We’ve all had phases in our lives that have had to come to an end. That’s how our lives work. We grow, we move on. Besides the lessons I’ve learned in those life phases, the most valuable thing to come out of those endings, are the people I’ve picked up along the way.

Friendship is a bit like fishing. Some people we catch and we keep. Other times, it’s catch and release. When a phase in your life ends, it can mean saying good-bye to some friends and letting them go. This isn’t always easy, but usually in hindsight, we can see it was appropriate. The ones that are special, though, the keepers, are the ones you end up taking home, cleaning, filleting and eating or putting in the freezer. What?

Perhaps I took the fishing metaphor a little too far there, but you get the idea. Some friends stay fresh, with you throughout your different phases, regardless of the ending or the new beginning.  Some may get frozen for a time, but you can always count on them to thaw out and still be delicious. Too far again?

How do you know which friends are the keepers? Sometimes you don’t have a choice. Sometimes when a phase of your life ends, so does that friendship. It can end because you’ve moved on, or they have. It can end simply because interests have now changed or you don’t mean as much to them anymore once you’ve moved on. In that case, a release of that friendship is best for everyone.

Those who end up as keepers are the ones who stick with you through the endings and cheer you on to new beginnings. It’s a filtering process, perhaps nature’s way of letting only the best survive in your life. The ones you know you can keep, cook and eat, or, not. Whichever. One things is for sure, you will value their friendship all the more. Endings happen to keep us moving. One thing ends and we move on to the next, sometimes whether we want to or not. In the Return of the King, Frodo said, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.” I am glad for endings. I am glad to have had the many different phases in my life and the friends I’ve caught along the way. To all of my keepers, I thank you. I will be glad to be with you, at the end of all things.

Sandra Wickham lives in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and toddler son. Her friends call her a needle crafting aficionado, health guru and ninja-in-training. Sandra’s short stories have appeared in Sirens, Equus, The Urban Green Man, Evolve, Vampires of the New Undead, Crossed Genres magazine, Luna Station Quarterly and more. She slush reads for Lightspeed Magazine and promotes the Creative Ink Festival for writers and readers. 

I remember exactly where I was when I got the news my older brother Doug had died. It was the Monday of Labor Day weekend, 2011. I was at my home, a 28-acre forested property in Mulmur Township, southeast of Collingwood.

The telephone rang, and I answered. It was my eldest brother Peter calling to tell me Doug had passed away earlier that morning.

The news both did, and did not, come as a shock. After having a stroke-like memory loss one August day in 2010, Doug spent some time in the hospital before being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Chemotherapy beat back the disease for a bit, but his health began to decline again, leading ultimately to a stay in a hospice before the day of the fateful call.

So the call was not unexpected—and yet, the final confirmation of what we dread is always, in its own way, an unwelcome sort of thing.

What made Doug’s death sting all the more was his age—he was only 58, and that seemed much too young.

Doug was six years older than me. Losing him really made me think about my health and my future, and became one of the motivators—although not the only one—that drove me, three years later, to take early retirement at age 55.

Doug, on the other hand, had opted to continue working, although he too could have taken early retirement, albeit with a reduced pension. As his health declined, I fretted that he’d made the wrong decision. Doug owned a large rural property, and had harboured thoughts of spending his retirement days puttering around doing this and that. It struck me as unfair that he never got the chance.

I remembered so many family Christmas get-togethers where he’d either been absent, or been there on loan, his pager clipped to his waistband as though he were some sort of corporate gun-slinger ready to take on trouble at the drop of a hat. He worked too hard, I told myself. He never got the chance to really enjoy life.

A heart-warming number of Doug’s friends, fellow nature enthusiasts, former fastball teammates, and co-workers showed up to the visitation, the memorial service, and the Celebration of Life afterward in the local Legion hall. As they made my way to the line in the visitation, or stopped and chatted with me in the quiet confines of the Legion hall, the attendees offered condolences and often, a shared story or two. It was the anecdotes, particularly those shared by co-workers, that lifted my spirits a little.

The stories shared by his co-workers clearly illustrated that Doug was one of those fortunate people who truly loved his job. They spoke affectionately of him as their “big brain”, the quintessential problem solver. They shared stories of his mentorship, his dedication to the job, and his forthright but fair way of dealing with people at all levels in the organization. They talked about the enjoyment he got from wrestling a thorny problem to the ground.

Some of the anecdotes were simple, some almost trivial—yet individually and as a whole they provided comfort. The respect and affection with which Doug’s co-workers spoke of my brother told me that he’d had a second “family” away from home—one that had cared deeply for him, and looked out after his interests.

It seems such a small gesture on their part, to come to a visitation and memorial service and exchange words with the family, yet these insights were inestimably valuable to me. Those comments and shared stories proved to be an unexpected gift that moved me closer to accepting my brother’s fate, bridging a gap I likely wouldn’t have been able to span on my own.

I got to thinking that maybe, in his own way, Doug would have preferred to go out at the top of his game, rather than fading off into the sunset. Perhaps retiring would have left a void in his life—who was I to say? Either way, I now realized I had neither the right nor the responsibility to pass judgement on his choices. Finally, I found myself able to let go of the bitterness I’d felt on his behalf.

It’s been just over seven years since Doug passed away, yet I still find myself thinking of him often. I miss his quirky sense of humour, his ability to reel off abstract facts, and the deep enthusiasm he radiated when talking about his favorite pastimes and interests.

And yet, I also realize that he lived life on his own terms. Sure, he never got to retire. But he worked at a challenging job that he deeply enjoyed, and in that much, he was a lucky guy.

Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional who lives in Simcoe, Ontario. Her writing has appeared in a variety of venues, including four Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies, Small Farm Canada, Star*Line, Dogs of War, and The Future Fire. She has self-published a collection of creative non-fiction and poetry entitled A Trail that Twines: Reflections on Life and Nature, and also wrote St. George’s Lawn Tennis Club: The First Hundred Years, the history of a tennis club in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

You can learn more about Lisa at her blog The Writing Journey, on Amazon, or Goodreads.

The World is a Wild Place

People are different. Not just in appearance, or restaurant preference. Not just in intelligence, but how they apprehend the world. You might say there’s a pencil on a table. A Pacific Islander would say that the table lumps. You might say there are a few pencils on the table. The Islander would say the table lumps severally.

You might say that your father’s brother’s children are your cousins, while your male siblings are your brothers. In many societies though, your father’s brother’s children might be just as much your brothers as your male siblings.

You might believe in fundamentals, like honesty, loyalty, perseverance. Those are not universal cultural values. You might consider the biologist’s classification of species to be a scientific truth. Some peoples don’t care about species; they care more about tribe. They feel no loyalty or obligation to non-tribal humans. They may not even have a concept of a species. Reality for some cultures is something that can only be experienced with hallucinogens way stronger than LSD.

The world is an amazing, diverse place. It’s a frightening place if you look at it closely. Most people, and especially the media like to camouflage diversity, pretending that the differences between peoples are superficial. As my beloved teacher wrote:

Though people differ in color and creed, they all love, quarrel, protect their children, etc., exactly as we do. The message is clear: we should love them because they are like us. But that statement has its questioning brother: what if they aren’t like us?

Edmund Carpenter, Oh, What a Blow that Phantom Gave me.

They’re not like us. That makes the world into a gold mine for writers. Look at other societies, other cultures. Up until the early nineteen sixties, anthropology focused on describing the diverse ways of life of people of the world. The anthropologists felt guilty though, that they might be tools of colonialism, and the field shifted towards political apologia. So get hold of some of the early works of anthropology: descriptions of Eskimos, Indians, Indonesians, Africans…   Stone Age people, cannibals, farmers, peasants. For example, there’s a wonderful book published in 1959 about the Pathans, people who later became known as the Taliban. There’s great potential for stories in their combative culture.

My novel Quantum Cannibals,my short stories all make use of human cultural diversity. I bring together an Aztec war deity, a Siberian transvestite, and an Eskimo shaman; I toss in an archaeologist to help explain. I dump them in Mesopotamia, in the arctic, in a city. Headhunting cannibals recite Biblical psalms. A quantum scientist uses magic from Kurdish folklore. Bronze-Age demonology deals with transportation problems in a modern city.

The world is a wild place. Use it in your writing.

