I was working as a Naval Planner and Strategist in the N5 (Plans, Policy, and Strategy directorate) at the US Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy from 2011-2014. The Syrian crisis was going on since the Arab Spring began in 2012. I was researching the Syrian conflict as part of my job to dig into how the conflict could affect our own operations in the Mediterranean and those of our European allies.  There was not a lot of detailed classified reports available on what was going on in Syria in the 2012-2013 time period when I was researching it as it was happening, but there were a few freelance reporters who had smuggled themselves into Syria to get dramatic footage and interview Syrians on what was going on in the country. The freelance journalists would smuggle themselves in – get footage and then smuggle themselves out and put their reporting on YouTube or sell it to new agencies. This is what Marie Colvin was doing in Homs, Syria when her position was mortared by Syrian government forces and she was killed. An excellent biopic film about her life, titled “A Private War”, was recently released. Journalists like her were what inspired me to write about the conflict from a journalist’s point of view who had smuggled in and out of Syria.  I watched a lot of first hand reporting from those freelance reporters and was horrified at the carnage they were witnessing – much of it was not being reported in the mainstream media at the time. I had never been to Syria, but I took those reporter’s perspectives, wove their experiences into a fictionalized version of what they were seeing and started to write my novel. I chose to write a novel because none of these experiences were mine first-hand. However, every instance in the book had happened to a journalist or Syrian citizen at some point in the conflict. All of the things in the book were taken from real journalists who were there reporting on the conflict. Since those things did not happen to me personally, the book had to be novelized.I decided to write a novel about this conflict because I was seeing the human casualties among the civilian population mount – to include lots of children. I have two small children and was floored to see the devastation these innocent Syrian kids were going through. I got mad at the main stream media that there was plenty of independent coverage but no widespread outrage until much later in the crisis and only after chemical weapons were involved. But the crisis was well underway at that point with many civilian casualties going unreported and unnoticed. I wanted to shed light on this crisis and help garner awareness and support for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (like Save the Children) that were doing a lot to help Syrian kids. All of my author profit from the sale of the book still goes to Save the Children’s Syrian Children’s Fund. So, whoever purchases it will be helping that cause directly.