Natasha Wing's Blog, page 16
November 22, 2013
Kindle Kountdown
This is a short story I published through Kindle about how a mermaid alerts Santa Claus to the children undersea and how Christmas Island got its name.
Starting today, you can download it for only 99 cents. Then in a few days the price will go up to $1.99, then back to its original price of $2.99 on November 28th.
Here’s the link.
Filed under: Natasha Wing
November 17, 2013
Review of Hattie Ever After
Follow-up book to Hattie Big Sky
I saw Kirby Larson at the Humboldt County Author Festival back in October and purchased a signed copy of her book, Hattie Ever After. The rumors were that it was even better than the first, Hattie Big Sky. Better than a Newberry Honor Book? It had to read it!
While I enjoyed Hattie Big Sky (and have a signed copy of this book, too), I have to admit that Hattie Ever After was more engaging. Perhaps it was that the first book was more episodic in the telling, and some of Hattie’s rescues were convenient compared to Hattie Ever After where the storytelling style was richer and more climactic. Hattie still gets into convenient situations in the second book, but I still felt a sense of ”atta girl” when she figures out how to leverage her situations. Another reason why I liked the second book more was that I actually know San Francisco better than prairie country so I could relate better to the setting. Also, my first job out of college was working at a newspaper, so Hattie’s dream of becoming a reporter was one I could relate to.
The story picks up after Hattie pays off her uncle’s debt. Her friend, Perilee, wants her to come to Seattle, but plucky Hattie has her ambitions set on San Francisco and becoming a reporter. I found myself cheering for her strength for choosing to try something on her own first rather than taking the easy way out. Go Hattie!
Kirby is a genius with placing historic references in the story, and also with her charming and humorous observations via Hattie. In doing so she added a deep richness to the story, which as a writer, I found myself admiring for a moment before reading on. (That happened a lot!)
Another great thing Kirby does is to gently tap back to the original story to remind the reader of events or characters from Hattie Big Sky.
And then, of course, there’s the romantic part. Two men are vying for her attention, so teenage girls will love Hattie’s struggles to decide whom she should choose. (A nod to some good kissing scenes, too.) Personally, I think Hattie would have been happy with either one. Because she’s one lucky girl who would probably do well no matter what situation she was in!
Fans of Hattie, I encourage you to read Hattie Ever After. You’ll love her even more.
Filed under: Natasha Wing
November 15, 2013
A Christmas Picture Book…for Moms!
My writer friend, Ann Whitford Paul, has put on her take-charge hat and has published her own children’s book. Ann is already traditionally published, but she had a story she wanted to tell about Christmas, and found an artist to illustrate it. My signed copy arrived in the mail yesterday and I wanted to share it with you.
This is a story about a mother who’s been through the Christmas hurricane, and is dreading cleaning up the mess left behind by her kids. She is saved by …hey, I don’t want to give it away!
The book starts off:
‘Twas the late night of Christmas,
when all through the house
everyone was exhausted, even the mouse.
It’s not so much a kids book, but a mommy book. It would make a great gift to your girlfriend or sister-in-law, or a husband to his wife, to acknowledge the trials of Christmas and assure her not to worry, that all will be taken care of.
To order a copy, go to this link.
Also, you can follow Mrs. Saint Nick’s ideas for a stress-free Christmas here.
Filed under: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Natasha Wing Tagged: Ann Whitford Paul, Twas the late night of Christmas
November 14, 2013
Aborted Book
A few years ago I got all fired up about writing and illustrating my own book. I was inspired by the winter sports in Colorado and the idea of a bunny who was a snowboarder. So I wrote the story, then tried to illustrate it with felt, printed papers, glitter and foam. At the time, I loved Snow Bunny. But now when I took the pieces of art out, I realized that I was in over my head, and that my art looked more like a craft project. Anyway, I decided to scan in the pages that I still liked and put them out to the world in case this story never becomes a book.
I still want to illustrate my own story someday. I’m feeling stuck though, not knowing how to do page layouts. In the meantime, this is the platform on which I can share my feeble attempt.
Winter is my favorite time of year.
I can make snow bunnies.
And snow bunny angels.
But the best part of winter is my jammies.
Filed under: Natasha Wing
November 11, 2013
Honoring a Pilot on Veterans Day
In honor of the women who flew fighter planes as Women Airforce Service Pilots, here’s a story I wrote about a WASP that died in training that has not gotten published yet. Rather than keeping it tucked away in my “manuscripts” file on my computer, I’d like to share this picture book biography of Hazel Ying Lee with you on Veterans Day.
Fly, Fighting Bird, Fly!
Hazel Ying Lee: First Chinese-American
Woman Airforce Service Pilot of W.W.II
Copyright by Natasha Wing
Hazel Ying Lee was like a bird in a cage, longing to fly.
She lived in a small village surrounded by a big city in a place called Chinatown. People hardly ever left Chinatown. To them, everything they needed was right there.
Neighbors spoke Cantonese and read Chinese newspapers.
Children were taught how to write Chinese characters.
Families passed down traditions.
If it was up to her community, Hazel would have no need for America.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from being American.
She learned English at public schools.
She wore American fashions. She danced and listened to American music.
She even got her driver’s license!
If it was up to her mother, Hazel had pushed her limits far enough.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from reaching for the sky.
In 1930, when Hazel was 19, an air show came to town. Aviation was a new craze in America.
Hazel was captivated by the planes roaring overhead, performing tricks.
When a friend invited her to fly in his plane, she gladly hopped in. Away they flew high above the city. With the wind in her face, she felt exhilarated and free.
Hazel knew then what she wanted to do more than anything – fly!
She started saving for lessons. But times were tough, and what little money was leftover from her job, went to support her family.
If it was up to the Great Depression, she might never get a chance to learn to fly.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from dreaming.
Opportunity knocked in the name of war.
In 1931, Japan bombed China.
Chinese around the world rallied to save their homeland.
People picketed against sending scrap metal to Japan to make bullets. Ladies refused to wear stockings made of Japanese silk. They put on “Bowl of Rice” fashion shows to raise war money.
When the call went out for fighter pilots – with the training fully paid for- Hazel jumped at the chance.
People in Chinatown were aghast! A girl flyer?
If it was up to them, girls from good families would stay home and raise children. Not go to war.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from signing up.
Her mother said flying was far too dangerous. Still, she was proud of her daughter’s patriotism. She told Hazel, “You have no fear of the wind, no fear of the water.”
Hazel convinced her friend, Virginia Wong, to sign up with her.
When they reported to the airport, there were only two women in the class. Less than one percent of pilots throughout the world were women – only eight of them were Chinese.
Hazel set her sites on becoming the ninth.
She practiced takeoffs and landings. She stalled the engine. Banked turns. And threw the plane into a tailspin, pulling out before crashing. Skills she’d need in combat.
For five months, Hazel studied and flew planes.
If it was up to the oddsmakers, Hazel would fail.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from passing with flying colors.
In 1932, soon after she turned 20, Hazel got her pilot’s license. She had “grown wings” and was ready to be a “fighting bird woman.”
A newspaper story read, “If all the Chinese in China would catch the spirit of pretty Hazel Ying Lee and other young Chinese in America now flooding homeward for defense of their homeland, Japan’s attempt at forcible conquest of Chinese territory would soon end.”
If it was up to Hazel and Virginia, they would show Chinese women that becoming a combat pilot wasn’t just a dream.
But the Chinese government stopped them.
Hazel was downhearted when she was told no girl fliers were allowed in the Chinese army. “We felt as if we had cheated China out of two good fighters.”
Hazel was assigned to work in the aeronautical library. While her fellow male pilots fought bravely in battle, shooting down Japanese planes, Hazel could only listen to their stories.
If it was up to Virginia, Hazel would leave the army.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from losing hope.
She begged the army to let her fly again.
Finally, the army said yes. She could fly. But not fighter planes. Instead, she was given a job as a flight instructor for passenger planes.
How was that serving the country?
Frustrated, she returned to America.
If it was up to discrimination, she’d never fly war planes.
Luckily, America gave women the go-ahead.
On December 7,1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Now China and the United States shared a common enemy. With a war on, airplane factories were in full swing.
The United States Army Air Forces soon announced a new training program for female pilots.
Hazel easily qualified. But to Americans, she looked like the enemy.
Americans were afraid of Asians. Some even hated them for threatening their country.
If it was up to prejudice, Hazel would be turned down from the program.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from applying.
She was Chinese, not Japanese. Most importantly, she was American ready to serve her country.
Of the more than 25,000 women who applied for the chance to become Women Airforce Service Pilots – housewives, mothers, students, secretaries, and beauticians – only 1,857 were accepted. Including one Chinese.
Hazel was assigned to the fourth training class at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. In the remote dusty desert, classmates trained from 6:15 in the morning until 10 at night, seven days a week.
Hazel had only six months to prove that she could handle fighter planes. The training was so tough that many “washed out” or failed.
Yet nothing stopped Hazel from forging on.
On August 7, 1943, Hazel the fighting bird earned her second pair of wings.
She hoisted herself into the open cockpit, checked her instruments, and positioned her goggles. She called the tower for weather clearance. A-okay.
With a roar, Hazel took to the sky.
Nothing could stop her now!
Hazel Ying Lee End Notes
Hazel Ying Lee was one of the first women of Chinese nationality in the world to get her pilot’s license. This was an amazing feat considering that at the time, only one percent of the licensed pilots were women, and less than ten of those women were Chinese.
Hazel got her license through the Portland Flying Club. When Japan bombed China in 1931, the Chinese community in Portland raised $20,000 and formed the Portland Flying Club to train fighter pilots. Hazel went through the training program at Swan Island Airport and was instructed by Allan Greenwood. She and her friend, Virginia Wong, were the only women in the class with 34 men (one of whom would become her future husband).
Hazel passed with honors and received her license on October 24, 1932. It is believed that Hazel and Virginia were the only women to go to China as trained fighter pilots.
Women were not allowed to fight in the Chinese army so Hazel was assigned a job at the aeronautical library. She begged to fly and was given a job as a flight instructor for a commercial airline in China. She quit that job and joined her family when her mother, sister and brothers moved to Canton during the Depression. Hazel met her half-sister, Ngan Don, who lived in Canton and had stayed behind when their father moved to America.
On Easter day in 1938, the Japanese bombed Canton and Hazel’s family fled to Hong Kong. (During this exodus, personal belongings such as scrapbooks were left behind, which is why few photos of Hazel and her family exist.) Hazel continued to help with the war effort by visiting a refugee camp for women with babies.
After five years in war-torn China, she returned to the United States in 1938. Portland’s Chinatown greeted her as a heroine, but Hazel downplayed her part in the war effort because she was disappointed she couldn’t fly. Instead she asked that food, clothing and medicine be sent to the refugee camp. She moved to New York and lived with her sister, Rose, while working to get weapons for combat planes in China.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the United States entered World War II, flying ace Jacqueline Cochran convinced the government that women fliers would be useful to the army. Women weren’t allowed to fly in combat, but they could relieve male pilots in the United States so the men could go into battle overseas.
The Women Airforce Service Pilot program was experimental and the women who agreed to be part of it were classified as civilians and weren’t officially in the military. Yet the program offered women a chance to fly and serve their country. They were paid $250 a month.
Hazel was in the fourth class (W-43-4) that trained in Sweetwater, Texas at Avenger Field. She was the first Chinese-American to become a WASP. Hazel completed further training and became a ferrying pilot. She tested brand new planes right off the assembly line and flew them from factories to bases. The planes were then taken apart and shipped overseas to be flown in World War II. Ferrying pilots also flew battle-worn planes back to factories to be repaired or put out of service.
Hazel loved to fly so much that even after fellow Portland Flying Club pilot Clifford Louie came back to the United States and married her, she didn’t return with him to China. Instead she wanted to stay with the WASP until the war was over.
Sadly, Hazel died before then. While ferrying a plane on Thanksgiving Day in 1944, she was hit by another plane and crashed. She died of burns two days later, one of 38 WASP who died in the line of duty.
Hazel Ying Lee Louie is buried in Portland, Oregon near her brother, Victor Lee, who also died proudly for our country in W.W.II.
Thirty-three years after Hazel’s crash, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law “officially declaring the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots as having served on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States.”
The WASP program opened the door for future female pilots to fly in combat as military personnel. In 2007, there were 588 female pilots in the United States Air Force, 65 of them trained fighter pilots.
On July 1, 2009, President Barack Obama signed bill S.614 awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to the WASP.
“Frankly, I didn’t know in 1941 whether a slip of a young girl could fight the controls of a B-17…Well, now in 1944 we can come to only one conclusion — the entire operation has been a success. It is on record that women can fly as well as men…Every WASP has filled a vital and necessary place in the jigsaw pattern of victory.”
– General Hap Arnold, Commander of Army Air Forces, 1944
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: female pilot, Hazel Ying Lee, Veterans Day, WASP, WWII
November 9, 2013
Pie Recipes
Page from The Night Before Thanksgiving
In The Night Before Thanksgiving, Mom makes three kinds of pies, one of them my husband’s favorite – pecan.
Here’s a pecan pie recipe you can put a couple of twists on:
Pecan Pie
One 9″ pie crust
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 to 1-1/4 cup pecan pieces (I like extra nuts)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and eggs with hand beater. Stir in pecans. Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Bake until set, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool then refrigerate until chilled. Serve! Refrigerate any leftover pie (if there is any).
The Brandy Twist:
This is my husband’s favorite pecan pie.
Add 1/3 cup of brandy while beating the sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and eggs.
The Chocolate Twist:
Use the recipe above (minus the brandy), increase corn syrup to 1 cup, then melt two 1-ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate with the butter.
Filed under: Natasha Wing
Singing iTunes
Available in both paperback and ebook
I’m old school when it comes to reading books. I prefer paper copies. For me it’s about the solidness, the feel of the book cover, the seeing where I am in the book and how close I am to finishing it, and then physically handing someone a “gift” when I’m done. But I’m no fool. E-books have their place and purpose, too. The bottom line is: children and adults are reading!
So on that note, welcome to the world of Natasha Wing books on iTunes. Here you can find my Night Before books plus a title that has gone out of print but has been resuscitated as a narrated book with sound – Merry Thanksgiving.
Back in new format by
Pixel Mouse House!
Here’s the link in case you’re curious. Check out my holiday titles and keep the little ones entertained as you’re going over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: holiday books, holiday ebooks, iTunes, Merry Thanksgiving, Natasha Wing, Thanksgiving
October 31, 2013
Halloweenie Story Contest
Another website challenged writers to use the words spooky, black cat, and cackle in a story or poem under 100 words so I wrote a haiku.
Broomstick Ride
Jump on cackled witch
To her pet spooky black cat
And whoosh off they flew
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: halloween haiku, Halloweenie contest
Happy Birthday, Daisy!
Today marks the birthdate of the founder of the Girls Scouts USA – Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low. She was a vivacious and quirky character whose energy and desire to empower girls drove her to establish an organization where girls could explore things other than domestic skills like sewing. They would learn sports, code talk, about the great outdoors, and most importantly, how to take care of themselves, not just how to be good wives. As a child who was a Girl Scout, I salute, Daisy!
I’d also like to recommend a comprehensive biography of Daisy, written by my writer friend, Ginger Wadsworth. I recently saw her at the Humboldt County Author Festival and was privileged to get a signed copy.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: Daisy Low, Ginger Wadsworth, Girl Scouts, Juliette Low
October 23, 2013
Metaphors & Similes
Wanted to share a few of the funny examples of a project that the kids at Rio Dell did about metaphors and similes.
Filed under: Natasha Wing
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