Nathan Elberg has hunted and trapped with Indians and Eskimos, studied folklore, warfare, cannibalism, shamanism, Kabbalah, primitive art, and communications among other things.  All these form part of the Quantum Cannibals world.  He is doing a doctorate on the subject of popular beliefs in science and Judaism, is a member of SF Canada, and the Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction Association.  He has just launched  Quantum Cannibals, a website and novel about science, progress, and culture.

Nathan’s recent short stories include:

• Dancing With Whiskey Jack; Bewildering Stories (estimated publication late 2013)
• Sticks, Stones, and Monsters; Bewildering Stories 
• The Ways of the Goat; Portals print anthology, ed. Dorothy Davies; estimated publication late 2013.
• A Matter of Trust; The Lorelei Signal
• The Fire Snake Constellation; Roar and Thunder 
• Iron Will, Broken Fingers; Shadows of the Mind anthology, ed. L. J. Gastineau
• Sitting in a Tipi, Waiting for a Truck; Scholars & Rogues Literary Journal

What Would Winston Churchill Say?

I spent most of my adult life as a freelance speechwriter, writing mainly for CEOs (they don’t mind spending extravagant amounts on themselves) and the occasional politician.  I didn’t know I was a born speechwriter until I wrote my first speech, while working as assistant to a Member of Parliament.  I discovered I had the rare knack of being able to hear a speaker’s voice and speech patterns in my head, then write the text so that the words sounded natural.

Mostly, I wrote bread-and-butter jobs, an endless succession of Chamber of Commerce luncheons and Rotary dinners.  Sometimes, I’d get to stretch myself:  twice, I was instrumental in getting an underdog candidate chosen for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party, back before it was taken over by Social Crediters, swimming away from the Bill Vander Zalm shipwreck.  (If, dear reader, you know nothing of that meshuggenah fiasco, count yourself lucky).

But in idle moments – in which the life of a freelancer abounds – I used to imagine writing for one of the great voices:  a Kennedy, a Diefenbaker, a Churchill.  I would never have wanted to write for Richard Nixon, by the way, but when I had to compose deeply conservative editorials for a weekly newspaper I edited in 1973, I did use to write them in Tricky Dick’s voice, and they delighted the paper’s right-wing owner.

After I became a fiction writer and started selling to the digest mags, one day I was casting about for a story idea, and up popped the notion of a time travel piece about some idealist who went back to 1940  to tell Winston Churchill how to shorten the war.  The concept wasn’t all that earthshaking, but the prospect of writing it in the first person, from Churchill’s point of view, with his voice in my head – I so wanted to do that.

So I did.  And sold it to Gardner Dozois, who was then editing Asimov’s.  The title was “The Devil You Don’t,” which gives a pretty good clue as to how Churchill reacted to the offer.  The story came out, got some nice review mentions, sank without trace.

I was happy enough with it.  I thought I’d captured that unique voice.  But of course I’ll never know, will I?

Every now and then, I daydream about running into one of the actors who’ve played Churchill – Robert Hardy did the best job, for my money – and talking him into reading the text aloud with all the right intonations and off-centre cadences.

And I’d sit there, and listen, and say to myself:  oh, yeah, that’s it.

If you’re interested, here’s the beginning:

The frantic sparks fly up into the November night like lost souls seeking safe harbor who, finding none, extinguish themselves against the unheeding darkness.  Or so I might write it if ever I should put pen to paper to tell this tale.  But I shall not.

The fire itself is confined by the blackened steel barrel.  I poke again with the gardener’s fork and another flurry of sparks shoots up, and with them scraps of burning paper.  By the flickering light of the flames I can sometimes see a printed word or two before they are consumed:  Alamein, Rommel, Singapore, Yalta.

The books are thick.  They will take time to burn but I have learned patience.  I have always taken the longer view.  Perhaps it is a sense of history.  Perhaps it is just how I am formed.  But, in the arena of public life, he who takes the longer view must win out in the end.

Matthew Hughes writes science-fantasy. His alter ego, Matt Hughes, writes crime fiction. A personality fragment, Hugh Matthews, writes media tie-ins.

His novels include, To Hell and Back: The Damned Busters (Angry Robot Books, 2011) The Other (Underland Press, 2011), Song of the Serpent, (Paizo Publishing, 2011), To Hell and Back: Costume Not Included (Angry Robot Books, 2012), To Hell and Back: Hell to Pay (Angry Robot Books, 2013), Old Growth (Five Rivers, 2014).

