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YANGYON, MYANMAR & BEAUFORT, SC, July 5------The Prologue to Flying - a Novel is akin to a strong blow to the solar plexus. The heroine, Zoe Longfield, is falling, falling through the night sky over a small town in Scotland, amid smoke, wind, the anguished screams of passengers and debris from the fuselage of Pan Am Flight 103. The words reach out and grab the reader by the throat, pulling us in, not just into the encompassing darkness and terror but into the last decades of the American Century.
Now, the second edition of this remarkable book is available online, and internationally at Amazon, both in softcover and Kindle format. It is also available in softcover on Nook online at Barnes & Noble. Copies may also be ordered from local Barnes & Noble bookstores. For special insights and photos, readers can like the book on Facebook at Flying - a Novel.
The events that made headlines and history are all here - The Vietnam War, the rise of terrorism and religious extremism, vicious attacks on commercial aircraft, coups and CIA intrigue. The story is told by two fictional Pan Am flight attendants, Sally Wilder and Zoe Longfield, who not only witnessed these events, they were part of them. Passions play out against backdrops as disparate as the embattled city of Saigon, the set of Apocalypse Now and an archaeological dig in Tahiti.
Flying - a Novel is also the story of the iconic Pan American World Airways, once at the pinnacle of global aviation, ultimately brought low by poor management, an indifferent American government and terrorists never brought to justice.
The novel tells the story of the Golden Age of Air Travel, where the journey aboard Pan Am's Jet Clippers was as exciting as the destination. Yet even in the first days of their careers with Pan Am, Zoe Longfield and Sally Wilder are faced with hijackings, economic problems and an escalating war, all of which foreshadow the fall of the airline and the loss of America's innocence. Zoe and Sally, like the authors, Paula Helfrich and Rebecca Sprecher, embody the independent, adventurous young women who were drawn to Pan Am's singular place in the world of aviation. The airline offered them exceptional opportunities in an era where, even in America, a young girl's dreams were often reduced to early marriage and motherhood or a short-lived teaching, nursing or secretarial career.
They come from different backgrounds, but form a special, unbreakable bond. Sally is a daughter of the Old South, struggling to break free of the strictures of life in a small Kentucky town. Zoe is a self-described "displaced person." The child of American expats living in Burma, her idyllic childhood in a vivid land of teak forests, graceful pagodas and elephant playmates, is suddenly shattered by a tragic accident. Later, a forbidden romance and political chaos result in Zoe being deported from Burma to the United States. Sally and Zoe come together in a tale that spans the world that Pan Am opened wide - New York, Miami, Honolulu, London, Saigon, Sydney, Tahiti, along with the jungles of Liberia and the Philippines. Flying - a Novel gives the reader an insider's look at a life aloft that offered much and demanded more in terms of courage and commitment.
  
   
Flying - a Novel spans the history of Pan American World Airways and many key events of the American Century. Through the eyes of the main characters, we see the Vietnam War; Operation BabyLift; Hawaii's cultural renaissance; an idyllic childhood in Burma; the making of the iconic film, Apocalypse Now; the Pan Am WorldPort that ushered in the Jet Age and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
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