On that fateful day of March 30, 1981, John Hinkley fired six shots in three seconds at President Reagan using what he later called a “devastation bullet.” While he thought it would explode inside the victim, it did not, as he was using a smaller gun — a .22. “After surgery, we discovered that the bullet that hit Reagan was lodged 1 inch from his heart,” recounted Karna Small Bodman.

At the time, Bodman was serving as the Reagan administration’s deputy press secretary. The horrific event took place about two months after his inauguration and, she said, is seared in her memory.

Retold in a way that could be the introduction to a riveting political thriller if it were fiction, the experiences gleaned during her six-year stint working in the White House were the springboard and inspiration for her foray into writing. She has produced six thrillers, whose characters are composites of people with whom she worked, and one children’s picture book. Over the years, she has been in demand on book tours and has been invited to give some 400 speeches, signings and interviews recounting her experiences about the attempted assassination. She has presented locally at the Nick Linn Library Series, the Naples Yacht Club, the Port Royal Club and Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she is a member.

Bodman has achieved number-one status in thrillers on Amazon and awards that include a silver medal by the Military Writers Association of America and the “Mom’s Choice Award” for her children’s book. The seasoned scribe said she gets satisfaction from feedback that readers enjoy her work. Hailing from Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb just north of Chicago, she and her husband are longtime Neapolitans. She is actively involved in local organizations and serves as a founding Trustee of Naples Community Church. Additionally, she is a member of the Forum Club, for which she has been a speaker and currently serves on its program committee. We caught up to learn more.

The Naples Press: As deputy press secretary on March 30, 1981, where were you positioned?

Karna Small Bodman: I was scheduled to be in the car with Press Secretary Jim Brady, but I stayed back at the last moment to return press calls and do research for Jim’s next briefing. When President Reagan, Jim and the Secret Service walked out of the Hilton Hotel after his address to a union group, I probably would have been standing right next to him when Hinkley fired the shots. Meanwhile, I spent the day in the Situation Room with members of the senior staff; as you might imagine, it was a harrowing day.

TNP: What type of writing did you start doing, and how did you gravitate to writing political thrillers?

KSB: At first I wrote scripts as a television news anchor and reporter in San Francisco and Washington, D.C; then, I wrote position papers for President Reagan when I served first as deputy press secretary and later as senior director of the National Security Council. After I left the White House, I wanted to write political thrillers based on my experiences. My six fictional thrillers all involve threats to national security, and although I began writing them a dozen years ago, those issues remain relevant today.

TNP: Tell us about your six books and how you developed ideas for each.

KSB: My first thriller, Checkmate, was inspired by President Reagan’s famous speech announcing his Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) about developing a missile defense system to protect the country. The policy we had at the time was called “mutually assured destruction,” which dictated that if a hostile country (Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc.) were to lob a missile our way, even in error, it would kill millions of innocent Americans. All we could do in retaliation was to lob a missile at them, killing millions of innocent civilians. President Reagan said that was not the way he wanted to conduct his foreign policy. He asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to task our best technology and scientific minds to develop a system that would stop a missile so that nobody dies?” His great line was, “Wouldn’t it better to save lives than avenge lives?” In Checkmate, the heroine works for a defense contractor and develops a defense against cruise missiles. A National Security Council staffer wants to help her get it financed and deployed. The subject is in the news now.

The second book, Gambit, is about a threat from a group in China who shoot down domestic air carriers. My heroine invents a laser-based system to protect the planes. The third, Final Finesse, is about a dictator in Venezuela sending agents over the border to sabotage our oil and gas pipelines to raise the price of energy in his own country. Number four, Castle Bravo, outlines a genuine threat from an attack by a malevolent country setting off an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy our ground electronics (no electricity grid, no communications, transportation or sanitation) and as one Major General described it to me, “It would send us back to the year 1910 — and don’t think our enemies aren’t looking at that.”

The fifth is Trust but Verify. I had a summer home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for 30 years; that was the scene of the annual Federal Reserve Conference. The bad guys are a pair of Russian oligarchs who put a hit on the conference (attended by international economic ministers) that they believed would tank international markets, so they shorted the exchanges. Our hero and heroine must figure out how to stop the attack. Finally, my new thriller, Protecting Jess, was inspired when I was sent to Brazil to give speeches about President Reagan’s policies.

TNP: Tell us about your children’s book.

KSB: Wrigley at the White House is about a puppy who runs around creating havoc while also solving a mystery for the President.

TNP: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

KSB: First, finish the book, then search for an agent. Sign up at querytracker. net, which will send a list of agencies open for submissions.

Karna Small Bodman

Online and social: karna@ bodman.net or karnabodman. com; on social media: facebook.com/karna. bodman; on X: @Karna Bodman; on Instagram: KarnaBodman

To purchase books: Available at Amazon

Upcoming engagements: 10 a.m. Nov. 1, speech to AAUW of Naples at Collier County Education Association, Naples; 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Nov. 15, book sale at Trinity-by-the-Cove Christmas Market, Naples. Next year: 12:30 p.m. Feb. 12, luncheon speech at Collier’s Reserve Country Club, Naples; 10 a.m. Feb. 19, speech to Marco Island Daughters of the American Revolution, Marco Island.