Bomb Girls

Lots of stuff going on in this TV show based on the life of women during WWII, more specifically bomb girls, women who worked in a bomb factory. Season one consisted of 6 episodes, of which I recorded on REELZ and watched almost back to back.

Gladys

Glady's. Can't say I was overly fond of the star: a rich girl "slumming" it, not in the beginning away. She thinks aiding the war effort consists of lifting her skirts for a total stranger of a solider in a dark alley. The first episode I wasn't impressed at all. She gradually begins to improve, but I sensed there may be trouble for her actions later down the road. By the end of the season, however, she was one of my favorite characters.


The rest of the cast:

Betty. She's the toughest bomb worker of them all and a lesbian in a world not ready for them. I felt her anger when she was misepresented in a movie.

Kate. A former preacher's daughter on the run with an obsession with singing. A HUGE disappointment in the end. HUGE.

Lorna. The "crew chief" who is married to a man crippled from the Great War and experiencing some frustrations because it. She loathes the Italian worker, Marco, with a passion, and for great reason. (I thought he was a dick, but my stepmum thinks he is hot. He's also one of those characters you like better in the end than the beginning. There are a few layers to him.)

Vera: Is distracted by the flirtatious Marco and gets her scalp torn off her head. As morbid as this sounds, her story is so far my favorite. I can't wait to see how she overcomes this  handicap of hers.

There's bad news received, deaths, fake letters, a thief, someone gets the clap, there's turning on one's friends, potential rapists... and lots of sexual harassment on the job. I love how the show shows how uncomfortable men's harassment can make women and the distraction leads to accidents. And of course, anytime something goes wrong, like a bad bomb, they blame the women.

As I said, not overly fond of the rich girl, but the rest of the women really sucked me into their lives and I found the factory bits though frustrating to watch at times as the men anger me, fascinating. I found myself watching them make the bombs instead of paying attention to their conversations at times.

If you see this coming up on Reelz again soon, tape it. You won't be disappointed. The shows in order:


Jumping Tracks
Misfires
How You Trust
Bringing Up Bombshell
Armistice
Element of Surprise

Website complete with episodes and tour of the bomb factor.

Crossing On the Paris by Dana Gynther

Think Titanic, but not quite. It's after The Great War, before WWII, a maiden voyage of a grand ship, but instead of focusing on class division and romance, the story focuses on women. Women's trials, tribulations, women growing, coming to terms with things, realizing this or that...find themselves.


The youngest of the three women this book focuses on is the lower class. She works on the ship, lives in steerage, is not taking well to a life at sea. I'd say she was my favorite. She has a birthmark on her face that sadly, in most people's eyes, makes her unattractive. Worse, SHE feels unattractive. This makes her susceptible to a certain engine worker's charms. The entire novel is a learning experience for this girl. Her story is sad and triumphant both.

The middle-aged lady is married with three children. She's just stepped away from her sister's shadow in Paris, her flamboyant, daring, deliriously happy sister, and she is going back to her boring life with her boring husband. When a handsome doctor shows her attention, she's tempted to do things she has never done before. But sometimes it takes a walk on the wild side to see what one really does have.

The old lady is dying of breast cancer and meets with a shock on the ship. Her past catches up with her so to speak. How will she choose to handle it? Is it too late to right a wrong? When does doing the "right" thing become bad?

Quibbles: Julie's bits were my favorite, but I got tired of hearing about her dead brothers. It goes on and on and after a while, I began to skim those parts. Constance..I would have liked to see her story turn out a bit differently, but that's just me. I'm wicked. Vera...while I appreciated her reminiscing  her journal and memories also bored me. I was really only interest in the here and now, the ship, the drama, and all the pontificating about the brothers and lovers grew tiresome.

Otherwise, I must say, the historical setting was very well done. I really felt as though I was on the ship, whether it was in the hatcheck or the engine room or the deck. The author also has a good writing style, and I appreciated that not everything ended all hunky dory. Life doesn't always end perfectly and I was pleased that I wasn't able to predict every single turn of this novel, nor the ending.

Three bikes. I received this from Netgalley.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Most of you probably think the fight for integration in the U.S. started with Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat. In truth, this battle was waged in 1884 on a train.


While on a train, a conductor asked her to give up her seat and move to a crowded smoking car. She refused. Ida was then dragged off the train. It's said that the surrounding white passengers laughed.

Upon her arrival in Memphis, she set out to sue the railway, becoming a figurehead in Memphis society. And she was only twenty-five at this time. She won in the local court, but when the Supreme court overthrew the ruling and forced her to pay the money back, she complied...yet not with her tail between her legs.

She was persistent, having long ago grew fed up with being paid 30 bucks a month while white women doing the same job made 80. She was a teacher who dropped out of school to keep her and her orphaned siblings together.

She went on to become an editor and wrote under a paper with a pen name, constantly empowering African Americans and voicing the injustices being done to her race on a daily basis. Her focus was on the public act of lynching. She raised money to investigate the more suspect and started anti-lynching campaigns. Ida even took her cause and her fight to Great Britain.

What I like about her: Even mobs, anger, and beatings did not stop this woman from speaking her mind. And  guess what else? She was one of the first American woman to keep her own last name along with her husband's. She was a woman who lived before a close-minded world was ready for her.

She was one of the first African American women to run for public office before her death a year later.

This is def an inspiring woman in history for African Americans and WOMEN both. She fought for African American rights, and at the same time, was an example of all a single determined woman could accomplish.

Want to know more: I found this site superbly helpful: http://www.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

'Til next Saturday, ladies, remember you have just as might right as the next person, stand up for yourself, and don't take "NO" for an answer. Oh, and don't forget, STRONG IS SEXY.

