Some of my best friends are writers.
I first met Jeanne Roppolo in Hawaii, as the sun set on the Kohala Coast, back in 1997. She was standing beside a big yellow tanker in jeans and a tee shirt, her eyes wide, hanging onto every word the professional trainer said. We were both brand new volunteer firefighters for Hawaii County, Company 14-A, and a little nervous about the rigorous training ahead of us.
Over the next months and years, Jeanne and I learned to pull hose and operate the nozzles; we learned how to use a fire extinguisher, how to rescue people off of rooftops and burning buildings, we learned how to jumpstart a heart with the automatic external defibrillator. Together, Jeanne and I fought many a brush fire on Hawaii’s west side (the dry side) in our yellow canvas brush jackets, our hair tucked up under our helmets, our faces smudged with soot. Jeanne was everyone’s favorite firefighter. She’s maybe 5’2″ in her brush boots and 120 pounds with all her bunker gear on; she’s got energy and enthusiasm to spare. She is likewise one of the most trustworthy people I know, and I’m proud to call her my friend.
Being a middle-aged female firefighter is just one chapter in Jeanne’s life. A few years ago she took a job in Antarctica. At a point when other women her age are thinking about retiring or spending more time rocking grandbabies, Jeanne goes off to McMurdo Station to work for six months. I told her she should write a book. She’s written four so far, and working on the fifth! I’m so inspired by this woman, this grandmother, this friend.
I asked Jeanne to share something of her writing process.
…While in the zen of my vacuuming at McMurdo Station, I was plotting my Antarctica adult memoir book when my dear friend and fellow firefighter, Linda Collison, author of numerous titles, the latest being Looking for Redfeather, suggested that I write a children’ book about my adventure at the bottom of the world. With wonder and amazement, (that I had never thought of that), I replied: “I can do that.” 
