Guest Post

Guest Chick: Laura Jensen Walker and #giveaway

Let’s give a warm welcome to Laura Jensen Walker, who’s back on our blog today! Love that Laura wrote about real-life women and honored them in her historical debut!

The Journalist vs. The Novelist (Giveaway)

Thanks so much to Ellen and the Chicks for having me back again. It’s great to be here celebrating my historical debut, DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE!

As an Air Force veteran formerly stationed at an RAF (Royal Air Force) base in England, being introduced (online) to these forgotten women of the RAF and being able to shine a spotlight on their overlooked story has been my great privilege and honor.

This was not an easy book to write. Since this is the first time I’ve written a novel based on real-life people in history, and RAF heroes at that, the Air Force veteran and journalist in me felt compelled to be as accurate as possible in telling this story and to get the details right. I did tons of research, devouring everything I could about these volunteer nursing orderlies, or “Flying Nightingales” as the press dubbed them back in the day. (The initial three nursing orderlies—the first British women to fly into combat zones—landed on the blood-soaked beaches of Normandy one week after D-Day to bring back the wounded and nurse them on the flights home to the UK. All while being shot at by the enemy since their planes—which also carried supplies and munitions—couldn’t bear the Red Cross emblem.)

I was further privileged to interview via email the last living Flying Nightingale, Edith (Lord) Joyce, who was 106 and living in Australia when we met through her daughter. What an honor it was to meet Edith and include her reminiscences of being a Nightingale in my book. Sadly, Edith died last year shortly after her 107th birthday without getting to hold DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE in her hands.

Broke my heart.

Luckily, I’d sent an early version to her daughter, Colleen, who read it aloud to her mum. Colleen told me Edith was happy to hear the story and to know her memories would live on in this book.

Initially, the journalist in me was determined to be as accurate and meticulously detailed about this band of courageous women heroes as possible. But I was writing a novel, not a non-fiction book of history. Which my editor friend Lonnie gently reminded me when I sent her an early version to edit. As dear Lonnie (who has also since, sadly, died) said, “in a novel, story is king.”

Back to the drawing board I went again. I lost track of how many times I rewrote this book. I think it may have been the third or fourth version that I sent to a trusted beta reader friend. This friend, someone I greatly respect, commented that he loved learning about these brave women heroes he’d never heard of, BUT he didn’t feel that he really got to know the three main characters until Chapter 12.

Oops. Kiss of death for a novel. Readers want to be fully engaged with the main character(s) from the get-go. And so back to the drawing board I went again, eliminating more of the historical research that had so fascinated me and donning my novelist hat to bring my three fictional Nightingales to life. To make the reader care about them and be invested in their stories.

My novelist side finally won out over the journalist and I am proud of the final result. I shared an advance reader copy with my older sister, Lisa, a rabid bibliophile, who deemed it “the best book you’ve ever written” which made me cry. Lisa doesn’t (didn’t) give out praise easily. Sadly, my big sis died a few months after reading DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE. Which makes Lee’s words of praise all the more special.

Do you like learning about overlooked women in history—and/or did you have a family member who served overseas in WWII? If so, please comment to win an Advance Reader Copy.

About DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE:

Three very different young women serve as air ambulance nurses bravely flying into WWII combat zones risking their lives to evacuate the wounded. Irish Maeve joined the RAF after her fiancé was killed; streetwise Etta fled London’s slums in search of a better life, and farm girl Betty enlisted to prevent the wounded from dying like her brother.

Newspapers have given these women a romantic nickname: “The Flying Nightingales.” Not that there’s anything romantic about what they do. The horrific injuries they encounter on a daily basis take their toll, so when one of the Nightingales is found dead, they wonder: Was it an accident? Suicide? Or something else?

After another nursing orderly dies mysteriously, they think: Someone’s killing Nightingales. The friends grapple with their loss all while keeping a stiff upper lip and continuing to care for casualties as they’re being strafed by the Luftwaffe.

