Literary Aviatrix: The Power of Story - Women in Aviation

Send us Fan Mail In this fun interview with mystery writer Edith Maxwell, publishing under the pen name 'Maddie Day', we talk about her historical mystery, A Case for the Ladies: A Dot and Amelia Mystery, which launched in March. In it, a young Amelia Earhart, who is living in Boston, taking flying lessons on the weekends, and working at an immigrant settlement house, helps solve the mys...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with Bloomberg space journalist and author Loren Grush, we talk about her childhood growing up around Johnson Space Center with two NASA Engineers and how that led her to unearth the stories of NASA's first women astronauts. Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website?...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with self-published historical fiction and mystery/thriller author Penelope Haines, we talk details on going from Na-No-Wri-Mo participant to self-published author.  Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with New Zealand pilot, flight instructor and author, Penelope Haines, we discuss her mystery/thriller novel Death on D'Urville and talk all things flying and instructing in New Zealand! Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with all-star award-winning young adult authors Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein, they discuss their fabulously researched and written young adult non-fiction American Wings: Chicago's Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky .  They give us a glimpse into this fascinating aviation history and the process that brought it to life in th...

Send us Fan Mail In this Aviatrix Writers’ Room interview with best-selling author Sara Ackerman, she shares how she went from three rejected, unpublished novels to finding an agent and becoming the successful author of six acclaimed historical fiction novels centered on Hawaiian history, including her latest release , The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West .  Did you know you can support your local...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with best-selling author Sara Ackerman, we talk about her latest historical novel, The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West, set against the backdrop of the Dole Air Race from the Continental U.S. to Hawaii in the late 1920's. In this reimagined story, female competitor Olivia West joins the fray in a race that historically included no female pilots. Acclaimed fo...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with helicopter pilot and author Kodey Bogart, we talk about her new picture book, Helo Girls: The Firefighting Pilot. Kodey is a decorated veteran Army Warrant Officer Medevac pilot and recipient of two Air Medals and the Sikorsky Rescue Award. She has extensive experience in a range of aviation operations, training, safety, test flight, air ambulance, and law e...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the new Literary Aviatrix Leadership and Development author interview series. Loree "Rowdy" Draude was a combat pilot among the first women to deploy on an aircraft carrier. She also navigated a very successful career in the tech sector. Now Loree brings her professional experiences together to help coach and inspire business leaders, and her love of art and c...

Send us Fan Mail Announcing the FOURTH Aviatrix Book Club annual reading list! With so many fabulous books it's hard to choose only twelve. I hope you're as excited as I am about the diversity of genre, types of flying, and historical periods reflected in this list. I look forward to seeing you in the discussions.  Happy Reading! Did you know you can support your local independent booksh...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with Leona Cobham, granddaughter of pioneering pilot and aviation advocate, Sir Alan Cobham, we talk about her wonderful middle grade book, Flying Circus Takes to the Skies, which features the adventures of four anthropomorphic vintage aircraft: Spiff, the Spitfire; Vul, the Vulcan; Tom, the Tomcat; and Woody, the Tiger Moth. Leona was inspired to write the book...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with Astronaut Pilot Eileen Collins, she talks about her path, from her childhood in Elmira, New York, through community college and ROTC, to Air Force Flight Training, Instructing, a combat mission in Grenada, Stanford, and Test Pilot School, to becoming the first female, and mother, NASA Space Shuttle pilot and mission commander.  Did you know you can support y...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with Coast Guard Aviation Electronics Technician and H65 Dolphin Helicopter Flight Mechanic, Ashlee Leppert, we talk about her memoir The Hurricane Within , which recounts her experiences in the Hurricane Harvey disaster response while she simultaneously endured troubling and mysterious physical symptoms that eventually grounded her from flying. Ashlee talks abou...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with Liz McConaghy, we talk about her experiences serving as aircrew on RAF Chinooks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the mental challenges she faced after being medically grounded and leaving the service, which she writes about in her memoir Chinook Crew 'Chick': Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female Chinook Force Crewmember Did you...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with USAF Academy graduate, F-16 combat veteran pilot, former no. 3 Thunderbird demonstration team pilot, and boy-mom, Caroline ‘Blaze’ Jensen, we talk about her sweet new picture book, Thundermouse, her career, and how she managed one of the most visible and demanding jobs imaginable as the mother of a toddler. Blaze is the granddaughter of a WWII SPAR (as am I)...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with author Mary Carroll Moore, we talk about her new book, A Woman’s Guide to Search and Rescue , which is available for preorder and launches on October 24th, 2023. In a former life, Mary was a syndicated food journalist who wrote many food and cooking-related articles and books. At fifty, she went back to school for her MFA and began not only writing, but also...

Send us Fan Mail In the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for September 2023, author Nell McShane Wulfhart gives us the previously unsung heroines of both the aviation industry and the women's rights movement: the airline stewardesses whose fight against blatant, unapologetic, institutionalized sexism laid the groundwork for equal rights beyond the airlines. This lynchpin story in our histor...

Send us Fan Mail In this Writers' Room interview with Nell McShane Wulfhart, author of The Great Stewardess Rebellion, we talk about her journey as a travel writer and the transition from writing short form journalistic pieces to a full length narrative non-fiction history. She also shares the details of submitting a proposal, working through an agent, and the experience of working with a Big...

Send us Fan Mail In this portion of my interview with Erin Mariah Murphy about her picture book Halfway Home , she talks about her early career, learning to fly as a teenager and saving her money to pursue an aviation degree in college, where she also competed in the Air Race Classic.  Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate...

Send us Fan Mail In this excerpt from my  Writers Room interview with thriller novelist Sandy Parks about her book Under the Radar. In it she shares how and when she found the time to write the several novels she's published over the years, and talk about her strategy for getting in front of agents in an organic way as a volunteer at writers' conferences.  Did you know you can support yo...

Send us Fan Mail In this interview with author and publisher Connie Reeves, a former Army helicopter pilot, we talk about her fiction thriller novel, The Elimination Game, and the book Military Fly Moms, an anthology of women’s stories compiled by Linda Maloney, published by Connie, and featuring yours truly along with many inspiring women military aviators. The Elimination Game, the August Aviatr...

Send us Fan Mail In this portion of my interview with retired USAF Colonel Merryl Tengesdal about her book Shatter the Sky , she talks about the physical challenges and long term physiological effects flying the U-2 had on her and her fellow Dragon Lady pilots.  Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If...

Send us Fan Mail In this portion of my interview with Erin Seidemann about her memoir, Postcards from the Sky, she talks about flying as a general aviation pilot to the Bahamas.  Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By...

Send us Fan Mail In this portion of my Writers' Room interview with author Kathy Mexted about her book Australian Women Pilots , she talks about learning to trust her voice, put herself into a story, and present a subject in longer form to write this collection of ten biographical sketches of pioneering women pilots throughout the last hundred years of Australian aviation history.  Did you kn...

Send us Fan Mail In this portion of my interview with author Lauren Kessler , she does a reading from her book, The Happy Bottom Riding Club, that describes the 1929 Women’s Transcontinental Air Race.  Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to i...