Through Waters Deep (29 page)

Dear Reader,

Thank you for joining Jim and Mary on their journey. I want to assure you that there were no incidents of sabotage at the Boston Navy Yard or on board US warships during the war. However, this story reflects the extreme tension in the United States in 1941. The nation was divided, anger ran high on both sides, mob violence occurred, and fear and rumors ran rampant.

While the USS
Atwood
and the USS
Ettinger
are fictional ships, the situation in the Atlantic in 1941 is accurate, including the incident with the USS
Greer
, the torpedoing of the USS
Kearny
, the sinking of the USS
Reuben James
, and the sinkings of five American merchant ships—all
before
Pearl Harbor. Likewise, the United States occupied Iceland in July of 1941 and began escorting Allied North Atlantic convoys in September. This little-known aspect of American history intrigued me and inspired this novel.

Boston is one of my favorite cities due to the sheer mass of history, the color, and the Boston cream pie. But I had to be careful to use names from the 1940s—thus, the Boston Navy Yard instead of the current Charlestown Navy Yard, the “El” or the “subway” instead of the “T,” and even the subway station names. Please don't use this novel as a map, or you'll get lost.

All characters are fictional other than Dr. Harold Ockenga,
pastor of Park Street Church, Rear Adm. William T. Tarrant, commandant of the Boston Navy Yard, and other historical figures.

If you're on Pinterest, please visit my board for
Through Waters Deep
(
www.pinterest.com/sarahsundin
) to see pictures of Boston, destroyers, and Mary's cute dresses.

Please join me for the second novel in the Waves of Freedom series, when Ens. Arch Vandenberg and pharmacist Lillian Avery find danger from U-boats and black market drug rings—and love!

Writing a new series made me alternate between “What
ever
made me think I could write about the Navy, and a mystery at that!” and “How thrilling to do something new!” Often within five minutes of each other.

Therefore, I have many people to thank, starting with my family, who has to listen to all of the above. Deepest thanks to our youngest son, Matthew, who stayed several extra days with me in Boston while I climbed inside 5-inch naval gun mounts, took photos of random doorways in Charlestown, and pored over documents at the National Archives. I felt much safer having a strapping teenager by my side. Thanks to my parents, Ronald and Nancy Stewart, for nautical information, and thanks also to my aunt, Ginny Siggia, who answers my Boston questions.

My brainstorming buddies, Marcy Weydemuller and Cathleen Armstrong, helped me flesh out this story, and I owe special thanks to Marcy for mentoring me on writing mysteries. And thank you to my critique partners, Marcy (once again!), Linda Clare, Judy Gann, Sherry Kyle, Bonnie Leon, and Ann Shorey.

Thank you to my writer friend Jennifer Zarifeh Major, and her botanist husband, John E. Major, for your help with tree identification and information (I told you I'd put you in here!). And thanks to Terry and Liliane Wasmund for alerting me to Battleship Cove, which I would have missed without you.

While researching this novel, I benefitted immensely from touring restored destroyer USS
Cassin Young
(Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA), destroyer USS
Joseph P. Kennedy
Jr.
and battleship USS
Massachusetts
(Battleship Cove, Fall River, MA), and battleship USS
Iowa
(Long Beach, CA). And deep thanks to the staff at the National Archives at Boston for the privilege of viewing primary documents and photographs.

Once again, thanks go to my agent, Rachel Kent at Books & Such Literary Management, for her keen insight and calm presence. And to my editor, Vicki Crumpton, for making the edits a fun learning experience. Really, they are! And thanks to Cheryl Van Andel and her team for the most gorgeous book cover ever.

And how I love my reader friends! You make it all worthwhile. Please visit me at
www.sarahsundin.com
to leave a message, sign up for my quarterly newsletter, or read about the history behind the story. I hope to hear from you.

1. Do you know anyone who served in the Navy during World War II? Do you have any stories to share? Have you ever been on board a WWII-era ship? What did you think?
   
2. Were you surprised at the divisiveness in America in 1941, given how united the nation was after the attack on Pearl Harbor? Do you see any parallels in today's world?
   
3. The involvement of the United States in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941 was minor yet significant, given the country's neutrality. What did you find most interesting about this?
   
4. Mary suffers from a fear of attention. How does this hold her back? How has she sabotaged herself because of it? And how does she learn to overcome? Do you have past or present fears that have held you back? How can—or did—you overcome?
   
5. Mary tries to reconcile the godly principles of humility and letting your candle shine. How does she do so? Do you find yourself drawn more to the humble extreme or to the shining extreme? How can you find balance?
   
6. Jim has always floated with the current, and he struggles to be bold when necessary. How does he change throughout the story? Do you tend to be bold or “go with the flow”? Have you learned to temper your natural inclination? Do you want to?
   
7. What did you think of the various sabotage suspects? Who was highest on your list?
   
8. Mary loved reading Nancy Drew mysteries as a girl and is thrilled to have her own mystery to solve. Is there anything you've always longed to do because of a book or movie?
   
9. Both Mary and Jim are deeply affected by childhood events. How did those events shape their characters? Their fears? Why do childhood events seem to have a greater impact on us than similar events later in life?
   
10. Mary and Quintessa have been friends since childhood. What strengths do you see in their friendship? What weaknesses? How about with Jim and Arch?
    
11. Agent Sheffield wants the cold hard facts and scoffs at Mary's notebooks at first. Do you think the information she gathered would have been useful? What do you think about the role of intuition versus facts?
    
12. Jim has always been attracted to a certain type of woman and is surprised when he begins to fall for Mary. Have you ever been surprised by a friendship or romance with someone you never would have imagined?
    
13. Sailing is symbolic in this story. How do you see this?
    
14. The second novel in the Waves of Freedom series follows Ens. Arch Vandenberg and Lillian Avery, while the third novel will feature Lt. Dan Avery and Quintessa Beaumont. From what you've seen or heard of these characters, what might you expect?
    

Sarah Sundin
is the author of
With Every Letter
,
On Distant Shores
,
A Distant Melody
,
A Memory Between Us
, and
Blue Skies Tomorrow
. In 2011,
A Memory Between Us
was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist's mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children.

sarahsundin.com

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