Doug Stanton - Best Author

March 29, 2006

Whooee! My editor, Bob Downes, just asked me to write a short piece about my husband, Doug, who won “best local author” for his nonfiction book, In Harm’s Way. What fun!
But first, a short description of In Harm’s Way for those of you unfamiliar with the book. It’s about the USS Indianapolis, a Navy ship that delivers the components of the Hiroshima bomb to a small island in the Philippines. As the ship returns from dropping off its deadly cargo, it is torpedoed by a Japanese sub and sinks in an eye blink. About 900 of the 1200 men onboard survive the explosion and expect to get saved any minute. But the Navy was completely clueless that it had lost a ship the size of a small town. For days, the abandoned men battled circling sharks, festering wounds, thirst, starvation, blistering sunburns, and even each other (scores of men went crazy from drinking salt water). Miraculously, an observant pilot spotted the men in the water and 321 people were saved. Doug felt it was a story of ordinary people proving their extraordinary nature in such terrifying circumstances.
So wait, I’m ringing Doug now. Here goes the interview …

NE: Guess what! You were awarded best local author for your book In Harm’s Way and I get to interview you.
Stanton: That’s great, but why you? Can’t you get Rick Coates to write it?
NE: No, Bob asked me. So … how do you feel about the award?
Stanton: I can’t do this.
NE: Oh, come on ... Let me try a different question. Why do you think you received this award when the book was published five years ago?
Stanton: I never would have won without the dishonest intervention of my wife. I owe all the rigged votes to her.
NE: Ha, ha. I didn’t even know there was a “best author” category. Otherwise I would have voted for myself. (Kidding, of course.) What are you working on now?
Stanton: Presently I’m finishing an epic about Afghanistan. It’s titled Horse Soldiers.
NE: What’s it about?
Stanton: After 9/11, 12 soldiers secretly entered Afghanistan and started hunting down the Taliban and Al Qaeda. I was able to get inside the lives of these men and traveled there to walk in their footsteps. As one of the soldiers said, “It’s the Flinstones meets the Jetsons.” The battle culminated at the Qala-i Janghi fortress and the discovery and capture of John Walker Lindh. He was hunkered in a 19th century dungeon, where he was trapped with all these Al-Qaeda soldiers living on putrid water and horse flesh. I think it would make a good musical comedy.
NE: Speaking of a production, what’s the story with the In Harm’s Way movie? I know you want the survivors to see it, and they’re now in their 70s and 80s. Do you think the movie will get made soon enough?
Stanton: I don’t want to talk about the movie.
NE: How come?
Stanton: Okay. Warner Brothers is really enthusiastic about adapting In Harm’s Way. They finally have a great script and it’s looking good.
NE: Back to Horse Soldiers, the book—can you talk about why the story attracted you?
Stanton: When I wrote In Harm’s Way, I told a very dramatic story about 20th century warfare. Our grandfather’s war. And I decided that I needed to understand the world our children are going to grow into. It’s very different. Twelve people bent on the destruction of something can wreak the same havoc that would have taken Hitler and his entire air force to achieve.
NE: Are you thinking about going in a different direction after this?
Stanton: I’m finishing Horse Solders, writing a TV pilot, and looking forward to traveling again with a flyrod and not a Kevlar vest.
And in closing, my wife really deserves all the credit.
NE: Wow. Thank you.