The new novel Falling takes place aboard a flight from Los Angeles to New York, during which the pilot learns a terrorist plans to kill his family unless he crashes the plane. Author T.J. Newman, who spent 10 years as a flight attendant, says inspiration for the story came to her while she was at work.



"I'm looking out at the passengers who are all asleep ... and I have this thought that their lives, my life, my crewmates' lives were all in the hands of the pilots," Newman says. "It was the first time that I thought: With that much power and responsibility, how vulnerable does that make a commercial pilot?"



Newman couldn't shake the question. She began working on the novel in longhand, jotting down dialogue or ideas on paper napkins in the quiet moments on red-eye flights.



"A passenger would come around the corner [of the galley] and ask for something, and I just sort of flip the paper over and tuck it away, and then when once they were taken care of, I'd pull it back out and keep going," she says.



Newman transferred her in-flight notes into a single document on her iPad during days off and layovers. Little by little, the book came together.



Though she's no longer a flight attendant, Newman says she would "absolutely" recommend the job to others.



"It's a phenomenal job where you get to visit great places that you probably wouldn't otherwise and stay in nice hotels and fly with the best crews," she says. "That being said, have I spent many days on my hands and knees, scraping up a complete strangers' vomit? Yeah. I definitely have. It's not pretty a lot of the time."