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Mary Jennings Hegar is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor, the Purple Heart, and five Air Medals for her service as an Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk Combat Search and Rescue Pilot on three deployments in Afghanistan and many domestic civil humanitarian missions. When her aircraft was shot down in Afghanistan, she sustained back injuries that prevented her continued service as a pilot. The existing Ground Combat Exclusion Policy that prohibited women from serving in ground combat roles meant she could not apply for re-designation as a special tactics officer where her skills and experience could best support the mission. In 2012, she was the lead plaintiff against the Secretary of Defense in a case to abolish the Ground Combat Exclusion Policy and enhance military effectiveness. The policy was repealed in 2013.

MJ’s journey began in Air Force ROTC with a follow-on Air Force commission. After she was sexually assaulted by her Flight Surgeon during a qualifying flight physical, and witnessed his subsequent impunity, she made the difficult decision to leave active duty and pursue her dream of ‘becoming Han Solo’ through the Air National Guard. In this interview we talk about why she felt it was important to share her story to educate the public, politicians, and policy makers on both the achievements and contributions of women in combat operations, and the challenges they face in navigating military careers from negative individual and institutional biases.

Shoot Like a Girl is the November 2024 Aviatrix Book Club discussion book. There is also a young adult version, Fly Like a Girl, for readers ages 12-16. If you haven’t read this book, add it to your TBR list.

https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/shoot-like-a-girl-one-womans-dramatic-fight-in-afghanistan-and-on-the-home-front/

https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/fly-like-a-girl-one-womans-dramatic-fight-in-afghanistan-and-on-the-home-front/

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

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In this Aviatrix Classics conversation with Guest Hosts Dr. Jacque Boyd and Captain Jenny Beatty, we welcome guest Carole Hopson, author of A Pair of Wings, to discuss the remarkable accomplishments of pioneering aviatrix Bessie Coleman. Despite all of the odds against her, Bessie learned to fly and earned her license in France in 1921, then returned to Europe to learn aerobatics before drawing mixed-race audiences to watch her perform in the U.S.

Carole learned about Bessie Coleman from Jenny at a Women in Aviation International conference. In this conversation, she and Jenny share that exchange and talk about the impact it had on Carole’s pursuit of her own dream to fly, and on her inspiration to write this book. We also talk about how Carole took her book from self-published in 2021 to traditionally published by Holt in 2024.

Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/a-pair-of-wings-a-novel/

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

Don’t be fooled by the sweet cover of this picture book by U.S. Army AH-64 Apache combat helicopter pilots, Laura Pangallo Fryar (author) and Morgan Samuels (illustrator). In this interview we geek out on helicopter flying, military careers, “delivering justice” for U.S. ground forces, active duty parenthood, and creative pursuits—and also about their inspiring picture book, Be Something Epic.

Laura is a career Army Officer who went through ROTC and, by way of Korea, Germany, Human Resources Command, back to Korea as a Brigade S3 where she had her first child, and NORTHCOM, is currently in her final tour of duty as a Professor of Military Science for Auburn University’s Army ROTC program with a cadre of over 180 cadets. Morgan’s career followed a similar path until, through the natural progression for a commissioned officer, she wasn’t flying as she wanted and decided to leave the Army. She flew scenic tours at Mount Rushmore, oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually transitioned to fixed wing with the help of the veteran non-profit organization RTAG to ultimately become a 737 pilot for a major airline.

In Be Something Epic, we imagine growing up to be an astronaut, a teacher, a dentist, a first responder, or a defender of freedom, and we reflect on what character traits and behaviors we can work on now that will prepare us to be something EPIC.

Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/be-something-epic/

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

In this conversation with Kitty Banner Seemann, we talk about her spectacular experiences flying as a bush and glacier pilot in Alaska in planes full of mountain climbers, hunters, and adventurers to remote locations in some of the most challenging flight conditions imaginable, all described in her book Wings of Her Dreams: Alaska Bush and Glacier Pilot Kitty Banner.

Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/wings-of-her-dreams-alaska-bush-glacier-pilot-kitty-banner/

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

In this episode of Literary Aviatrix Classics with guest hosts Dr. Jacque Boyd and Capt. Jenny Beatty, we discuss The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation by Amelia Earhart. This book offers fascinating insights to where aviation was at the time the book was published and how Amelia and her contemporaries imagined aviation would impact the future. We also learn from AE’s own words about her pre-aviation life, her selection and participation in the Friendship Flight as a passenger on a transatlantic flight, and ultimately about her own solo flight across the pond. My favorite parts of the book were her summaries of women’s accomplishments and potential in aviation.

Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/the-fun-of-it/

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

In this Literary Aviatrix Writers' Room interview with Lola Reid Allin, she talks about her writing journey including courses at Gotham Writers in NYC, overcoming the fear of sharing personal details, hybrid-publishing with She Writes Press, book launch promotion, and her lessons learned on the value of critique.

00:00 Book Release: 'Highway to the Sky'
00:25 Finding Your Voice: The Journey of a Writer
18:30 Facing your fears in memoir writing
24:31 Hybrid Publishing with She Writes Press
30:05 Book Promotion
41:25 Lessons Learned - Vulnerability, Critique
48:57 Navigating the Evolving Publishing Industry
49:32 Respecting Privacy: Balancing Personal Experiences in Memoir Writing
50:15 2024 YouTube Close.mp4

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

In this interview with Canadian pilot Lola Reid Allin, we talk about her new memoir, launching on September 17th, 2024.

00:00 Introduction and Book Launch
01:17 Synopsis and Reading
09:28 Lola's Aviation Career
11:59 Transitioning Beyond Flying
16:01 Inspiring Others: Why did you write the book?
17:34 Challenges and Discrimination: Navigating a Male-Dominated Field
32:18 Balancing Motherhood and a Flying Career
39:55 Exploring the World: Lola's Adventures in Travel
49:28 Supporting Women in Aviation: Lola's Involvement with the 99s
51:56 The Importance of Self-Reliance and Education
59:04 Book Release: 'Highway to the Sky'


Here's the blurb:

With females making up just 5% of the world’s pilots, this memoir crosses genres to combine aviation history, the author’s journey from unwanted child to successful pilot, and the feminist experience, and will appeal to multiple aviation communities.

“Don’t be silly! Girls can’t fly,” seven-year-old Lola’s father admonishes her as they fly across Canada on a commercial flight in 1962. She is crushed—but decides he must be right. She’s only ever seen male pilots, after all.

Highway to the Sky begins during the empty zone of women in aviation, a three-decade drought following WWII when men reclaimed the jobs that had been performed by women during the war and forced women back to diapers and dishes, where they “belonged.”

Despite Lola’s childhood desire to avoid the straitjacket of traditional female roles and become a pilot, her desperate need for unconditional affection after a lonesome childhood sways her determination. At age twenty, she leaps into marriage and motherhood. Four years, one toxic relationship, and one private pilot license later, she leaves her husband, even though she knows she’ll be censured by friends, family, and 1970s society at large.

Lola’s head-on battle with tradition continues as the lone female pilot in her advanced flight training program and on the job as a flight instructor, bush pilot, charter pilot, and commuter airline pilot between 1979 and 1993. Flying is challenging at times, yes—but her true obstacles are the hostility, sabotage, and discrimination she faces in her industry. She perseveres, however. Ultimately, flying is what gives her the courage to regain control of her life—and helps

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us a text

In this Picture Book Panel discussion, we hear from five recently published authors who navigated various routes to publication including traditional, hybrid, and self-publishing to get their stories into print. They very generously share those journeys with us here—everything from the decision about which route to go, to the editing process, how they found their illustrators, what their distribution looks like, the percentage return they receive on book sales, special military/aviation-related considerations about depicting specific ‘brand’ images, to book promotion and lessons learned along the way. If you’re not writing with the specific niche of women in aviation in mind, the information here will still be of tremendous value as you contemplate your options.

00:00 – 02:49 Intro

02:50 – 06:58 Author Intros

07:00 – 15:08 Manuscript Prep/Edit

15:10 – 18:22 Finding an Artist

18:23 – 24:47 Why did you choose your pub route/timeline to publication

24:48 – 30:33 Distribution

30:34 – 36:04 Promotion and sales

36:05 – 43:05 Percent earnings on sales

43:06 – 47:24 Activity books

47:25 – 53:58 Book Promotion

53:59 – 58:59 Special military and branding image considerations

59:00 – 1:00:05 Lessons learned/advice

If you have a great picture book idea to help inspire the next generation of women in aviation, I hope you’ll pursue it, and I hope this panel discussion helps you on your journey!

A big takeaway from this panel is the importance of community. If you’re writing books featuring women in aviation, I hope you’ll consider the Literary Aviatrix community as yours along your journey, and if you’re not, find your people! The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is an awesome starting point.

Check out my full interviews with several of these authors and many more in the Aviatrix Writers' Room: https://literaryaviatrix.com/writers-room2/

Show some love for the authors: visit their websites, follow them and share their content on social media, buy their books, and drop a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Kodey Bogart @helogirlsbook – Helo Girls series – https://www.helogirls.com

Darcy Guya

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 shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker