In November 1941, Annie is transferred to Hickam Field on the island of Oahu. The younger nurses are thrilled to be working in paradise, but at age 47, Annie sees her new duty station as the Army’s way of holding the door open to her retirement. However, serving her country is her calling and she’ll make the best of it. This leads her to volunteer at a Japanese American Community Center, where she meets and befriends Kay Kimura – the nurse who founded and runs the center.
On December 7, Annie’s on her way to Hickam Hospital when the first Japanese Zero fighter plane flies low over Hickam’s Parade Ground. The death and destruction that follow leave her no time to process what’s happening. She rallies her nurses, and they work to save as many lives as possible. But soon their small hospital is overwhelmed. Annie drives into Honolulu to gather supplies, nurses, and several women who will donate blood. However, the nurses are Japanese Americans, and the blood donors are prostitutes.
Under Annie’s leadership and working together in unexpected ways, they make it through that horrific day, when Kay is unexpectedly arrested as a suspected subversive. As Hickam tries to recover, Annie works to find her friend and return Kay to her family. But how can Annie reconcile the American bravery and resilience she saw on December 7 with the prejudice and injustice she witnesses in the aftermath?
Based on true events, The Woman With a Purple Heart is the story of heroic leadership, courage, and friendship that also explores a shocking and shameful side of history.
What was the inspiration for the book?
I work for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a medical writer. I was writing about VA’s Annie App – a text messaging service to help Veterans with self-care – and wondered who it was named for and learned that it was named after the first woman to receive a Purple Heart for combat – Lt. Annie Fox. I had never heard of her. Nor had I ever heard of Hickam Air Field, despite the fact that it was attacked literally alongside Pearl Harbor. The story about Annie and Hickam Air Field needed telling.
What was the writing process like for this book?
When I first told Annie’s story, I did it in a screenplay titled HICKAM. The screenplay got some attention at The Black List, and they planned to produce a podcast reading. Then the pandemic hit and everything was put on hold. During that time, I decided to go back to my first love, which was writing fiction. I looked at a few screenplays I’d written as detailed outlines for a potential novel. I chose scripts that I’d loved working on, with characters I wanted to spend more time with – characters I wanted to explore further. Thus, HICKAM became The Woman With a Purple Heart.
As when writing anything based on real events, there was a lot of research. Fortunately, I enjoy that part of the writing process. There’s always something new to learn. And many times, fact is more ironic or surprising than fiction. More than once, I had to decide whether or not to include a fact in the book because it seemed too incredible. For example, Hickam Air Field was on full alert for two weeks before the attack on Sunday, December 7. The alert was lifted on Saturday, December 6, and that evening a dance was held at the officers’ club to celebrate. The dance was sponsored by a Japanese banker, and the waitresses wore kimonos. As they say, you couldn’t make it up.
Where can people purchase the book?
The Woman With A Purple Heart can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or at your favorite independent bookseller. The audible version is also available.
What are you working on next?
I’ve finished first drafts for two novels. One is based on the true story of three female scientists who developed the first successful vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) despite having very few resources other than their combined determination to save the lives of young children. Before there was a vaccine, thousands of children, usually under the age of five, died from whooping cough every year. These three women not only developed a vaccine that worked, they brought the entire city of Grand Rapids, MI together during the Great Depression to conduct a clinical trial to prove its efficacy. With a little help from Eleanor Roosevelt.
The other novel is the story of a soldier whose face was severely disfigured in France during WWI and a young woman who was raised to become a housekeeper in one of the grand mansions in Newport, RI. Under very different circumstances, they both end up at Queen’s Hospital in Sidcup, England. This hospital was the destination for thousands of soldiers with severe facial injuries – a common result of the unknown hazards of trench warfare. More importantly, Queen’s Hospital is where plastic surgery was born. This surgical specialty wasn’t created to help people appear younger; it was created to give disfigured soldiers a new face.
What is the most surprising thing you have learned from writing?
There is always something to learn when you write about historical events. There were several surprises in writing about Annie Fox and the attack on December 7. One of the things I learned was that civilians had been hit in Honolulu and children were killed, whether by the enemy or by anti-aircraft artillery.
When I wrote about the fierce women who developed the pertussis vaccine, I was surprised to learn that they had to climb a fence to get back into the public health lab, where they worked during the day, so they could work at night on the vaccine. And when I wrote about Queen’s Hospital, I was more than surprised to learn that outdoor benches had been painted blue for patients to sit on so the local villagers would know not to look at the patients because their appearance was too upsetting. Soldiers missing limbs were seen as heroic; soldiers missing parts of their face were considered better off not seen at all.
Overall, for me personally, the most surprising thing I’ve learned from writing is that it’s cheaper and better than therapy. Writing has saved my sanity more than once.
Do you have any advice, tips, guidance or resources you’d like to share for someone who wants to write?
Read – a lot. The good stuff. Read writers who inspire you, but don’t aspire to be them. Be different. Be unique. Find your own voice.
Write what you’re passionate about, which will make it less likely that you’ll be bored. If you’re bored when you edit your first novel or screenplay, everyone else will be too.
Don’t resist rewriting. Think of editing as the part when you get to be the director of your own story. Move things around. “Play” with it until it feels right. Don’t be afraid to “kill” a character. And make the story as authentic and truthful as possible. People want to read the truth even if it’s embedded in fiction.
Find a good agent. He/she can make all the difference. My agent, Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group, sold my novel in less than two weeks to the perfect publisher for this particular story. Not that a quick sale is common, but a good agent will know who to send your manuscript to.
Most importantly, enjoy your writing! It really is the best part.
Diane Hanks
