Virginia Thorndike, like most writers, was simply curious. As a Maine resident, Thorndike had been peripherally aware of the ongoing debate over locating a liquefied natural gas terminal Down East, as two companies are proposing to do. Being "on the green end of things," as she says, Thorndike assumed she was probably anti-LNG, but she questioned that assumption while writing her previous book, On Tugboats: Stories of Life and Work Aboard, published in 2004.