Jay kindly alerted us to another interview with Susannah Charleson about the Scent of the Missing TNT pilot on Summer-Glau.net. Select excerpts about Tricia and the pilot from the interview:

Hello Susannah, for those who don’t know you yet, can you tell us a bit more about your life and work?
A: I’m a pilot, flight instructor, and canine handler on a search-and-rescue team. Search-and-rescue work is a volunteer commitment, so I write and fly and teach to make a living. Since my writing background is primarily broadcasting, Scent of the Missing was originally intended as a series of radio pieces for our public radio network. Fate, as they say, had other plans.

TNT is going to adapt your book into a TV show, was it a nice surprise?
A: It was a very nice surprise. You write something like this hoping it’ll interest people and have some greater contribution to make (support your local SAR teams!), and when a network comes along and finds value in the reality these volunteers work, it’s a big encouragement.

Did you get involve in the creative part of the project?
A: Yes. I think my official title is Consulting Producer, if I remember right. Work on the pilot really started back in May, when the basic premise was drafted with the Executive Producer here in my home town, and then the serious outline went into draft in June, where I met with the writers in L.A. As they wrote through drafts, we emailed or called back-and-forth frequently. These writers are established professionals and really understand how they need to build a story for the screen, but they were equally interested in getting as much of the dialogue and action appropriate to actual search procedure as possible and building characters whose lives are shaped by that very specific mission. They asked a lot of good questions and built from there.

They’ve chosen some really talented actors for the series, what do you think of them? Are they doing real SAR handlers justice?
A: I think the choices were spot on. Having watched these actors work – hard – across multiple takes with tricky environmental things happening, I could see these folks certainly demonstrate the kind of stamina you need for SAR. And the ability to step up again and again without complaint. They in no way had it easy.

We know Tricial Helfer’s character is mostly based on you, what was your reaction when you found out she’d been cast?
A: My reaction? YAY! She’s strong and smart and outdoorsy. And believable in the search field. And gorgeous in the middle of all that. I think I clapped when I first read it, which probably startled a few people in Starbuck’s at dawn.

The full interview on Summer-Glau.net. Susannah Charleson is the author of the Scent of the Missing book and the show’s consulting producer. Check out her book at www.scentofthemissing.com.