His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Asimov’s, Blue Murder, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Storyteller, Interzone and a number of “Year’s Best” anthologies. 

Formerly a journalist, he became staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment in the Pierre Trudeau government of 1974-79, then spent more than twenty-five years as a freelance speechwriter for Canadian corporate executives and political leaders. At present, he is seeing the world while augmenting a fiction writer’s uncertain income by housesitting.

He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, and has been short-listed for the Aurora, Nebula, Philip K Dick, Endeavour, and Derringer Awards.

His web page is at http://www.matthewhughes.org/

My part in this piece of history really started sometime in 2008 with the vision of an incredible image by Croatian artist Tomislav Tikulin. It was the image of a magnificent knight, standing in a war-littered mire and gazing up, questioning, at the vaulted ceiling of a drowned cathedral. A great light shone upon the knight in streams of white gold. It sent my imagination soaring with thoughts of chivalry, adventure and intrigue. Who was this knight?

With that image imprinted inside me, the next nexus moment came when I stumbled across a significant but little-known battle in the medieval Baltic, the Battle of Grunwald. It would turn out to be the defining battle for what are now the countries of Poland and Lithuania. On June 14^th 1410, they were still part of Prussia and tyrannized by the Teutonic Order, who were Christianizing the pagan Baltic on behalf of the Pope. In truth, the Order had been for centuries gathering wealth and land for colonizing Germans in their drang nach osten; they built sturdy castles (many of which still stand today) and a force of monk warriors, feared for their cunning strategy and treacherous combat abilities.

The Battle of Grunwald was, in fact, an upset in history. The Teutonic Order was powerful, intimidating and extremely capable. They should have won; but the peasant armies of Prussia slaughtered the Order, killing most of its knights. Historians debate that the hochmeister’s arrogance—indeed, the arrogance of the entire Order—precipitated their downfall. They underestimated their adversaries and got sloppy. After the Polish and Lithuanian armies outsmarted the Order and slayed their hochmeister, along with many of their knights, the Order’s own peasant slaves finished the job using clubs, pitchforks and stones.

Intrigued by this little known order of religious crusaders, I pursued the premise of an alternative consequence: what if the Teutonic Knights had NOT underestimated their enemy and won the Battle of Grunwald? Would they have continued their catastrophic sweep of North-east Europe into Russia and beyond? Would they have claimed the whole for Germany’s expansionist lebensraum movement, fueled by its sonderweg, a dialectic that would ultimately lead to the killing fields of the Holocaust? What if the success of the Teutonic Order helped consolidate a united fascist elite, ambitious to conquer the world? And what if, as a result, Nazism sprang up 100 years earlier?   

The Last Summoner, arose from this premise. Enter our heroine, young 14-year old Vivianne Schoen, Baroness von Grunwald, a self-centered romantic who dreams that her ritter will rescue her from an arranged marriage to some foreign warrior. As a result of an impetuous choice, she makes the startling discovery that she can alter history—but not before she’s branded a witch and must flee through a time-space tear into an alternate present-day France ruled by fascists. There, she learns that every choice has its price.

Spanning from medieval Poland to present day Paris, France, The Last Summoner explores the sweeping consequences of our “subtle” choices. From the smallest grab to the most sweeping gesture, we are accountable for the world we’ve made. During her 600-year journey to save the world and undo the history she authored, Vivianne learns wisdom and humility. Through the paradox of history, she learns that what might have seemed the right choice for an immediate future, turns out to be disastrous for a distant future. To win is also to lose; to save oneself one must surrender oneself; and to save the world one need only save a single soul. The knight standing in the mire is Vivianne.

The Last Summoner, published by Starfire World Syndicate, was released in 2012 and remained a Canadian bestseller on Amazon for several months. It represents my first historical fantasy in an otherwise repertoire of hard science fiction. The Polish and Lithuanians celebrate June 14^th with pride, erecting mock-ups of the battle annually. Some day I hope to participate.

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published novelist and short story author of science fiction and fantasy. She is currently editor of SF Europa, a zine dedicated to informing the European SF community. Nina teaches writing courses at the University of Toronto and George Brown College.

