Ride for Rights: Amelia Makes a Guest Appearance

Yes, I'm talking about the famous aviatrix, Amelia Earhart. Did you honestly think for a moment that I could pen a historical novel without inserting my favorite woman in history? She's in not one, but TWO of my books. Besides a spot in Ride for Rights, she's got more than one scene in Derby Dames, the sequel releasing June of 2013.

Excerpt from Ride for Rights
--There was a droning sound, much like a very loud bee above them, and Angeline looked up at the sky in curiosity. She squinted into the noonday sun and placed her hand on her forehead over her eyes in an attempt to see more clearly. The source of the noise was a yellow plane with two sets of wings, a propeller the only thing appearing to keep it in the air. As Angeline watched, the plane swooped down and caused the children to squeal and scatter in mock fright. The plane ascended once again and made a loop before waggling its wings, first the right, then the left, and turning back toward the direction it had come from.

Angeline was awed and said as much to Susan.

“That’s Amelia,” Susan sighed. “She gives her mother heart failure every time she goes up in that newly acquired contraption. She’s about your age, and she lives in Atchison. She does a flyby every now and then to please the children. I still speak to her mother. Can you imagine flying that?” Susan shook her head at the young pilot’s antics.

“Yes, I can,” Angeline said thoughtfully as she watched the little yellow plane disappear into the Kansas sky. “Yes, I can.”--

How did I come up with this? Angeline and Adelaide end up in Kansas City and Atchison is not far away. For those that may not know, Atchison was Amelia's home town. I had the pleasure of visiting the home of her birth on a recent trip. I will post pictures here in a second.. but let me explain, how I even came up with this connection...

The real life Angeline, Augusta Van Buren, went on to become an aviatrix herself and she was a part of Amelia's famous Ninety-Nines. Amelia started this group of woman pilots in November of 1929, shortly after competing in the Woman's Air Derby that same year. Matter of fact, that's where the idea was born. So, the real life Augusta Van Vuren, no doubt, did at some point, hob not with the famous aviatrix. However, in 1916, Amelia WAS NOT flying around in her yellow plane over Atchison yet. She was actually in Illinois finishing school.  This  information will be found in my Author's Notes. 

And here is Amelia's birthplace, now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace museum:

The outside

A parlor?

She was just as short as me!

The dining room

Outfit worn by Hilary Swank in the movie, Amelia

Worn by Hilary Swank

Worn by Hilary Swank

Another Swanky costume

The bedroom where she was born

Wish I had this painting.

Want to read the entire novel? Ride for Rights is available here: Amazon