[Forward]

As I began this novella, I wondered if I was crazy to tackle a story involving slow pitch baseball, firefighting, and search and rescue. After all, it was a big chunk, and I was the one crafting the story. I didn't have to do this! Call me dogged - or maybe just plain stubborn - but I stuck with it.

It's not a bad idea to write about things you know, and those subjects weren't entirely new to me. That's what gave me the courage to use them. The men in my family had played baseball while I cheered from the sidelines and brought refreshments. While training to be certified as an MICN (mobile intensive care nurse) many years ago, I'd spent twenty hours in a fire station in a neighboring town, hanging out and riding with their paramedics. That gave me an atmosphere from which to create my own station and a glimpse into how they lived while on duty.

There are no women firefighters in this novella, but I'd recently seen a presentation to eighth grade girls by a female firefighter, and I even knew the seventy-pound weight of their backpacks was the same whether carried by men or women.

I've watched the "Dog Whisperer" on TV, seen TV specials on search and rescue teams, and, in my Sisters in Crime chapter meetings, heard an expert witness on search hounds who breeds Bloodhounds.

No matter how familiar the subjects I'd chosen were to me, I researched them. The tools I used included the Internet, personal interviews and the local library--with its interlibrary loan system, periodicals, books and videos. I could have even accessed the Internet in the library if I hadn't had my own computers.

As an example, I decided to use a Bloodhound, but what colors did they come in? How much did they weigh? An email contact with a breeder gave me that information. I decided which color I liked and gave my hound a name. An Internet look at search and rescue teams gave me clues as to other hounds used and revealed that some are air scenters and others are ground scenters. Since Bloodhounds are ground scenters, I chose an air scenter as my second dog. A look at online photos of the SAR team in my county as they assembled to train sparked the opening scenes of my story.

As for firefighting, I spoke by phone with a battalion chief in my town, stopped firefighters when I saw them ready to leave a call or found them in the supermarket. Did they sleep dormitory style? Who was in charge on a call? Yes, they still come down poles and only have one minute to hit the mat at the bottom once the alarm sounds. A loudspeaker tells them the nature of the call and what to roll. The captain confirms it via print out.

Since I was writing about gays, I didn't have the courage to ask for a tour of the main firehouse in my town. I did tell one man I was writing a romance filled with macho firefighters. He just laughed. Now a reviewer has suggested I write more about "hunk" firefighters.

And, yes, I read three novels about gays, bought the ebook "The Joy of Gay Sex" and looked up gay toys and sexual practices on the Internet.

I checked our local firefighter job descriptions online. Googling firefighting equipment and gear led me to ask about the mat, boots and suits they use on different calls. I saw yellow suits in the back of an engine when I spoke to some men leaving a call up my street. Yes, they leave their suits in the truck or engine.

Well, what do you know - there are trucks and there are engines! Different purposes for various calls.

Obviously, I wasn't going to use all the information in my story, but it would've been stupid not to look in depth for more than I'd personally experienced. To have a ring of authenticity, I needed to discover more than I knew.

There's more to every book than the words you read.