Bush was inspired to write this book after a Princeton assignment where she came across the story of a woman who became a Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) officer during World War II. She revisited the idea during the pandemic, and the resulting novel WAVES on the Potomac (Konstellation Press) tells the story of Meg Burke who leaves her job as a math teacher in Brooklyn to serve. This story on the unique experience of a woman working as a codebreaker during a tumultuous time, is full of twists and turns.