Friday, March 8, 2019

"The Spitfire Girls"

Soraya M. Lane graduated with a law degree before realizing that law wasn't the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women's fiction, and her novel Wives of War was an Amazon Charts bestseller.

Lane lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four legged friends. When she's not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.

Lane applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Spitfire Girls, and reported the following:
Well, this made me laugh! Page 69 just says “Part Two”! So I decided to do the page prior…

Here’s a little excerpt from the page:
‘Do you, want me to get her?’ Ruby asked. ‘When she lands, I mean?’

‘What I want is for you to pull her down a peg,’ May fumed as she sorted off. ‘And remind her that this isn’t some jolly overseas experience, because we’re in the middle of a bloody war, in case she hasn’t noticed!’

Lizzie might have the fancy training and acrobatics in the air, but Ruby had skill and the quiet respect of the other women. Seeing her watch the American slack-jawed and in awe was more infuriating right now that watching Lizzie’s insubordination.

She’d been asked to take her best two pilots with her to train to fly four-engine bombers, but was she putting her own reputation on the line by taking Lizzie with her? If she couldn’t rein her in and she turned out to be a loose cannon, all hell would break loose - not just for her, but for all the women who flew for the ATA. One bad egg could affect the lot of them. But the four-engine bombers were the only planes that women were not cleared to fly outside of training yet, and if she didn’t take Lizzie? She gulped. Then she might be signing the personal death warrant of the men who were waiting for them; getting those big bombers to the front was the only way they stood a chance of winning the war, and she knew it.
This page actually represents the book quite accurately. There is a lot of conflict between May (the leader of the ATA pilots in the UK) and Lizzie, an American hot-shot pilot sent to the UK to fly with her. May is of the opinion that Lizzie thinks she’s on a glorified holiday at the British tax payer’s expense, and doesn’t yet know if she’s as great in the sky as she says she is. The two women do eventually become friends and Lizzie discovers the consequences of her attitude, and she sees why May takes her job ferrying fighter planes to their boys’ at the front so seriously. This page also shows Ruby’s insecurities in her flying, so it’s a great representation of their individual character flaws.
Visit Soraya Lane's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Spitfire Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue