Sarah Rose
The best thing about this job is being paid to be curious. The second best thing about being a writer is the moment of creation.
For D-Day Girls, I had to learn French. As an adult, I had to pick up a language I had never studied with enough facility to read newspapers and government documents and listen to oral histories. And that was my job!
I also wanted to understand the Corps Feminins' training, so I parachuted, learned to shoot, took a bootcamp, tried to learn Morse code, built a radio. And that was my homework. It was so cool.
We get to meet interesting people we wouldn't otherwise encounter: One man in his 90s had parachuted into France as a teen and had a whole lifetime of perspective to share with me. I interviewed him over champagne and it was one of the greatest - most French - experiences of my life.
Then there is the library. If you're a natively curious person, the idea that I get paid to go to a library and follow every meandering thought and query to wherever it may lead is like getting a massage.
The joy of creation doesn't kick in for me until the middle of the book -- when I know where I'm going and I'm arranging the pieces to get me there. When I think I'm inventing something the world has never known, and I find it beautiful and surprising and important.
Between research and creation, it is the best job on earth.
Moving to France was no hardship either!
For D-Day Girls, I had to learn French. As an adult, I had to pick up a language I had never studied with enough facility to read newspapers and government documents and listen to oral histories. And that was my job!
I also wanted to understand the Corps Feminins' training, so I parachuted, learned to shoot, took a bootcamp, tried to learn Morse code, built a radio. And that was my homework. It was so cool.
We get to meet interesting people we wouldn't otherwise encounter: One man in his 90s had parachuted into France as a teen and had a whole lifetime of perspective to share with me. I interviewed him over champagne and it was one of the greatest - most French - experiences of my life.
Then there is the library. If you're a natively curious person, the idea that I get paid to go to a library and follow every meandering thought and query to wherever it may lead is like getting a massage.
The joy of creation doesn't kick in for me until the middle of the book -- when I know where I'm going and I'm arranging the pieces to get me there. When I think I'm inventing something the world has never known, and I find it beautiful and surprising and important.
Between research and creation, it is the best job on earth.
Moving to France was no hardship either!
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