Her guide for writers called “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now!” by Starfire World Syndicate was adopted by several colleges and universities throughout North America and Europe. It was recently published by Editura Paralela 45 in Romania. The next book in her writing guide series “The Journal Writer: Finding Your Voice” was released in spring of 2013.

For more information about booking her workshops, consultations, or speaking appearances visit www.NinaMunteanu.com.

Thanks Nina! Next up Noah JD Chinn Prisoners of Gravity

Thanks so much, we look forward to your comments and reviews!

Blood for water

~Kristene and Josh

Leslie gets baby turtles ready for their big adventure

Fittingly, I met Leslie in 2003, in Costa Rica, while she was backpacking from the tip of South America to her home in the United States. When we met, Leslie was volunteering at a turtle enhancement project and I was lucky enough to spend a few days helping her, and others, collect eggs and release hatchlings into the ocean. Little did we know that both Leslie and the baby turtles were at the start of an adventure that would take them thousands of miles from home in the years to come.

WWC: Welcome to the Warpworld Comm, Leslie! Let’s jump right in and find out some of the things you’ve done in your life that challenged what society believed women were “supposed” to do.

[pullquote] I was “supposed” to be in a high powered “business” career, not wearing flip flops and working in rural health care clinics without running water or electricity.[/pullquote]

LESLIE: Coming from a traditional background, I always felt like a bit of a black sheep in my family – the simple act of not being married with kids by my early/mid-twenties felt like I was challenging female stereotypes. Add to that my penchant for traveling and living abroad, which challenged my family’s perspective of how a woman should live but also challenged expectations on my professional trajectory based upon my educational background. I was always encouraged in my educational pursuits but applying this education in an untraditional manner – working in third world countries, often for little to no money, while living and traveling alone – was not in line with what I felt like I was “supposed” to do. I was “supposed” to be in a high powered “business” career, not wearing flip flops and working in rural health care clinics without running water or electricity.

WWC: What project or accomplishment are you most proud of?

LESLIE: I cannot pinpoint one exact project or accomplishment that I am most proud of. But, in sum, I am proud of myself each time I move to a new country and learn to live in another culture. I have gone through this process countless times and before each instance I am terrified and riddled with self-doubt, but each time I find myself thriving in my new environment. How I thrive (personally or professionally) differs in each place, but living outside my comfort zone and learning from these experiences is what I am most proud of as it has made me the person I am today.

WWC: Who were your heroes or role models when you were growing up?

LESLIE: I didn’t have any one role model or hero as a child. But I admired and sought approval from my parents and grandparents. With or without approval, however, as I grew into a more confident adult, I started to branch out and pursue my dreams in life according to my interests and rules. Rather than one particular role model, my best friend and family have always kept me grounded and are the sounding board against which I bounce my ideas, I might not always have everyone’s approval but their perspective helps keep me grounded.

WWC: Were there any times in your life where you felt you were either held back or discouraged from pursuing a goal because you were female?

LESLIE: There were probably more times, and more significant times, than this example, but I think one of the challenges of being a woman in today’s world is that we face discrimination so often and it becomes so regular that we are not always as aware of it as we could be.

Ready for those Central American roads!

One memory stands out; I was about seven or eight years old and standing outside my grandparents’ house. My grandfather was working on the roof and invited my younger brother up to help him but I was firmly instructed to stay on the ground because I was a girl. I loved my grandfather, he is one of the best men I’ve ever known, so this isn’t meant to disparage him, as he is from a different generation. Nonetheless, this example sticks out in my head because I think it was the first concrete experience I had as child where I remember realizing I could be treated differently for simply being female. I didn’t climb the ladder that day but I remember being upset about it. If it happened again today, I would definitely climb that ladder, if for no other reason than I was told I can’t.

WWC: Do you have a favourite female character–either in books, television, or movies? What do you like about her?

LESLIE: This is the question I probably struggled with the most; because any strong heroine becomes my favorite character until I meet a new one in the next book, television series, or movie. But I have always been drawn towards female superheroes or female characters with supernatural powers.

WWC: What do you think it means to be a “strong” woman?

LESLIE: Being yourself unapologetically, remain true to your goals, aspirations, and beliefs despite expectations imposed on you.

WWC: What words of advice would you offer girls or young women today?

[pullquote]Follow your heart, even if you aren’t sure where it’s going to take you.[/pullquote]

LESLIE: Be adventurous, travel, you’ll learn more than you ever can in a book or classroom. Take time out from your career to live your life; don’t be singularly focused on reaching a career goal so you don’t have the time to enjoy the journey. Don’t waste time on regret, embrace your mistakes as learning experiences and move forward. Follow your heart even if you aren’t sure where it’s going to take you. And finally value and treasure your close friendship with other women, they will sustain you through your best and worst times.

WWC: What does the future hold for Leslie MacKeen?

LESLIE:  I’m not sure but I’m excited about it – I am going to be moving back to the United States after having lived abroad off and on for the past 10 years (more outside the U.S. than inside), and will be embarking on a new career and life (with my fiancé/soon-to-be husband) and starting a family. It’s an entirely new and exciting chapter and one which will hopefully include many more adventures around the world.

WWC: We hope so, too! Thanks again for talking to us.

Leslie MacKeen

Currently, Leslie MacKeen is working as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), she is specialized in public health and serving as the Deputy Office Director for the Health Office at USAID South Sudan. Before this assignment she served as a Health Officer in Amman, Jordan. Prior to joining USAID, she worked in Kisumu, Kenya as a Project Manager for Health Economics Research Project. She earned her Masters from Columbia University and Bachelors from Johns Hopkins University.

Some of Leslie’s favorite experiences abroad, however, have been in less formalized working environments – she volunteered and taught English in Ecuador, conducted research in The Gambia on access to primary school education and research in Bolivia on the effectiveness of programs to transition coca farmers from coca to other cash crops. She also spent a year backpacking around South America, Central America and Mexico – during which time she sold handmade hats on the street, did a lot of car camping, and volunteered for a project working to save the sea turtles in Costa Rica.

In her free time, Leslie, enjoys running, yoga, reading watching sci-fi and fantasy movies or reading books of the same subject, traveling (of course) and taking photos and spending time with friends.

Stay tuned for more Women of Character, coming soon!

~Kristene

Where do fictional strong women come from? Well, they are partly imagined, but they are also inspired by lots of real life women of character. At the end of Warpworld, readers meet Rider Pilot Shan Welkin, who is also known as a skyrider. Today, I’d like you to meet real life skyrider Bobbi Powers.

I met Bobbi on my first trek to Baja California Sur, Mexico, in 1998.  She was a pilot and a flight instructor, equal parts gutsy and sweet, and I liked her immediately. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of sailing, flying, hiking, and back-roading with Bobbi and her husband, Dave. To top it all off, she makes a mean pie!

WWC: Thanks for joining us on the Warpworld Comms, Bobbi! In this blog series, we’re talking about women who, (like Warpworld’s female protagonist, Ama), have broken out of the expected gender roles, have been a little adventurous, or have lived boldly. What are some of the things you’ve done in your life that challenged what society believed women were “supposed” to do?

BOBBI: Ironically, it was my mom who set the most limitations on me.  Mom was a bookkeeper and a strong German woman. I swore she hated me because she told me every day of my life that I was “dumb, stupid, and would never amount to anything”. She continued that daily reminder until I was in my freshman year in school. My last memory of her reminding me of my shortcomings was at 35 years of age, when I was thinking of going to work at a bank.

At that time, I had 3 boys to raise on my own. I felt I needed a job that would not only support us but give me nights, weekends, and holidays off. I had no nice clothes to work at a bank, so I went to my older sister to see if she would loan me five dresses. I would buy one new dress each time I could afford it, and then return each borrowed dress, one at a time.

When my mother heard my plan she told me there was no way I could go to work in a bank. I just wasn’t smart enough. Well, that made me even more determined, so I did. Which turned out great because that is where I met Dave and my lifetime dream of being a pilot came true.

My mother later changed from calling me dumb and stupid to ” the most stubborn bullheaded person she had ever known”. She would say, ” Don’t tell her what to do.” 

WWC: What project or accomplishment are you most proud of?

BOBBI: Well, of course I am mostly proud of the three boys I raised.  A good part of that was on my own, and I am very proud of how they have all turned out.  All with successful careers, wives, and children. I am also very proud of marrying a man who was extremely supportive of my wants and dreams. Without him I would not be the person I am today. When I thought I couldn’t do something he was there to encourage me through every minute. Sometimes I would scream “I can’t, I am not smart enough”. He would just say, “Yes, you are, and you can”. Of my personal accomplishments I am most proud of my flying career. It has offered me so many opportunities and amazing adventures all around the world.

