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Lorraine Heath Interview – Brave Women in History Translating To Fiction
Author Guest , Interviews / April 6, 2022

Your new historical novel, GIRLS OF FLIGHT CITY, is set in the 1940s. What inspired you to write a story set in this time and this particular place? My mom grew up outside of London when the bombs were falling. Listening to her tales growing up, I’ve always been fascinated by this time period. When I read an article about a woman tending to the British cemetery in Terrell, TX – the town where my dad graduated from high school – I became intrigued by the history of British pilots coming to Terrell to learn how to fly. It was one of 6 schools across the south that trained pilots for Britain. When I discovered women played a large role in training the pilots, I saw the potential for sharing this remarkable part of our history.   How much research went into this book? Extensive research went into writing this book. In addition to brushing up on my WWII history, I read books about the history of the schools and how the U.S. got involved in training British pilots. I researched the history of women pilots and the bias they faced. Then I needed a general understanding of aircraft used…

Julia Justiss | History ReFreshed: January 2020 – Looking Ahead, Looking Back
Author Guest / January 15, 2020

The traditional character associated with the month of January was Janus, the Roman god portrayed as two heads looking in opposite directions, one forward and one back.  Often the New Year is a time of appraisal of what has worked—or not worked—in the year gone by as we set new goals for the year ahead. The theme of past events reinterpreted in the light of the present is a trope popularized by novelist Kate Morton and other best-selling authors.  So for this month that traditionally draws upon the past to make reflections about present and future, we’ll look at several works of historical fiction that pinball back and forth between the current day and significant events in the past. Perhaps because the dangers and privations of war create drama and reorder all of life’s priorities, the “then” portion of all these stories takes place in either the World War I or II era. We begin with LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb.  The novel is written as a series of letters, beginning in October 1914 and continuing throughout the war, between Evie Elliott, her brother Will, and his best friend Thomas Harding, interspersed with chapters featuring…