ELY AIR LINES
Select Stories from 10 Years
of a Weekly Column,
Volumes 1 & 2
by
MIKE ELY
and
LINDA STREET-ELY
Genre: Nonfiction
Categories: Short Stories / Aviation / Adventure
Publisher: Paper Airplane Publishing, LLC
Date of Publication: January 29, 2020
Number of Pages: Volume 1: 350 pages; Volume 2: 330 pages
Scroll down for Giveaway!
Mike Ely has logged thousands of hours over more than forty years as a professional pilot. He holds an airline transport pilot certificate with multiple type ratings and a flight instructor certificate. Mike has taught people to fly in small single engine airplanes, gliders, turboprops, and corporate jets. As a freight pilot and an international corporate pilot, he has flown through all kinds of weather, to many places, both exotic and boring. His love for writing was instilled by his father at an early age.
Linda Street-Ely is an award-winning, multi-genre author and playwright. She also holds an airline transport pilot certificate, a commercial seaplane certificate and a tailwheel endorsement. She has air raced all over the U.S., including four times in the historic all-women’s transcontinental Air Race Classic. Besides flying, Linda has a keen appreciation for great storytelling. She loves to travel the world, meet people, and learn about other cultures because she believes great stories are everywhere.
Together, Linda and Mike are “Team Ely,” five-time National Champions of the Sport Air Racing League, racing their Grumman Cheetah, named the “Elyminator,” and dubbed “The Fastest Cheetah in the Known Universe.” They live in Liberty, Texas.
co-author of ELY AIR LINES, VOLUMES 1 AND 2
- How long have you been writing?
It seems like forever. I would lie on my bed when I was a kid and write out all my dreams for hours. Not what I wanted to do, but what I was doing—all in my mind. I used up a lot of notebook paper.
- How do you write? Any backstory to your choice? (longhand, typewriter, computer, phone, laptop, tablet, dictation)
I use a laptop mostly. I have used an iPad but attached to a keyboard to type. When I journal, I prefer to write longhand and feel the texture or the page and the pen.
- Who are some of the authors you feel were influential in your work?
Brian Lecomber, who wrote “Dead Weight,” a magnificent aviation story based in an exotic location with accurate details to make the story plausible. Also, Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Luke Short, who understood a good fast-moving story does not have to be weighed down by minute details yet paints a beautiful and accurate picture in the reader’s mind.
- Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
I write part-time because I have a full-time job teaching pilots to fly corporate jets. Because my full-time work schedule is so fluid, my writing times are sometimes shortened or paused. I work and write on the two-hour plan–my work schedule can change that quickly. Because of my job’s intense focus, it takes time to adjust when I step away from it so I can put myself back into writing mode.
- What are some day jobs that you have held? Have any of them impacted your writing?
I have been a bus boy, where I came home smelling like grease and cigarette smoke. I refloored semi-truck trailers, drilling through wood and steel so much that I could not make a fist at the end of the day. I worked for many years on swing and graveyard shifts for a major defense manufacturer. However, most of my working life has been as a pilot and flight instructor. It was not in the “glamorous” (or more widely known) world of airline flying. I did single-pilot freight operations in the middle of the night, no matter the weather, and I flew as a corporate pilot to many far-flung parts of the world. These experiences have added to my writing over the years and continue to impact it.
- Do you now or have you ever considered writing under a pen-name? Why or why not?
Yes, I have considered it. Mostly to break from one genre to the next, or from non-fiction to fiction.
- What do you like to read in your free time?
I enjoy reading westerns. Also, mysteries by writers such as Tony Hillerman, J.A. Jance, Craig Johnson, and Alan Furst.
- What projects are you working on at the present?
I am currently working on a non-fiction, semi-technical book about the changes I have seen in aviation over the past 45 years. Also sitting on the shelf and waiting for me to start work on it again is an aviation novel.
- Is there any person you credit for being your inspiration for reading and/or writing?
My dad instilled my interest in writing by his own work. He had a small office that we built for him in the garage. He would bang away on a big old mechanical typewriter writing short stories with just a table lamp lighting his workspace. He was always available to help me edit some of my own short stories written for creative writing classes in school.
- Where are some places you want to visit that you have not been before?
The South Pacific and remote Euro-Asia. I would love to trek through Nepal and fly through the fjords of New Zealand.
- Is there a scene that you’ve personally experienced that you would like to write in a story?
There are many. Like the way sunlight reflects off ice crystals suspended in the air, or the musty smell of the desert after a rainstorm. Or that of a horse and rider, and a dog bounding along beside them. I came upon that scene thirty years ago, as I was driving down highway 93 in the middle of Nevada, miles from any town. It had rained, and the rancher was riding out to check on his herd, which dotted the hills in the distance. The wind was whipping, the sun filtering through billowing clouds, leaving the hills mottled, covered in moving shadows.
- If you could time travel, what time period would you first visit?
I love U.S. history, the west and the westward movement. I would first go to the middle to later part of the 1800s and roam the American west.
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GIVEAWAY:
Two Winners: Win an autographed, 2-volume set of ELY AIR LINES by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely!
(US Only)
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FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY,
or visit the blogs directly:
| 1/19/21 | Excerpt | It's Not All Gravy |
| 1/20/21 | Review V1 | Jennie Reads |
| 1/20/21 | Review V2 | Librariel Book Adventures |
| 1/21/21 | Guest Post | Forgotten Winds |
| 1/22/21 | Review V1 | StoreyBook Reviews |
| 1/22/21 | Review V2 | Reading by Moonlight |
| 1/23/21 | Author Interview | All the Ups and Downs |
| 1/24/21 | Author Interview | The Adventures of a Travelers Wife |
| 1/25/21 | Review V1 | Book Bustle |
| 1/25/21 | Review V2 | Book Fidelity |
| 1/26/21 | Excerpt | The Page Unbound |
| 1/27/21 | Character Interview | Hall Ways Blog |
| 1/27/21 | Top Ten | Momma on the Rocks |
| 1/28/21 | Review V1 | The Clueless Gent |
| 1/28/21 | Review V2 | Chapter Break Book Blog |
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Thanks for the interview! Really enjoyed doing this!
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