Goodreads asked Sara Ackerman:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Sara Ackerman My grandfather was the principal and my grandmother was a teacher in Honoka'a, Hawaii during the war. It seemed like all the fantastic stories my grandmother told were about the war and all the soldiers they befriended, as well as all the people of Hawaii and how the war affected them. I was always so intrigued by the fact that the soldiers had a lion with them, too. These stories stayed with me, and after I had written a few novels, I decided it was time to write one around Camp Tarawa and Roscoe the lion, and Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers was born.

For The Lieutenant's Nurse, it was another story from my grandmother of her trip to Hawaii in the 1930s aboard the Matson Steamship Lurline. She and my grandfather had only recently met when he sent her a ticket to come visit him in Hawaii. She lived in Minnesota at the time and on the crossing to Honolulu, she met another man, who she fell for. But when the Lurline arrived, my grandfather was waiting on the dock and proposed. She said yes, but she never forgot about that man. We always wondered what if?

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