FREE BOOK FOR BLACK FRIDAY

FREE BOOK for three days, November 23rd, 24th, and 25th, in honor of Black Friday. The lovely flight attendant, Telma Cortez is being generous with her very own story! 

Microburst

Telma Cortez is a Senior Flight Attendant with VisionAire, and she meets every kind of passenger, handling every kind of pass lustful men can invent. Everett Samson is not like other men, there’s something more to him that draws Telma… into something much more serious than a casual dalliance.

Microburst is the latest release in the AeroRomance Series, a softer spinoff to the AeroSexual series. Each story features someone from the aviation world: a pilot, a flight attendant, a mechanic...

So the next time you fly, have Microburst on your Kindle, and you'll never see flight attendants the same again. ;)


Don't waste another second. Download HERE

Thanksgiving Blog Hop

Starting today and ending Monday, my fellow authors in Tuesday Tales are doing a blog hop. I encourage you to stop by each one of their blogs and see what they are giving away. Me, I've put together a little set of my sweet reads. One lucky commenter will win ebooks of Style Me Sexy and Maiden Behind the Mask.


My question is: Where is your happy place? When you meditate, try to relax, what's the place you visualize in your mind? *Be sure to leave your email address. I'm beyond tired of choosing winners and discovering I have no way to contact them. LOL*

Winner will be announced on Cyber Monday at my convenience.

Others participating:
Jean Joachim
Jessica Sales
V.L. Locey
Kathleen Ball
Sherry Gloag

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Sarah Niles, Danny Cooper

Book: Loving the Pink Kiss, Pink Crush

Author: Shiralyn J. Lee

Heroine: Sarah  Niles, Danny Cooper

In the sense that any of my leading ladies come across as experiencing a roller coaster ride of emotional heartbreak, depressing thoughts, or pure anger over a spiteful vixen, I implore you to think twice before assuming that they are weak in nature. These ladies are mainly based on my own actual life experience or someone who I consider to be a close friend.

Sarah Niles, my lead character from Loving the Pink Kiss is a true reflection of myself. She led the life of a party girl, shagging guys for the sake of getting some action after a brill drinking session. But her life as a straight girl was quickly dissolved as she meets a Canadian woman Robbie. Within days she senses that something is different about the way she is acting. Throughout the story she is introduced to falling in love with the right person (Robbie) but her insistence to find out about past girlfriends causes her to lose what she had just found. It takes for her to be at her lowest point in life, to be treated as nothing more than a sex toy and then tossed away like trash. When she is at her lowest point she discovers that she is worth something. Her need to belong is like a hunger and her fight returns. She finds her strength as she overcomes the bad obstacles that were thrown her way. These obstacles I myself have had to overcome. Based on my life where I had lived in a 20 year marriage knowing that it wasn't right I allowed things to happen that would never happen to me now.

Danny Cooper from Pink Crush is another fine example. Again I choose to use the finding love and losing it scenario but that's just the surface story. Beneath this, Danny's mind is in turmoil. Using the emotions that I felt when my family turned their backs on me for being a lesbian I induced them into Danny's character as I know that so many lesbians and gays have lived through these traumatic experiences.

With these two stories alone my heroines have started out as raw characters thinking that they are strong but that is their undoing as this shows only on the outside. Once they find themselves being manipulated by an emotion they hadn't yet experienced...LOVE...they find that this alone can send their world crashing down in an instance.

As with the stories, Love for Lidia and The Submissive Scullery Maid I gave these characters strength from the beggining. These stories were set in the Victorian era so rather than making them out be to weak, because I feel that the Victorians had a different way of thinking than we do today, I put in place an already existing power. These stories were written in the sense of where I'm at in life today. No longer am I an emotional wreck crying over what I once had. I am in love and extremely happily married so these emotions come across in the scenes written out.

As for my BDSM stories, I use my fantasies as a base for the characters. The strength isn't with the Dom as most people who don't understand this type of world are led to believe. The strength is with the Sub. She will set the ground rules, tell the Dom how far she can go and what she definitely wouldn't do. There are two different strengths going on here. The Dom who holds the power as the viewer looks in and the Sub who creates the power before anything is performed. Going back to my first marriage I was controlled by the other person who was a dictator. It was a mental control, conditioning I would say. But now I have the control. I choose what I want rather than be told what to have. So now that I have self control I can use both sides of the emotional roller coaster and give equal strength to the ladies in these stories.

But every story that I have written has a major piece of my soul. I have lived, laughed, loved, hated and loved again. This is where my ladies find their strength. From within.

Are you an author with a strong heroine in your book? Want to see her featured? Find out how here.

iPad Mini Event Giveaway

I'm participating in this cool giveaway and I'm excited to share this opportunity for you to win an iPad Mini. Just use the Rafflecopter below. It's that simple! And good luck!

iPad Mini Giveaway Event

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The iPad Mini has a beautiful display, powerful A5 chip, FaceTime HD camera, iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording, ultrafast wireless, and over 275,000 apps ready to download from the App Store. The iPad mini is an iPad in every way, shape, and slightly smaller form. Easy for on the go with that same great Apple power punch!

This is one awesome prize and I'm sure we all know someone with a iPad on their holiday wish list.

One lucky reader will receive a iPad Mini {white}!

Giveaway ends December 5th at 11:59pm, open worldwide {residents outside of the US will receive cash equivalent of $329}, ages 18+. To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

Special thank you to our lovely co-hosts: Mommy Bear Media, Red Barn Boutique, My Vegan Gluten Free Life, What's Up - Giveaways, Contests, Promos and Deals, The Coup Diva, PR Mom Ambassador, Chant3llo's Blog,The View From 510, The World of ContestPatti, Just Davey & Me, The Flower Hazard, Sanity is for those without children and Creative Theme Wedding Ideas.

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Book Babe is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment.

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