Saturday, November 1, 2014

Author, Author Shine Out Loud! Feature Writer and Award Winning Author, Kathleen Rodgers

Author, Author Shine Out Loud! Feature Writer and Award Winning Author

Time: 10/04/2014 11:15 AM EDT

Episode Notes: Kathleen M. Rodgers' stories and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. "Johnnie Come Lately" is her second novel. She lives in a suburb of North Texas with her husband, a retired fighter pilot/commercial airline pilot, and their dog, Denton.

Kathleen's first novel portrays a family man and seasoned fighter pilot. Tuck Westerfield's life could literally crash down around him. In this business of flying fighter jets, the odds of staying alive are stacked against him. Haunted by the memories of dead friends killed in air mishaps, this Vietnam vet and father of three must deal with a devious commander, an animal-crazed neighbor whose husband hates pilots, a beautiful, but suspicious wife and a rebellious teenage daughter. The last thing he needs is another war.

A great read: "The Final Salute" Military Writers Society of America awarded it the Silver Medal. In 2010, USA-Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times ran stories about the author's sixteen-year journey to bring the novel to life.

Kathleen Rodgers' work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Air Force, Army & Navy Times, Family: The Magazine for Military Families, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Albuquerque Journal, Clovis News Journal, For more information, go to www.kathleenmrodgers.com.

The Final Salute, a story of honor, integrity, dedication and survival by Kathleen M. Rodgers

At a small air base in Louisiana, family man and seasoned fighter pilot, Tuck Westerfield's life could literally crash down around him. In this business of flying fighter jets, the odds of staying alive are stacked against him.

Haunted by the memories of dead friends killed in air mishaps, this Vietnam vet and father of three must deal with a devious commander, an animal-crazed neighbor whose husband hates pilots, a beautiful, but suspicious wife and a rebellious teenage daughter. The last thing he needs is another war.

But when Iraq invades Kuwait in the middle of a muggy Louisiana summer, duty calls. Tuck and the other pilots in his squadron head to the Middle East.

Back in Louisiana, Gina Westerfield and other military wives learn that war is hell on the home front, too.

When tragedy strikes, everyone at Beauregard Air Force Base must pull together and live on or forever be consumed with grief.

Although fiction, this story has just as much to do with fact. Kathleen’s husband, Tom Rodgers, flew fighter jets for the United States Air Force for twenty years and then for American Airlines for twenty-two years until his recent retirement. Their real life experiences, both personal and professional, shine through in this military tale; close friends were lost in war as well as training exercises. This book, before and now, is dedicated to her husband/best friend and those who have flown west.

Kathleen Rodgers’ work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Air Force, Army & Navy Times, Family: The Magazine for Military Families, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Albuquerque Journal, Clovis News Journal, and in the following anthologies: Because I Fly, McGraw-Hill,

Lessons From Our Children, Health Communications, Inc., Stories Of Faith And Courage On The Home Front, AMG Publishers, Inc., and Home of the Brave: Somewhere in the Sand Press 53. Her essay, “Remembering Forgotten Fliers, Their Survivors” was published in Red, White and True, a new anthology from University of Nebraska Press (Potomac Books). This essay is the seed that grew up to become The Final Salute. http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/AuthorDetail.aspx?ID=27489

The Final Salute, previously published by Leatherneck Publishing in 2008, sold out the first thousand book print run. In that short time, it was selected in 2009 by Army Wife Network as their July book club pick and Military Writers Society of America awarded it the Silver Medal. In 2010, USA-Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times ran stories about the author’s sixteen-year journey to bring the novel to life. The novel soared to #2 on Amazon’s Bestselling Military Aviation paperback list. In 2011, Navigator Books released the Kindle edition and the novel hit #1 on Amazon's Top Rated War Fiction the following year. So far it has garnered over a hundred reviews and sold over 6000 ebook copies.

ENDORSEMENTS AND REVIEWS

“‘A Captivating Tribute to Our Heroes in the Sky’ — There are not enough positive adjectives in the English language to describe what an incredibly fulfilling and beautiful story Kathleen Rodgers has placed within the pages of this unbelievable book. Having just completed it, I can only describe the dichotomy of emotions I feel right now as those of both pride and loss – pride for the years of military service I contributed to our great nation, and loss as I bid farewell to the enigmatic characters Rodgers has given us in Tuck, Gina, and the many others who bring this tale to life and make it dance on the page right before your eyes. Many have “told” readers countless stories of our brave men and women in uniform and the numerous sacrifices they make for us as they struggle to balance duty to country with duty to family; but Rodgers is one of the elite few who is able to make you “feel” their plight, their emotional battles, their physical pain, as well as their joy.”

— Amanda Matti, author of A Foreign Affair

“It's the details that change your life — Kathleen M. Rodgers' The Final Salute is a moving, compelling story of military life, yes, but of so much more. Rodgers writes with insight and knowledge of military life and just enough solid, factual detail to enthrall me, to make me feel as if I am experiencing that walking-the-perilous-edge along with the main characters. But it's the heart-tugging emotions that she weaves through the story that alert me to what a spellbinding storyteller she is. Ultimately, her tale is a realistic yet heartwarming and reaffirming assessment of life and love and dedication by the very people who guard our own lives.”

— Parris Afton Bonds, New York Times bestselling author of Deep Purple & cofounder of Romance Writers of America and Southwest Writers Workshop

“Gripping Insider's Story of A Fighter Pilot's Life Out of the Cockpit —Kathy Rodgers' award-winning novel, The Final Salute, tells the story of Lt. Colonel Tucker “Tuck” Westerfield, an A- 10 pilot, career Air Force officer on the cusp of promotion and senior command, loving husband, and devoted father of three who, while struggling to deal with the news of his best friend's death in an aircraft accident, finds himself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person when he stumbles upon his commanding officer in the middle of an affair with his female

executive officer. What happens next is a series of escalating and emotionally wrenching actions and decisions that not only threaten Tuck's career, but also his marriage. Rodgers' characters are all well-rounded and complex and the story pulls you in from the very beginning. The novel's climax and its aftermath are one of the most moving and satisfying I have ever read.”

— Dwight J. Zimmerman, New York Times #1 Bestseller writer of Lincoln's Last Days, President of Military Writers Society of America

USA Today ~ Air Force wife's novel set at fictional England AFB.

Military Times ~ The Final Salute: Giving voice to these ghosts.

Mobile, Alabama Press-Register ~ Rodgers has created richly layered characters that compel readers to keep flipping the pages.

Midwest Book Review ~ I recommend this novel as a good description of the military life and the inner works of the way things are done, including the cover-up process.

Fort Worth, Texas Magazine ~ Until the very end, readers are intrigued by her colorful cast of characters that bring everything from love to betrayal amid the added struggle of military life.

Winner of the Silver Medal for fiction from Military Writers Society of America

Amazon’s #1 Top Rated War Fiction

Rodgers’ novel, Johnnie Come Lately, published by Camel Press, has a release date of February 2015. Rodgers is currently working on the sequel to Johnnie Come Lately, Seven Wings to Glory. She is also an active member of Military Writers Society of America. www.kathleenmrodgers.com

ISBN-10: 1625969740

ISBN-13: 978-1625969743

Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces

Published by Deer Hawk Publications www.deerhawkpublications.com

For book orders, contact Aurelia Sands, Publisher, PO Box 7454, Pensacola, FL 32534 (850) 375-9161 aureliasands@hotmail.com

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith, Techno Granny Show™ 2013,
Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15230, 412-444-5197

Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17565&cmd=tc

Host and interviewer is Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2009 National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year and Author of FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE.

Additional blog posts at: http://authorauthorshineout,blogspot.com
host and interviewer, Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.2009 National SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year, Author FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE. Reasons to Write One." Available at:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHKVJOG

Sunday, October 12, 2014

A House Divided, Story of the Mc Carthy Era Recently Published

A few words about my recently-published book: The work entitled, "A HOUSE DIVIDED, The Story of Ike and McCarthy" is the story of the political battle of 1952 through 1954 between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for the political leadership of the

Republican Party and the moral leadership of the Nation. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the climactic struggle between "Ike" and "Joe" played itself out amidst the machinations of larger-than-life historical figures such as Stalin, Churchill, MacArthur, Truman, Nixon, George Marshall, Joseph and Bobby Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow, Roy Cohn, Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

The Ike-McCarthy political war was fought on a battlefield undergirded by the emergence of Russia as a nuclear power, The Korean War, the "Red Scare" and the tumultous Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954. This is history but it's not dry. Rather it relates a three-year story of high drama, human emotions on dispay at government's top levels, pride, prejudice, courage and cowardice.

The colorful characters alone could have provided the stuff for a good novel were it not for the fact that the actual facts were more intriguing than fiction.

A HOUSE DIVIDED is available in paperback HERE and in e-book on

Respectfully,

Don Farinacci

Sunday, September 21, 2014

What’s it like when Steelers fans live in Ravens territory?, Women’s fiction novel makes for cozy fall read

Shore Thing Publishing

Queenstown, MD • shorethingpublishing@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Women’s fiction novel makes for cozy fall read

What’s it like when Steelers fans live in Ravens territory? How did
Washingtonians live through the tense weeks of October 2002?
Letting Go: The Maryland Shores depicts life at the one-year mark after
9/11 and the anxiety in Maryland during the DC sniper attacks.

“Every book has its tension, and having just moved to Maryland around 9/11, I could certainly
describe that,” says Loriann Oberlin, who writes fiction under the pen name of Lauren
Monroe. “The story focuses on the heroine Maren— a young widow solo parenting a child
through this anxious time. Steve Kramer is the decisive surgeon she meets who convinces her
to become a co-worker and much more. No spoilers…it’s a romance!”

A former Pittsburgher, Oberlin also conveys what it’s like to have team loyalties that don’t
exactly coexist with the color scheme of area fans. “I actually do wear a lot of purple so I get
called a closet Ravens fan,” she admits. “Rest assured, I think it’s great for everyone to
display enthusiasm for their individual teams, and by adding a very famous football rivalry to
the storyline, I had a lot of fun with that.”

Two dozen reviews on Amazon.com display reader enjoyment of this novel as it:
• features realistic, believable characters you can sense chemistry between.
• paints a scenic, relaxing and very nautical portrait of the Chesapeake Bay.
• includes spot-on references to the hospital workplace, Pittsburgh favorites, and even
Disney World that adds to the characterization.
• remains a favorite that readers have gifted for special occasions, recommended to
friends and book clubs and posted about on Pinterest, Facebook, and Goodreads.

The author has contributed to national bridal, airline, and women’s magazines in addition to
writing non-fiction books on serious challenges such as relationships, divorce and anger. She
also has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a career as a therapist.
“Combining the romantic and travel writing I did for women with the relationship knowledge
I’ve gained has made this a really fun project. I’m working on Book Two of the series, which
readers already want to read. Always a good sign,” she says. Her name symbolizes her start
in Monroeville, outside of Pittsburgh. Visit www.facebook.com/lauren.monroe.novels.

Letting Go: The Maryland Shores by Lauren Monroe (2014)
$3.99 Kindle/ISBN: 978-0-9912822-0-3
$16.99 Paperback/316 pages/ISBN: 978-0-9912822-1-0

Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17565&cmd=tc

Host and interviewer is Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2009 National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year and Author of FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Author Author, Shine Out Loud: Attention Authors, How to Get that First Interview!

The book is published, web site is up, author page done, free copies are given away, congrats from friends but the media is not knocking down your door to interview you.

So you write press releases, media alerts, make phone calls and WAIT. "I wrote a book, maybe it's not CNN, ABC, NBC or

CBS but someone should be paying attention!"
So you send more, call more and still no bites for even five minute interviews.
Did you ever hear when you were a kid that no one wants to hire you if you have no work experience? It's like that with media coverage. You have got to get that first interview so that you can parlay it into more.

There is hope for authors. Small Business Journalist of the Year, Joanne Quinn-Smith broadcasts an internet radio show which is plugged in to her audience of over one million accumulated internet radio listeners and this year new cars will have a dashboard control for podcasts like hers.

Author Author Shine Out Loud

Get your AUTHOR INTERVIEW NOW!

· Increase your internet search results
· Add a link to your media package on your media page or web site.
· Create an interview cd to add to your author "shock and awe package" for speaking engagements.

CALL TODAY

You are Guaranteed to Get an Interview!

SPRINGBOARD THIS 1ST INTERVIEW INTO MANY

412-444-5197

The Show "Author, Author, Shine Out Loud." The host is internationally known, Joanne Quinn-Smith, a.k.a. TechnoGranny, National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year. "Author Author Shine Out Loud" can be heard archived on the TalkShoe network and also at Pittsburgh's First Internet Radio and TV Network, http://pplmag.com. It will soon be available on Itunes and Player FM.

Listen to the Show Here

P.S. You also get a great blog post about you written by the National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year.

Read and Subscribe to the Blog Here

BE SURE TO LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT PULITZER PRIZE ENTRANT, RIC HUNTER.

Joanne with ABC TV Secret
Millionaire, James Malinchak

Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17565&cmd=tc

Host and interviewer is Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2009 National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year and Author of FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Author Author Shine Out Loud, Pulitzer Prize Entrant Rich Hunter, Air Force Veteran Author of FIREHAMMER

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW HERE

27 years as US Air Force, fighter pilot, all active duty gave Ric Hunter a rich arsenal of experience and stories to tell. Why 27 years in active military? Well Ric

says he was just having too much fun with amazing assignments. But one assignment that would not be considered "fun" was his time as a fighter pilot at the end of the Viet Nam Conflict. As a freelance writer his myriad experience became articles on aviation and the Viet Nam War and some of these became part of his historical fiction novel, FIREHAMMER.

FIREHAMMER is based on a true story of two high school best friends who parted ways on graduation. Tim joined the Marines in the height of the Vietnam War. Randy went to college and later became a fighter pilot. When Tim is killed at nineteen by a Vietnamese sniper, Randy vows to even the score. Firehammer is the nick-name of Tim’s Zippo lighter that Randy carries during several combat engagements, including the last battle of the war when his flight of four Phantoms helps rescue Marines trapped on bloody Koh Tang Island. Spoiler Alert: At the end of the novel, Randy places the Zippo at panel 9E of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. What happens between Randy's first combat flight and his visit to the Memorial is mesmerizing enough to have earned, the author, Ric, a Pulitzer nomination.

Native—sort of.

· 27-year active duty, 8 years Civil Service

· 3 generations of career Air Force

· 4000 hrs in fast movers in 20 years, most in the F-15 “Eagle”

Why I wrote FIREHAMMER and what it is about:

· Magazine feature articles

· Critique Group in Panama City, Florida—books, can I go the distance?

· 9-11 interruption

· Not a self-published “Memoir,” although there are many good ones out there.

· What is FIREHAMMER about?

· Publisher to submit for a Pulitzer and a couple of movie companies are giving it a look

40^th anniversary of the events in this book are coming up next year

Write your story! People write their stories for many reasons: therapy, for the decendants, as a hobby or to sell.

· First person military stories are good sellers!

· Just start writing a little every day and join a group

My Presentations: Power Point and video called, “Come Fly With Me: the F-4 Phantom II and the Last Battle of Vietnam.”

FIREHAMMER is available on Amazon in both print and digital versions

Ric
"A fighter without a gun...is like an airplane without a wing. " B/G Robin Olds

TWITTER:@ric_cvhjr

Website

Purchase Ric's FIREHAMMER

Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17565&cmd=tc

Host and interviewer is Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2009 National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year and Author of FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Author, Author Shine Out Loud, New Audio Book with Pittsburgh Connection

An Exciting Announcement, New Audio Book with Pittsburgh Connection

Dear Katzenhaus Customer,

We have just released the audiobook version of Beyond All Price, which was our all-time Kindle bestseller. Here's a message about it from Adrianne Price, who narrated the book. Turn up your sound and listen here.

In connection with that release, we will have several free copies of the audiobook to give away to those who have entered their names on our website. The random drawing will be held early next week, so there's little time to lose. Click here right now to add your name and be entered in that contest.

Thanks for reading (and listening to) our books!

Sincerely,

Carolyn P. Schriber
Katzenhaus Books
P. O. Box 1629
Cordova, TN 38088www.katzenhausbooks.com

Watch Author Interview on Roving Pittsburgher, PPLMag

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Award Winning Military Historical Novel Author Completes Trilogy

If you’ve always wanted to know what happened to that baby born in FLYING SOLO, the wait is over! WAITING IN THE WINGS answers all of your questions! Explore a journey of loss and love regained! Get your copy of this five star, page turner today! If you order from AgeView Press, you can get the signed boxed set for 29.99! Just click here! What a superb Christmas gift! Remember proceeds from the sale of these books to support the USO and Vietnam Veterans!

Thanks so much for your support! - and as always, if you have read this wonderful books, please post a couple of sentences as a review on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Author, Author, Shine Out Loud Guest, Fran Hawthorne, On Being an Ethical Consumer

FRAN HAWTHORNE

Interviewed by Joanne Quinn-Smith

Listen to Show Here

Moving from California to New Jersey to New York, Fran Hawthorne has spent more than 25 years covering health care, politics, finance, and the nexus of business and social activism, as an editor and writer at Fortune, BusinessWeek, the Bergen Record, and Institutional Investor (where she’s now a senior contributing writer). Her award-winning fifth book, Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We

Fran Hawthorne

Think We Love, was named one of the best books of 2012 by Library Journal. Among her other books are the award-winning Pension Dumping (Bloomberg Press) and Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat (John Wiley & Sons). In addition, Hawthorne writes regularly for The New York Times, Newsday,The Scientist, Chief Executive magazine, Crain’s New York Business, and other publications. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley.

AWARDS:

ETHICAL CHIC American Library Association: One of the Best of the Best of the University Presses

PENSION DUMPING won 2 awards:

Book of the Year--Business & Economics (bronze), 2008, ForeWord magazine

Excellence in Financial Journalism: Books (first place), 2009, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants

General consumer issues:

1.Many people feel like it’s pointless to try to be an ethical consumer. “What difference does my one plastic bag make to the vast problem of climate change?” One reply is: “If all of this show’s listeners brought one reusable canvas bag to the grocery store each time they shopped, instead of taking a new plastic bag, they would together save tons of gallons of petroleum.” But there’s also a bigger answer. We can’t give up. Yes, government and industry must do their part, and their parts are much bigger than ours, but the problems are so huge that we must all share in the solution. And we can’t start by carefully considering what, where, and how we consumer and shop.

2. Another concern I hear frequently is: “I care about so many issues – saving energy, alternative energy, recycling, sweatshops, animal products, organic goods …. How can I find a store or product that’s perfect in all these categories?” Of course you can’t! So you have to set a few top priorities, and then find the best possible products and merchants (which my books try to help you do).

Company by company in Ethical Chic

Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love analyzes six well-known companies with a reputation for being socially responsible as well as “cool,” to see if they deserve those reputations. Here are the main talking points for each:

Apple

Apple customers worship Steve Jobs, and love their i-gizmos so much, that they want to assume that Apple has been as much of a pioneer in ethical issues as it has been in tech. But that’s just not true. It was one of the last tech companies to pay attention to environmental concerns, and it ignored the horrible working conditions in Chinese factories for years.

Starbucks

Starbucks is a fascinating set of contradictions. Yes, its employees get health insurance and stock options, and it is constantly seeking new ways to be green. But it seems blind to some basics. It doesn’t do enough to encourage reusable cups. It fought union drives in very nasty ways. And why does it still sell bottled water?

Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s violates almost every precept of a socially responsible business: It’s part of a secretive, big, multinational chain. It does not buy local. It sells pre-cooked food that requires extra packaging and handling. It isn’t union. It isn’t all organic. And yet, ethical customers love it because it’s fun (and cheap).

American Apparel

Hopefully, the recent, headline-making changes will solve American Apparel’s biggest problem -- by firing its CEO, Dov Charney, a really creepy guy accused of multiple charges of sexual harassment – while maintaining the company’s strengths: Hip clothing made in California under really good working conditions, with strong support for immigrants’ rights.

Timberland and Tom’s of Maine

Both of these are truly stand-out companies that provide a model for ethical businesses: They strive to reduce energy consumption, use natural ingredients, and treat their workers well. The worry is that both have been bought by bigger conglomerates. Will their new owners maintain these ethical standards?

WHERE TO BUY BOOKS and LINKS

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Chic-Inside-Story-Companies/dp/0807000949/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331923002&sr=1-1

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13151260-ethical-chic

Listen to Show Here

CONTACT INFO

email: fran@hawthornewriter.com

Twitter: @hawthornewriter

Website:: www.hawthornewriter.com

Linked In: Fran Hawthorne https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=2305534&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

Joanne Quinn-Smith, host of "Author, Author Shine Out Loud" is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding, 2009 National SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year, Author "Folly of Marketing Plan in Your Head, 101 Compelling Reasons to Write One." Available at:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHKVJOG

Disclaimer: These are notes provided by the guest pertinent to a published book and not information verified by the host to the show.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Author Author Shine Out Loud Interview with Military Fiction Trilogy Author, Jeanette Vaughan

Get your coffee, put down your paper and meet an author. Find out what makes them tick, feel, emote, write, succeed. Ask the questions you always wanted to ask an author right here. This is the Authors Chance to Shine Out Loud and not just on the pages of his or her book

Jeanette Vaughan BIO

Jeanette Vaughan is an award winning writer and story teller. Not only is she published in the periodicals and professional journals of nursing, but also in the genre of fiction. Out on her sheep farm, she has written several novels and scripts. Her screenplay "Angel of Mercy" won the outstanding nursing research

award from Texas Tech University Health Science Center. In addition, she was named Distinguished Alumni for the school of nursing in 2001 for her written work and volunteerism for the Sydney Olympic Games. Her debut novel FLYING SOLO won fourth place in the 2013 Reader's Favorite International Book Awards for southern fiction. FLYING SOLO also was a finalist in the Beverly Hills Book Awards. Her second novel, SOLO VIETNAM was just awarded the silver medal for historical fiction by the Military Writer's Society. Jeanette has practiced nursing in the fields of critical care and trauma. She is the mother of four children, including two Navy pilots. She lives in a Victorian farmhouse out in the pastures of northeast Texas with her sheep, chickens, donkeys and sheep dogs.

FLYING SOLO…the first book -

Woman ahead of her time……1960s housewife who learned to fly a plane in suburban New Orleans and the stole it in a messy divorce.

Women in the sixties had a set pattern. This was pre-women’s lib! The goal was to meet a nice boy, a good provider, get married and then procreate. This just didn’t sit well with women of an independent spirit. Where was Gloria Steinhem when you needed her?

What was must have been like to meet the love of your life…..but both were married…….the Navy pilot lived by honor, courage, commitment?

They say in life there are few people who find the love of their lives. Nora Broussard met that person, a her pilot instructor. But both were involved in complicated Catholic relationships where divorce was not an option. What were they to do?

What was to be done about the baby she was now pregnant with?

Following a secret, torrid love affair, Nora was pregnant. She had four other children, he six. What was to become of this baby? Would true love win out? Would Steve divorce his sickly wife to spend the rest of eternity with Nora?

Lead character Nora Broussard made decisions decisively..and sometimes with consequences?

It is said that the great pioneers in life are often born with the wanderlust. As such, they defy convention and stalk out on their own. Some are successful, some not. But true pioneers strike out on their own, not really caring what other people think.

Why do women find her story so inspiring?

In the 60s…women’s lib had only just begun in infancy. People were just beginning to challenge the norms of society. It was the pioneers who dared to be different, dared to be judged, that laid the foundation for women to advance where they are today.

SOLO VIETNAM….the second book?

What lead her to join the USO and go to Vietnam? Unusual for a woman?

Nora Broussard believed in soul mates and true love. As such,

there was nothing and no one who were going to stand in her way! Women pilots weren’t allowed to fly in Vietnam. Determined to make her voice heard and get her man, she commits to 18 months of volunteerism as manager of USO club.

So I understand you’ve told about the controversies of Vietnam via the air war in Vietnam…how was that different than the ground war?

There have been plenty of movies and books about the ground pounders of Vietnam; the brave soldiers who had to face deplorable jungle like conditions booby trapped with horrors. But there are a rare few books who view the war from the air. Vietnam as experienced by the pilots who had to bomb and strafe laying down explosives and napalm to gain access and targets. What they were left with was the nawing feelings that tugged at their hearts in taking out innocent women and children as a part of their missions.

Military and aviation focus………what planes and why?

Always a consummate avaiation enthusiast, I live vicariously through my pilots. Both of my boys fly for the Navy. My father designed integral parts on the F-111 and F-16. So aviation is in my blood. I so admire people who can take to the freedom of the skies.

Is the second book heavy military fiction?

No! What’s great is that my second book covers the history accurately, but adds enough drama to keep both men and women readers glued to the pages!

Are each of the books stand alone? Or do you need to read them in order?

Each book is stand alone a great, page turning story. But to gain the full experience, one should star t with FLYING SOLO, then pick up SOLO VIETNAM and the glorify with WAITING IN THE WINGS to get the full immersion. Women will want to shout from the rooftops that they love this character!

Finale…..WAITING IN THE WINGS

When is the finale of the trilogy due out?

The finale of the story, which answers the questions to what happened to that baby of 1962 get answered. I am excited to announce that the book WAITING IN THE WINGS should be live on Amazon in three days!

So do we find out what happens to that baby?

Yes! All the questions are answered. We find out what happened to that baby and how being adopted affected her life. Not understanding why she is wired the way she is, the pinnacle of the story comes when Jana finally meets her birthmother, Nora Broussard.

Is there more aviation in this story?

Yes. Much more aviation as we explore the nuances of the magnicent Vought Corsair F4U. It was a plane that was flown in Korea and Vietnam. A magnificent attack plane capable of dog-fighting the enemy.

So what are you working on next?

ETERNALLY AT WAR…….Marine pilot’s memoir and struggle with PTSD at the same base Chu Lai…flying the A-4 Skyhawk but tailhooking it on the ground! How does that happen and why?

Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17565&cmd=tc

Host and interviewer is Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2009 National Small Business Administration Journalist of the Year and Author of FOLLY OF MARKETING PLAN IN YOUR HEAD, 101 COMPELLING REASONS TO WRITE ONE.