by Bobby Garcia (Author), Teri McLaren (Author)
When WWII claimed every available American male pilot to fight the increasingly dangerous Japanese "divine wind" pilots in the Pacific and the German Luftwaffe in the European air war, the United States discovered a great, untapped resource: its women pilots. Upon graduation from military-style flight training, these women provided critical support by delivering every kind of airplane to stateside departure points for the war overseas. WWII is raging, and the Nazis are desperate to rule the skies. The war touches everyone, and when 17 year-old flying prodigy Sprite Shannon loses her home after her widowed father dies in an aviation accident, she also loses the only way she has to make a living-the family crop dusting business. Her troubles multiply when fate causes her to cross paths with materials expert Major Wallace Doyle, an unstable, reluctant draftee, who would have preferred to perform his military duty from a research laboratory.But the war-and the Nazis-make Doyle choose a side when he is assigned to a secret mission called Archangel.Doyle steals Sprite's home and the only thing Sprite has left, a valuable heirloom, and promises her arrest-or worse-for resisting his heavy-handed authority. Sprite knows Doyle can find her anywhere she runs-except maybe Sweetwater, Texas, training base for the Womens' Airforce Service Pilots-the WASP. Follow Sprite as she meets her new sisters and a handsome Marine-who just might be the love of her young life-as they take on flight school, service, and some top-secret adventures that change the course of the war.
Author Biography
Author Teri McLaren has written since she could hold a pen, was first published at the age of twelve, and continues to mine stories from her hobbies, travels, and relationships. Teri credits her interest in the art of the narrative to her Dad. "My father was the greatest yarn spinner I have ever known. He loved telling his war stories, fish tales, and 'Steiner stories'-the disastrously humorous exploits of the unluckiest friend he ever had. Many of my characters are crafted from my memories of the characters he described or created. Others come from life experience." A lifelong educator, she has taught English, Humanities, and Literature to students in every grade from middle school through college. In the early part of her career, she was selected to be one of the participants of the pilot program of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars for Secondary School Teachers, held at the University of Rochester, where she learned the Middle English necessary to study the seminar's focus area, Chaucer. Later, she began writing fantasy and published several novels and short stories with Random House and HarperPrism. After some world travel time, she returned for another round of UofL graduate school, this time concentrating on sculptural ceramics while teaching wheel throwing and 3D art classes. Then came five years with a local community college, where she taught writing, Humanities, and Peace Studies. She now teaches oil painting to a limited number of remarkably talented students. Los Angeles-based producer and screenwriter Bobby Garcia has worked in the entertainment industry for over 20 years, serving in various capacities such as producer, chief financial officer, business affairs executive, attorney, and production accountant in both feature films and television. Bobby holds an MBA from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, a Juris Doctor from University of Louisville's Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, and a BA in Finance from the University of South Florida.