Writing Have Blue Sky has been a joy.

Perhaps that’s an odd way to describe the writing process. But it’s true. 

Because the process of creating this novel led me to reconnecting with many old friends to talk to them about their experiences. And to ask them who else I should talk to as part of the writer’s detective work unravelling historical events, before rendering them into the dramatic arc of a novel.

I knew exactly where I wanted the story to begin. With an historical event. The crash of an F-117 outside Bakersfield, California in 1986, at a time when the very existence of the airplane was still classified “Top Secret.”

I wanted to tell this opening chapter through the eyes of a fictional female reporter assigned to cover the crash. Someone who, like the reader, would be trying to figure out what had occurred.

So, my research began.

To be sure I got the technical details of reporting right, I called my friend Robert Pondiscio, who had once written for USA Today. I asked him how a story would be assigned to a young reporter. I also asked him how a news conference in Washington D.C. – announcing the existence of the F-117 – would have been communicated to the newspapers on the west coast in the days before the internet.

“For defense stories,” Robert said. “You should talk to my friend Mark Thompson. He covered the U.S. military with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Time Magazine.”

He connected me with Mark.

I told Mark I was starting a novel and that one of my main characters would be a female reporter with the Bakersfield newspaper. Mark answered my questions and then said: “You know, I know a reporter who worked at The Bakersfield Californian in the mid-1980s. Would you like to talk to him?”

Mark connected me with Bob Cox, who told me about the Bakersfield newspaper, and then said: “You know, there was a female reporter who covered that plane crash back in 1986. Would you like to talk to her?” 

I had created a fictional reporter without realizing there was an actual female reporter who had covered the story. Here was a chance to talk to her.

Bob connected me with Kathy Freeman.

When Kathy finished sharing her experiences, she said, “You know, my husband, Jess Baker, saw the crash. He was a Sergeant in the Kern County Sheriff’s Office at the time, driving back to Bakersfield in the middle of the night. He saw the fireball in the mountains east of the city. He’s the one who called it in. He’s in the next room. Would you like to talk to him?”

And this is the backstory of just Chapter One.

Now, after six years of writing, editing, and navigating the maze of the publishing process, I am pleased to share with you my debut novel, Have Blue Sky. 

David “Never” Moore
Bandit 534
October 2026