Jennie Fields

When I was child, bookstores and libraries were sanctuaries, my invitation to adventure, escape, satisfaction. Wanting to be a part of the action, I wrote my first 'novel' when I was six. Years later, my first real book arrived in bookstores.

But it's taken me until my fifth novel to tackle a topic that's always called to me: women in science. My mother was trained as a biochemist at the University of Chicago during World War II, and remained at the University afterwards, researching cures for cancer. But as was typical in that era, when she married, she gave up her career to be a wife. She spent the rest of her life aching for science. As a result, science flowed into her cooking, cleaning, our healthcare. She measured, she weighed, she considered, she hypothesized.

My mother's best friend was her cousin Jean. Walking together to campus each day, they discussed everything. But no matter how many times she asked, Jean refused to tell my mother a single detail about what was going on at the 'Metallurgical Laboratory' where she worked. As it turns out, Jean was a clerical worker for the Manhattan Project and stayed true to her oath of secrecy until long after the atom bomb was dropped.

That story of silence stuck with me. And my research revealed there was one female physicist involved in those early Chicago years of the Manhattan Project: Leona Woods, the youngest member of the team. Atomic Love is in no way based on Woods' life. Still, her presence at that critical time and place in history allowed me to create my main character, Rosalind Porter, a female physicist who is asked to risk love and limb to protect her country.

Adventure. Escape. Satisfaction. I hope you will find these things and more in Atomic Love.

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