Inspired by true events, this novel is a tribute to a group of overlooked heroes who kept calm and carried on while the fighting raged about them. These courageous young women proudly did their bit for King and country and found solace and camaraderie in the lasting friendships forged in war.

BUY LINK

Bio: Laura Jensen Walker is a former journalist and the award-winning author of more than twenty books, including the #1 Amazon bestselling, Agatha-nominated MURDER MOST SWEET. Laura flew a typewriter across Europe in the Air Force and fell in love with all things English while stationed at an RAF base in the UK. DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE is her historical debut. A member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, Laura lives in Northern California.

27 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Laura Jensen Walker and #giveaway”

  1. Thank you for writing this! I wish I had been alive and met a cousin of one of my grandmother’s cousins. She was an Army flight nurse in WWII. I would have loved to know and learn about her – what made her the woman of courage who died while following her calling. Thank you, Laura, for your service as well.

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    1. Thanks, Jeanie! That would have been so cool if you could have met that Army flight nurse cousin! I have such tremendous respect for these brave women. I served during peacetime so didn’t encounter the dangers they did.

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  4. An honorable work, Laura. Thank you for sharing what it took to bring your book to us. I marvel at authors still willing to do the research and get it right, and your efforts encouraged me to get a copy. I appreciate your support of our veterans and their sacrifices.

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  5. My parents were too young to serve in WWII, but my mom’s older cousin did, and I still have her letters from him before he was shot down in the Pacific. Very moving.

    Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, Laura, and congrats on the new book–it looks terrific!

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  6. Laura, thanks so much for visiting Chicks today! Congrats on your new novel, which sounds amazing. Both my parents served in the US Navy during WW2–my mom was in the WAVES. She didn’t serve overseas, but my Aunt Kitty did, as an Army flight nurse.

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  7. Love these interviews–I’m buying the book–I’m a retired Anesthetist, worked at the VA for years–appreciate the WACS, RN’s, Medics, Docs who served on the battlefields. Thanks for the book Laura!

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  8. I read this novel and it is amazing! If I could give it 10 stars, I would. I let my sister-in-law read it, and she feels the same way. I won it once, so will not enter the giveaway, but I wish everyone else luck. You’ll love it!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words! I appreciate your wanting to give it 10 stars–feel free to do that on Amazon and elsewhere 🙂 (Although I think they limit the number of stars to 5.) So glad you and your sister-in-law loved it. Made my day.

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  9. I read your Wicked Authors post and this one – can’t wait to read the book! I love historical fiction in general because it’s so interesting to learn about past people, events and everyday life. Learning about overlooked women is especially interesting. Historical mystery author Radhs Vatsal recently published a nonfiction piece, an obituary of Hansa Mehta, “champion of women’s equality and human rights.” Although Mehta died in 1995, this is part of NY Times project of publishing obituaries of formerly overlooked people – another excellent way to learn more about historical women!

    My mother was in the army during WW II, she paused her college matriculation to enlist and finished after the war, but she never left Washington DC. My father also served but never overseas.

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    1. Thanks, Judith. I too love historical fiction. How cool that they NYT is publishing obituaries of formerly overlooked people. Love that! Good for your mom pausing college to enlist and to your father as well for serving. As a vet myself, I appreciate their service.

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  10. Laura, so glad you’re here today! DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE sounds fantastic! I’m glad your sister got to read an ARC of it, and my heart goes out to you.

    Thank you for sharing these untold stories. I definitely appreciate learning about overlooked women in history, and I’ll sometimes pick up a biography just to learn more.

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  13. Congratulations, Laura! So hard hitting that balance between telling a story and relating the history.

    Neither of my grandmothers served overseas, but my paternal grandmother worked as a Rosie the Riveter for Bell Aircraft and my maternal grandmother was a Navy nurse stationed in Philadelphia.

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  14. I do like these type of books & seek them out. Recently read ‘Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them’ by Siân Evans which was a real eye opener.

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