Beyond the Horizon – Book Excerpt

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PRAISE FOR BEYOND THE HORIZON:

“With snappy dialogue, impressive historical details, a sense of adventure and courage on every page, and even a love story, Ella Carey has hit all the markers that make fine historical fiction.”
—Ann Howard Creel, bestselling author of The Whiskey Sea

“Fans of inspirational World War II fiction will cheer on Eva and her fellow pilots as they chase their dreams, endure heartbreak, and discover their true strength. Carey’s evocative descriptions bring home the exhilaration of flight—and the everyday indignities endured by young women who challenged the expectations of their time. The story’s final twist makes for a surprising and moving conclusion.”—Elizabeth Blackwell, author of On a Cold Dark SeaandIn the Shadow of Lakecrest


“A moving, beautifully written novel about the amazing WASP during WWII. True to life and packed full of emotion. I thoroughly enjoyed feeling like I was one of these extraordinary women pilots as I read the story.”—Soraya M. Lane, Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Girls of Pearl Harbor

EXCERPT FROM BEYOND THE HORIZON

WITH COMMENTARY

FROM AUTHOR ELLA CAREY

On the journey from Dallas to Sweetwater, the only thing I had to write on was my phone. Finding myself inspired by the endless, atmospheric landscape, I tapped this out and it ended up in the novel. This is in Eva’s voice, as she approaches the WASP training ground in Sweetwater, Texas, in 1943.

= = = =

Eva leaned her head on the train window, staring out at the plains, her eyes closing every now and then and her body aching from all the hours sitting up. Right now, the war seemed as endless and formidable as this journey across Texas, and yet so very far away that it seemed there was little chance anything was real out here in this moonscape of a place.

But the war did matter, and it was real, as real as the fact that the dirt driveways that led to the ranches that spread wide and strong over the Texan plains might be empty of boys if everyone didn’t play their part. The headlines on papers at every station shouted the same things, the P-38 aircraft that were being built back at home in Lockheed were seeing action in Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa; the Nazis were kidnapping Polish children with Aryan characteristics; and in the Pacific, photos of the “war without mercy” were accompanied by disturbing slogans saying “Kill Japs, Kill More Japs.”

Eva knew nothing was going to stop her playing her part. And nothing was going to stop Nina either. For the first time in their young lives, something they did was really going to matter.

= = = =

As we travelled further and further, deep into Texas, I felt myself drawn closer and closer to the WASP, to these extraordinary women who arrived in Sweetwater at the train station, and flew in the wide Texan skies, then all over the US during the war once they had graduated from Avenger Field. I was beginning to feel what they might have felt as they travelled toward their destination, my destination. It was humbling.

A blizzard struck as we neared Sweetwater, sleet flitted against the windows of the bus, sending the trees into crazy, patterns, while thudding, insistent raindrops hit the dry ground.

The next day dawned bright and clear and cold. The sky was brilliant, and it spread over the old WASP hangars as if in glorious recognition of these women, these girls who lived and flew and trained here for their country, thirty-eight of them to die so young in the name of a terrible war.

I don’t think there is any way I could have understood the scope and beauty of the open Texan sky, or the colors of the Texan plains without going there, without seeing it and feeling it for myself.

Here are some of my photographs taken when I found myself compelled to write: