In the years leading up to my first draft, I often daydreamed during duller moments about the situation I had concocted, in which Fidel Castro chose to take advantage of the Arnaz’s popularity to paint a favorable portrait of revolutionary Cuba. Curiosity led me to poke around the Internet. That’s when I learned about Lucille’s youthful brush with socialism. I also discovered the coincidental alignment of the superstars’ divorce with these historical events. It dawned on me that I could use the Cuban Revolution as a setting for Lucille to come to terms with the future she faced without Desi as spouse and partner. All that came to me when I actually began working out the story’s first scenes, all the while digging into the lives, words, accomplishments, and deeds of my characters’ real life namesakes.