My characters are not based on any particular real-life individuals; however, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), for whom Kat and Jenny work, was a real wartime organization established in July 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, based on the British intelligence Special Operations Executive (SOE).
The New York City offices of the OSS were headquartered in the International Building at Rockefeller Center. For expediency in my story, I housed several divisions there, but, in reality, the OSS had offices scattered throughout the city, in various buildings. Morale Operations, where Jenny works, was indeed housed in a building off Times Square. The British Security Coordination (BSC), part of the British Secret Intelligence Service, was also housed in the International Building at Rockefeller Center.
OSS Director William Donovan called his recruits “Glorious Amateurs,” but the contributions of these brave men and women of the intelligence services are immeasurable, and without them, the war could have had a very different outcome.
Historical fiction propels the reader into a story set in the past. Today, that time period’s values and morals might be considered old-fashioned or uptight, but this was the reality for our characters. In some ways, the core of their struggle is still our struggle today. Science progresses, attitudes change, even maps and boundaries change, but the human heart still loves who it loves. Some things are timeless.