
Sandy Hanna
Sandy Hanna is a BRAT—a British Regiment Attached Transfer—the daughter of a military officer and part of a feral tribe known as “Saigon Kids” who lived in Vietnam from 1960 to 1962. This tribe is made up of children whose parents were part of the military, CIA, US AID, State Department and private contractors. Sandy, whose educational background is in child development and the biology of cognition, is also an educator and designer of experiential play environments for children, including the Sesame Place Theme Park, adventure playgrounds for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Head Start indoor play spaces, and several Children's Museums. The Ignorance of Bliss: An American Kid in Saigon, published in January 2019, is Sandy's first novel and is based on her life as a 10 year-old in Saigon in the 1960s. Her website is www.sandyhanna.net.
How the Story of a Childhood Became an Acclaimed Novel
Novelist Sandy Hanna tells how she used the ‘Save the Cat!’ story beats to write her acclaimed novel, ‘The Ignorance of Bliss: An American Kid in Saigon.’