Elsie is on the shortlist for the $10 bill!

As many of you may know, Elsie Gregory MacGill has been put on the shortlist - of five possible women to be featured on the new Canadian $50 bill!  She is in good company as the list also includes four other prominent Canadian women (see below).  The decision is pending December 8th, 2016!!  Looking forward to learning who the winner will be!  

• Viola Desmond
  
• E. Pauline Johnson
  
• Fanny Rosenfeld
  
• Idola Saint-Jean
  
  For more information on this competition see the CBC story:  Final 5 Candidates for the next Canadian woman on a banknote revealed by Bank of Canada 

Queen of the Hurricanes & Second Story Press at the National Women's Studies Association Conference!

My publisher Second Story Press will be at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Montreal from November 10-13, 2016.  http://www.nwsa.org/conference2016

 

Of the books featured will be the Feminist History Society series, which includes Queen of the Hurricanes:  The Fearless Elsie MacGill and the newest book - a biography of Marion Dewar by Deborah Gorham!

The display will be at booth #401 in the Expo area.

Second Story will also be holding a reception in the booth on Friday, November 11th from 5:00-6:00pm. Anyone attending the conference is invited to join the press team for a glass of wine and to learn more about our books!

Excellent Time @ The 99s International Conference

Three days of book selling and networking at the 99s International Conference Trade Show have already come and gone.  It was an excellent opportunity to reach out to this community and to get to know some of the incredible participants.  Congratulations to Joy Parker Blackwood and all of the organizers! 

My thanks to all of those who re-connected, or shared their stories with me for the first time.  You are all living testimonies to the fact that the sky really is the limit when it comes to goal and dreams!  Thank you also to all who stopped by to let me know your thoughts about the Queen of the Hurricanes:  The Fearless Elsie MacGill, or to purchase a copy. 

If you enjoyed the book, please take a minute to rate it on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24953334-queen-of-the-hurricanes 

 Here are some of the photos from the final day of the Trade Show:

Photo with Kaye Combs Moore,
Kentucky Bluegrass Chapter 99s

Photo with Cheryl Marek,
 Southern Ontario Director
Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA)

Photo with Marilyn Dickson,
First Canadian East Chapter 99s

Take off eh! @ The 99s International Conference

As of yesterday I have been at the 99s International Conference Trade Show selling the Queen of the Hurricanes:  The Fearless Elsie MacGill, and selling Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail's two aviation books:  Polar Winds:  A Century of Flying the North and For the Love of Flying.   

For more information on Danielle see:  http://www.daniellemc.com/ 
 

It has been two full days of connecting with talented women in aviation from every possible field and from all around the world!  I feel honoured and privileged to listen to their stories and experiences.  

Moreover, for many of the participants, attending a conference does not mean determining the quickest route overland on a highway or trying to determine the best flight deal, they just figure out their flight plan and fly directly to wherever it is they have to go!  

The Trade Show includes a wide range of vendors, and I have been happily sharing the author's corner with Elizabeth Muir, author of of Canadian Women in the Sky:  100 Years of Flight and Air Crazy:  Fascinating Stories of Canadian Women in the Air (which was recently released in French Libres comme l'air:  Histoires fascinantes des pionnières de l'aviation canadienne)

For more information about Elizabeth, see her website at:
http://www.lizmuir.ca/ 

Tomorrow will be the last day of the Trade Show - it is taking place in the Penthouse of the Delta City Ottawa from 12pm to 5pm - if you have time, you should really do a fly-by!  Hope to see you there!

Queen of the Hurricanes and the 99s International Conference - July 2016!

Queen of the Hurricanes:  The Fearless Elsie MacGill will be touching down at the Ninety-Nines International Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada this July 7th, 2016 at the Delta Ottawa Hotel!  The flight plan is approved, and only 24 days remain before the conference opens!  

I will be onsite selling and signing books at the Trade Show starting on Thursday. 

This is a special conference for all women aviators, and more information can be found at:

https://www.99sottawa2016.com/overview.php

Queen of the Hurricanes and the Calgary Mosquito Society

In January 2015, I had the chance to assist the Calgary Mosquito Society with some work they were doing on the Hawker Hurricanes.  As part of their goal to share the history of the Hawker Hurricanes with the wider public, they decided to produce short videos about the planes.

I was asked to provide some information related to Elsie MacGill.  The resulting video, "Queen of the Hurricanes" is available free of charge on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZoulEgf348

This was a wonderful opportunity, and the resulting video is an excellent way to encapsulate an important aspect of Elsie's work.   

If you would like to know more about the work of the The Calgary Mosquito Society please see their website:

http://www.calgarymosquitosociety.com/index.htm 

Correction:

One point to note - a small error on my part when speaking about the Maple Leaf II - this plane was incredible for many reasons including the speed of the work and the fact that it was the first airplane designed and overseen by a woman through to prototype, but it was not an all-metal airplane.  There were indeed important metal aspects of the plane in the fuselage, but it was covered in cloth.  For more information on the specifics related to the Maple Leaf II see Canadian Car & Foundry Aircraft Production at Fort William on the Eve of World War II by Jonathan Grenville Kirton.
 

Will Elsie MacGill Be Featured on the New $10???

Out of 460 possible nominees Elsie Gregory MacGill made it onto the long list of possible selections for the new ten dollar Canadian bill!  This is exciting news!  For more information please see:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/banknotes/banknoteable/

Queen of the Hurricanes featured in Airforce Magazine!

Featured in Airforce Magazine, Volume 39, No.4, 2016

It is wonderful to see Elsie's story featured in Airforce Magazine!  The excerpt from Queen of the Hurricanes concentrates on her time at Canadian Car and Foundry, and the layout is wonderfully done with photo inserts from the book.  

If you are interested in knowing more about the book it is available from Second Story Press:  http://secondstorypress.ca/books/316-queen-of-the-hurricanes 

There are also some incredible stories of women in aviation in the Royal Canadian Air Force in this issue of Airforce Magazine including:

• Lieutenant General Christine Whitecross
• Brigadier-General Lise Bourgon
• Colonel Nancy Tremblay 
• Sergeant Andreena Clifford - noted for being awarded the 2015 Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award for Government! 

And for you history buffs - there is an article on Vi Milstead Warren who was an Air Transport Auxiliary Pilot during the Second World War!

For more information see this amazing issue: