Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
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“With snappy dialogue, impressive historical details, a sense of adventure and courage on every page, and even a love story, Ella Carey has hit all the markers that make fine historical fiction.”
—Ann Howard Creel, bestselling author of The Whiskey Sea
“Fans of inspirational World War II fiction will cheer on Eva and her fellow pilots as they chase their dreams, endure heartbreak, and discover their true strength. Carey’s evocative descriptions bring home the exhilaration of flight—and the everyday indignities endured by young women who challenged the expectations of their time. The story’s final twist makes for a surprising and moving conclusion.” —Elizabeth Blackwell, author of On a Cold Dark Sea and In the Shadow of Lakecrest
“A moving, beautifully written novel about the amazing WASP during WWII. True to life and packed full of emotion. I thoroughly enjoyed feeling like I was one of these extraordinary women pilots as I read the story.” —Soraya M. Lane, Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
Excerpt from Beyond the Horizon
By Ella Carey
This excerpt from Beyond the Horizon is taken from a scene in Camp Davis, North Carolina, where Eva was sent to fly after training at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. I had a wonderful pilot, Tom Lawson, help me with the flight details in this scene. Camp Davis was one of the toughest Air Force bases for the WASP. With over 40,000 male trainees there at any one time and only fifty WASP, it was not a popular assignment. The base was surrounded by swampland and the aircraft maintenance problem was particularly severe. Insects swarmed into pilots’ noses, ears, and mouths. While the WASP found unwanted attention from human pests to be the real problem, nevertheless, they target towed planes, being the enemy that the trainees fired upon. Day after day, the WASP flew on, even though they were told that the planes are dispensable, and they were dispensable.
= = =
Camp Davis, North Carolina, January 1944
Eva kicked open the door to the women’s private alert room. She stood for a moment, framed underneath the warning sign that read, WASP NEST! DRONES KEEP OUT OR SUFFER THE WRATH OF THE QUEEN!
The North Carolina wind howled, sending the sand drifts surrounding Camp Davis into gritty swirls that tried to burst through the cracks in the makeshift building. Eva shivered. She pulled her standard-issue, men’s size forty-four flight suit closer around her slight frame.
A small group of women pilots sat waiting in the anteroom. Eva’s close friend Helena held a bowl of mandarin oranges. “These are liquid gold, girls! Just when you thought bathtub gin was the epitome of sophistication, I give you this: a mandarin orange!”
She threw one across the room toward Eva. Eva caught it, her whip-fast reflexes kicking in after months of military training.
“Thought it might help while we wait for assignments,” Helena said. “The weather’s wild out there. Even by Camp Davis standards, flying’s going to be tough. And given it’s our first time with the boys throwing spotlights all around our planes, we need all the food we can get tonight.”
Two WASP stood up from another table, ready to go out on searchlight missions.
“Those oranges were for the men,” Helena said. “But I stuck my chin out in the mess hall and convinced them that we deserved some fresh fruit too. We’ve already put in a full day of target towing up and down that beach while the boys shot at our planes. Nina and I came back with bullet holes in the fuselage because some fool missed his mark, and then we had a blown tire on landing, so I thought we deserved a treat.”
Eva peeled the ripe fruit open, its tangy scent freshening the room’s stale air.
When the mandarin eating was done, the other girls headed toward the runway, sending a swoop of icy air into the small room. Eva pulled on her leather flight jacket, grabbed her helmet and goggles, and followed them out.
Eva braced herself against the bitter-cold January wind. She crossed the runway to the waiting A-24. Across the field, searchlights from the antiaircraft guns circled and swooped in the dark.
Eva helped the ground crew do the pre-flight inspections, then pulled herself up onto the A-24’s wing, swaying against the buffeting wind. She climbed into the rear cockpit.
Helena was already in front. Once Eva was settled, Helena yelled into the wind and the sideways rain, telling the ground crew to remove the chocks and clear the runway. Helena fired the engine and requested permission to taxi.
Eva focused on the glimmering instrument panel in front of her. She watched the speed indicator. Helena lowered the flaps on the wings and took off. She made a gentle fifteen-degree turn. The plane bumped in the wind, rising above the swampy undergrowth and vine-covered trees that surrounded Camp Davis.
“My bed is gonna be awful welcome after this day,” Helena said.
Eva grinned. “Couldn’t agree more. My day was longer than a triple shift nailing rivets.”
“Eva?” Something sharp pierced Helena’s voice.
“Roger.”
“I’m seeing some spatters of oil on the windshield. Keep an eye on the oil-pressure gauge.”
“Sure.” Eva frowned and scanned the instrument panel. The indicators on the planes the WASP were given were sometimes faulty, so Eva knew she could not always rely on the readings. The oil gauge was bobbing up and down. “It’s shifting up and down a little. Are you sure you’re seeing oil, Helena?”
“Hard to be certain in the dark.”
Eva kept her eyes trained on the gauge. Once they’d reached the correct altitude, planes flew above them in a circuit. They were in a holding pattern. Searchlights beamed around them in the dark. The male trainees were learning to operate radar-controlled searchlights to track bombers and indicate targets for anti-aircraft guns at night. The lights dazzled the cockpit, searing into Eva’s eyes, just as they would for any enemy crew.
There was a cough in the engine. It started to lose its rhythm, that rhythm any pilot was comfortable hearing. Eva had become attuned to listening for everything that might go wrong with an engine.
“I’m not liking this, Evie.” Helena’s voice crackled through the radio. The plane bumped hard.
“This is isn’t just roughness. The oil gauge is falling now.” Eva ran through options in her head. And only one seemed viable. A forced landing.
“It’s too close. It’s almost redlining,” Helena said. “It’s happening so fast.” Outside, the light continued to swoop in eerie circles around them, illuminating the instrument panel and only highlighting the plummeting oil gauge. Out of the corner of her eye, Eva saw a jagged strip of lightning streaking down toward the ocean…
Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen countries, in twelve languages. Her sixth novel is Beyond The Horizon, set around the Women Air Force Service Pilots during World War Two.Ella is incredibly excited to share this book with her readers, as her mother was a W.A.A.A.F during World War Two, and her father was in the R.A.F, flying airplanes over occupied France. Ella traveled to Sweetwater, Texas, to research the novel, and is grateful to Ann Hobing, the then Executive Director of the WASP museum for sharing her wonderful knowledge of the WASP. Ella also worked with two pilots to craft the flight scenes.
Ella loves to connect with her readers
For more information on the background to her novels and updates about her next release, and to contact her about appearances at your local book club, please visit her website.
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10/17/19
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10/17/19
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10/18/19
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10/19/19
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10/20/19
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10/21/19
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Character Interview
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10/21/19
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10/22/19
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10/23/19
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10/23/19
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10/24/19
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10/24/19
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Scrapbook
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10/26/19
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