to comment beyond that.

MWSA: Who should play Captain Bowie in the film?

EDWARDS: (Grins.) No Comment.

MWSA: You have an opinion on the matter?

EDWARDS: Of course I have an opinion. I'm just not going to share it. If things get that far, I'm just as interested to see who's going to play Captain Rachel Vargas, and Chief Theresa McPherson. They're both strong female roles, warriors from the ground up.

MWSA: Do you have any plans for your next novel?

EDWARDS: Certainly. I'm neck-deep in the first draft of a new book.

MWSA: Is it a USS Towers story?

EDWARDS: The Towers will definitely factor into the plot. And some of the characters from Torpedo will be back.

MWSA: Is that all you're going to tell us? Can you at least give us a hint?

EDWARDS: There are several hints buried in Torpedo . That's all I'm going to say, for now.

MWSA: One final question… What advice can you offer to people who are trying to break into writing?

EDWARDS: If that's your dream, don't let anyone talk you out of it. A thousand people, many of them writers or publishing insiders, will hammer you with horror stories about how tough it is to get anywhere in the writing business. Tune them out. Every bestselling author started out as an unpublished wannabe, listening to the same gloomy predictions. Every one who made it did so by ignoring the voices of doom and following the dream.