On Wings and a Pen…

At first, I thought… Ooookay! Now I will have time to write, work on my little book. Yay!  But as fate (or good luck) would have it, I was transferred to a strictly international base. I was now an International Flight Attendant! And as much as I wanted to work on my manuscript, I found myself enthralled by places I have never been to before. Tokyo! TelAviv! Bejing! London! Paris! Plus- so many more! I was hired during a merging time frame for my airline.  And my company would, in just four short years, completely merge its flight attendant work groups from two separate groups into one large group. So, I decided to make the most of my good fortune and see as many places as I could possibly squeeze in. You see, once the final merging took place, I would no longer have the seniority to work the flights to these amazing places.  The flight attendants on other side of our merging work group were far more senior, and I would not only lose my beautiful international flights, but I would be sent back down to the minor leagues, so to speak… I went back on reserve status. Having worked in this business before, I completely understood and accepted my plight.  With all this now in effect, I had to make a tough decision.  The cost of living was higher than my “reserve” paycheck would allow and being based in the Washington DC area, I was responsible for covering three airports.  As a reserve I would have to be able to be at the airplane and ready to go within three hours.  We call that a “three hour/call out.” While I could easily get to Washington Dulles and Washington National airports within the three hours, Baltimore posed a bit of a problem. While I didn’t mind being on reserve, I simply could not afford to live where I could be at all three airports within three hours. So, I made the difficult decision to move to a new base.  I chose Denver, Colorado. I was further away from my children than I had ever been, and I knew no one.  My children encouraged me to think of myself and move to a place that made life easier.  Colorado was a beautiful place and the thought of living so close to the mountains was very exciting.  Well, I packed up my Budget Rental Van (which broken down on the first leg of my trip) and headed west!

The flying out here in Denver (DEN) is vastly different than what I was accustomed to.  I went from layovers in London, Paris, and New York City to long layovers in Des Moines IA, Billings MT, and Salt Lake City UT.  Please… these cities are fabulous and amazing places to visit! But after the 3^rd or 4^th time visiting, I found myself with 30+ hours of time on my hands while on my layovers.  I still go out and enjoy the delicious local cuisine, but now I spend the day catching up on my writing.  It allowed me the opportunity to make enormous headway on finishing a nearly twenty-year-old project!

Life has a way of effectively throwing curve balls…

One year after arriving in Colorado and working out of this base… The powers that be nodded at the mitt and threw one of the biggest curve balls in history.  Covid19… became one of the most paralyzing events in our nation’s history.  Life came to a screeching halt.  As such, so did my livelihood.  Airlines were reduced to 20% of its flying capacity.  There were graveyards of grounded jets scattered all over the country.  And our total inflight work force was reduced to just a few thousand… from nearly 25,000 flight attendants strong. Every mainline airline was nearly in crumbles.  The federal government established a recovery plan for many businesses with a main focus on air travel.  The airlines needed to be able to survive for so many reasons.  So, working odd jobs, collecting a little unemployment, along with the government’s stipend for airline employees and tapping into my savings… I managed to survive.  The silver lining here was that now I had all the time I needed to finish my first novel.  And finish I did!  I was so incredibly excited and proud of myself!  That accomplishment, along with continued free time on my hands, led to a second book… and then a third!!  I couldn’t afford to hire editors and proofreaders, so my daughter agreed to be my copy editor and a dear friend and former colleague agreed to proofread my manuscripts for any grammatical errors.  The Carruth Chronicles had been created with a series of no less than FIVE books planned and two spinoff series planned for the future!!

It’s Time…

Now the search is on! It is time to actively search for a Literary Agent and work to get published.  This is not a task for the faint hearted! It’s tough and to say getting published is extremely difficult is a gross understatement! I sent out feelers during the pandemic, but now it is time to get serious!  I’m hoping this Blog and Website will help to establish myself as a legitimate and sought after author.

*** Please feel free to add your email address to this website, if you’d like to gain updates on my books.

Donna Fera

Author

Donna Fera‘s writing invites readers to explore unknown worlds alongside courageous heroes as they face thrilling challenges and uncover hidden secrets. With a Bachelor of Arts in History and Anthropology from University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Donna is able to take her readers on amazing journeys that draw upon her background in research and learning practices. Combined with her experience in the airline industry and special projects, Donna creates stories that captivate readers with their combination of organizational detail and customer service resolution. Join Donna on this remarkable journey!

 donna@donnaferabooks.com  https://donnaferabooks.com