WWC: Who were your heroes or role models when you were growing up?

BOBBI: My father. He was a pilot in WWII. I always loved his flying stories and had dreams of being a pilot someday. Also, my older sister. I was her little princess. I would have been a worse tomboy if it hadn’t been for her teaching me how to be a lady. I think she still shrieks at the things I do.

WWC: Were there any times in your life where you felt you were either held back or discouraged from pursuing a goal because you were female?

BOBBI: When I was training for my flight instructor rating. My instructor had gotten a twin engine airplane, a Cessna 310. He had another student, a man, who also wanted to fly the twin doing charter work. The instructor had a hard time motivating the male student. He told us whoever finished our flight instructor rating first got the job flying charter in the C-310. I finished first but never did get the charter position. The male student did.

After finishing my CFI rating I went to San Diego and finished my twin rating. While I was working for my old instructor, as a flight instructor, I was offed a position flying a Citation 500 for a local bank. I was so excited that I went to the airport to tell my instructor the awesome news. He was so mad at me. He told me I thought I was hot shit and had no right going behind his back getting another flying position. I packed up my teaching supplies and walked out.

I got checked out in the Citation and from there I went to working for a commuter airlines. Flying for the airline was extra rewarding because the Metroliner is a difficult plane to fly. Flying out of Dallas Fort Worth airport was a challenge in itself, but the male pilots could hardly believe that a female could handle such an airplane.

WWC: Do you have a favourite female character–either in books, television, or movies? What do you like about her?

BOBBI: Yes, my favorite movie is “Always”. It is of course  a flying movie about fighting forest fires. Holly Hunter’s character, Dorinda, was pretty and tough but didn’t know it or show it. My favorite part is when she took one of  the airplanes her boyfriend was using for bombing fires. She was mad at him for taking dangerous risks. She was a terrible pilot and could barely handle the B25. The fact that the B25 used in the movie belonged to a friend also made it special

WWC: You also dive and sail, among other things. Can you tell us about one of your non-flying adventures?

BOBBI: Well, there was the time I drove a 2000 gallon fuel truck to a fire in Yellowstone National Park.

Dave was working the fire and knew that the Helicopters desperately needed fuel.  He told me I needed to get a driver for his truck and get a load of fuel up for the fire as fast as I could.

There were fires all over Montana that summer. The temperature was up to 110 degrees and had been for several days. Our only truck driver was in charge of our business while Dave was gone and could not leave. I called job service, checked unemployment service, the newspaper and everywhere I could for a driver but couldn’t find one.

I called Dave and he said I was just going to have to drive it myself. So the challenge was on. I had never driven a truck but had gone on many runs with Dave to do his deliveries. I asked our employee running the station where the fuel truck was. He told me it was at the airport. I told him to take me to the airport and teach me to drive the truck on the way back to the station, which was about 3 miles. That seemed to go fine so we loaded the truck with the 2000 gallons of jet A fuel and off I went for Yellowstone Park. Licensed and Legal, RIGHT? I figured it was worth the ticket I would get if they caught me and thank God they didn’t.

The hardest part was the tourists. I was amazed how they would stop in the middle of the highway to look out over a meadow to see a buffalo. Didn’t they realize how hard it was to stop a fuel truck with 2000 gallons of fuel? With a brand new driver behind the wheel, to top it off! I was glad when I finally made it to the fire and so were the helicopter pilots.

BOBBI: Determined, not willing to back down or quit. See a goal to the finish, whatever it takes.

[pullquote]Life is short live it to its fullest. Never let anyone take away your dream. You only limit yourself.[/pullquote]

BOBBI: I have entered a new chapter in my life. New choices and new adventures lay ahead. I have been successful raising three fine successful boys. I have a business my husband and I have built together in aviation. We have discovered new places to explore in the Baja next year.

Thanks so much for talking to us, Bobbi. We’ll be looking for you in the skies!

Bobbi Powers is a professional pilot, a job which has taken her on many adventures over the years. Born in a small Northwestern town in Montana, her father was a school teacher and her mother was an accountant. She currently lives on 25 acres, in Laurel, Montana, with her husband Dave. With a home, hangar for their  two airplanes, a private grass runway, and her three children and eleven grandchildren living close by, Bobbi likes to joke that she is spoiled.

Bobbi is still an active flight instructor but is always ready to take on any new adventuresome flying task.
 

Meet more Women of Character, coming soon on the Warpworld Comm!

~ Kristene

If you had been among the small group of neighbourhood boys with whom I played Star Wars, back in 1977, you would have heard this phrase a lot. We were, like most kids who were eight-years-old when Lucas’s opus came out, obsessed with Star Wars. For me, our re-creation of the world of Luke Skywalker was not just play, it was a portal to another dimension, a chance to become a swashbuckling space hero.

The only setback to playing Star Wars was that, as the group’s only female, I was always cast as Princess Leia when I really—I mean really, really, really, REALLY—wanted to be Han Solo.

Don’t get me wrong, Leia was great. She was spunky, intelligent, and ended up rescuing her rescuers with that crazy gargbage chute escape. (How was she supposed to know a tentacled monster lived down there, or that the walls would slowly start compacting the trash?) But let’s get real, Leia was a princess. She wore a dress (gown?), she pleaded to Obi Wan Kenobi for help, and she was selflessly devoted to her cause. Sharp tongue aside, Leia was about being good, pure, and sacrificing everything for the well being of others. As women are supposed to do.

Blech.

Okay, okay, I’m being a bit hard on her but I (really) wanted to be Han Solo. There were no female Han Solos out there. Have a look and then  tell me you don’t see the difference…

Compared to some of the other fictional role models out there, however, the difference between Han and Leia was minimal. I was a child of the 70’s and 80’s, which meant I grew up with sci-fi/fantasy images like this:

Occasionally, fictional females could be brave, intelligent, sassy, and strong, but they had to do all that behind the real heroes—the men. Even one of my all time fave TV shows, Battlestar Galactica was not immune to this.

Or, females could be the heroes, but they also had to be really pretty and wear dresses and makeup and have awesome hair. They usually had a male overseeing them, too. Why? Because they were women. Duh.

It wasn’t until the late 80’s that fictional female heroes who didn’t conform to the stereotypes started to show up on my radar. I will never forget this moment:

More and more, fictional females would start taking the lead. Some would even replace their former male counterparts.

When I created the character of Ama Kalder, for Warpworld, I wanted her to be the kind of woman eight-year-old me would have been happy to play. Because of that, Ama swears, she drinks, she fights, she can’t cook worth beans, she hates dresses, she has her own boat, and she wants to do whatever the men do, no matter what anyone else thinks of that. Eight-year-old me would have loved Ama, I bet some of the boys would have wanted to play her, too.

Ama is not invincible. She’s also not a man loosely disguised as a woman, an important distinction. Nothing irks me more than the idea that in order to be a kick-ass hero a female character must rid herself of all female traits.

As the second book in the Warpworld series, Wasteland Renegades, undergoes the final polish before publication, I’ve been thinking about what makes a woman strong, both in fiction and in real life. In Wasteland Renegades, Ama’s independent and rebellious nature gets her into all kinds of trouble, and her strength is tested in a way she could have never prepared for. I think for most of us, women and men alike, we only find out how strong we really are when things are at their worst. Sometimes strength is standing fist-to-fist with an enemy, but sometimes it’s just holding on when the world tries to break you in hundreds of small ways.

Through my adult life, I’ve been lucky to connect with, and be inspired by, a whole crew of strong women. These gutsy females are leaders, adventurers, entrepreneurs, risk takers, humanitarians, and, in all cases, have taken the road less traveled. They live in every corner of the world and are all ages. They have been, and continue to be, my Han Solos.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of these amazing Women of Character, their stories and their words of wisdom with you. If you’ve got a Woman of Character story of your own, please share it with us. You never know who you might inspire.

As Han would say…

“Here’s where the fun begins.”

~Kristene

Warpworld on top of the world

You can follow Peak Freaks Expeditions up Everest (and beyond) on their blog: Here!

Oh, and Tim, since you’ve now taken up scuba diving, I expect a photo of you reading Wasteland Renegades from the bottom of the world.

~Kristene