On Patrol with the US Coast Guard

Dana has written two thrillers and when researching both novels she went on patrol with the US Coast Guard.

Dana was invited to write a daily blog from the ship so the shore-bound families of the crew could witness, as much as possible, the lives their loved ones were living at sea.

Dana got to know the USCG in depth during her trips with them. She was in the circle around the captain as they planned the midnight rescue of an injured fisherman offshore of the Pribilof Islands. She got to jump off the side of the ship into the Pacific Ocean where it's 8,000 metres deep. And she got a king's ransom in the way of original source material for her novels' 'Coasties' heroes. The crew even helped her with plot points. As Dana says, 'The absolute best part of a writer's life is the research.'