Racing the Dream
by M.T. Bass
GENRE: Action and Adventure
BLURB:
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” ~Mario Andretti
Strap down the 5-point harness in the cockpit of a Formula 1 air racing plane and join Hawk as he chases victory! First on their amateur make-shift course over Antelope Acres, then on the re-emerging pylon racing circuit in the early 1960s. And finally, as Hawk battles 7 other top-level pilots at the very first National Air Racing Championship event in Reno!
Abandoning the cloth and his African mission, Father Bob returns to his slide rule to design Hawk’s racer. Sparks, his loyal yet surly mechanic, built it and wrenching both on the engine—as well as on Hawk—keeps them at the front of the pack. Home again in Los Angeles from behind the stick of a T-6 Texan as a mercenary in the Congo civil war, air racing is a new aviation adventure for Hawk. Ride along as he tangles with fellow pilots in “uncooperative formation flying” at two-hundred miles per hour a mere fifty feet off the ground!
And then one day cruising home to Van Nuys airport, Hawk spies Allison, a beach-blonde surfer girl, insanely wing walking on the top wing of a Stearman PT-17 bi-plane. He quickly sets his sights on her.
Fly low…Fly fast…and Turn Left…
Purchase Racing the Dream on Author Web Site Info Page and Amazon (Kindle Unlimited)
Excerpt:
Chapter 8 — The Albatross Hotel
Allison kicked off her shoes and dropped them in the car. I stripped off my jacket and left it, then we wound our way around the Albatross to the waterfront where she skipped ahead and waded into the surf.
Staring out to sea, she took a deep breath. “You’ve got to love it. It’s the law.”
“Well, I’m kind of a desperado.”
Allison spun around to kick water at me, then started walking north.
I followed along just outside the retreating waves.
“Sure, sure—a desperado. Well, don’t make me walk out here all by myself.”
“But—”
“But nothing.”
So I slipped off my shoes and socks, then rolled up my pants legs. She didn’t stop. “Hey, wait for me.”
Allison ran ahead, stopped, then turned to face me.
“I’m beginning to think that you’re the one who’s an outlaw,” I said walking up to her. “A real Black Rebel.”
“Maybe…”
“So, what are you rebelling against?” I asked.
“Whadda ya got?”
I looked her in the eyes and smiled.
“Well, then, don’t wait too long.”
I leaned in and we kissed, softly. Then more passionately as I took her in my arms.
“Mmmm…” she moaned sweetly, then put her head against my chest. “Come on.”
She took my hand and we walked north through the moonlit surf.
I watched her looking out to sea. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing,” she sighed. “Just counting waves.”
“Why?”
“Force of habit. It’s what you do in the lineup.”
“The lineup?” I asked.
“Uh-huh. When you’re surfing.”
“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re a surfer girl.”
Allison began to sing The Beach Boys song: “Do you love me, do you, surfer girl? Surfer girl surfer girl.”
“Seriously?”
I stopped walking, but she pulled me along. “Everything’s a song.”
“Aye-Yi-Yi,” I moaned.
“And, you know, it does make sense—considering my job and all.”
I thought about it a bit. “Yeah…I suppose. A surfboard is kind of like a wing. And how long have you been doing that?”
“Before I started flying. I learned in Hawaii when Dad was based at Hickam. I think I might have been twelve. And, of course, there are great waves up north when I went to Stanford. It gets in your blood. You’re not fighting gravity, you know? You are riding a wall of green that some storm has thrown at you from way out at sea. And some of them get pretty big and mean and, man, you are racing for your life with the wind blasting in your face as the wave crests over your head. You’re scared, but your juices are flowing like crazy, too.”
“Sounds wild.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is. Some say it’s better than sex.”
“You?”
She smiled at me. “Haven’t decided, yet.”
“Right…and you surf here?”
“Up north past the Malibu pier, at Surf Rider Beach. And Zuma Beach and County Line.”
“Well, what do you know: flying, philosophy, and surfing.”
“I do lead a full life.”
I looked out at the waves, then back at her. “So you do.”
We walked another half-mile north, then turned back south towards the Albatross, got in the car, and drove back to Hollywood.
When I walked her to her apartment door, we kissed again.
“Don’t wait so long to call, again,” Allison said as she slipped inside. Before she closed the door, she looked back at me. “Who knows, one of these days you just might get lucky.”
Interview with M.T. Bass
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I have written 11 novels, plus two novellas and a collection of verse. The books include two different series, the Murder by Munchausen Sci-Fi Police Techno-Thrillers and the White Hawk Aviation Adventure Stories. My favorite is now close a toss-up. Racing the Dream was great fun to write, but I think at the top of my list is Somethin’ for Nothin’ about two Ohio State students who escape their classes to get rich on the Trans-Alaska pipeline but get involved in a crazy treasure hunt buried beneath a glacier. I think it has the best ending of all my books.
If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?
The next book in this series is called Mañana. The story follows Hawk and Allison from Racing the Dream down to Costa Rica flying crop dusters spraying herbicides over illegal coca and opium poppy crops in Latin America, which causes certain cartel “issues.” I’m also noodling on a story going back to Hawk’s days as a P-51 Mustang pilot in England during World War II.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Of course, with the Murder by Munchausen and the White Hawk Aviation series of books, I definitely have character and action connections running between the books. The flying books tend to stand on their own better than the Sci-Fi thriller series.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I really don’t know how it came about. One of those 3 am inspirations, I guess.
How long did it take you to write this book?
Racing the Dream took me a year to write. I started in June, 2022.
What does the title mean?
Me and my girlfriend Lola always say, “You can dream the life…or live the dream.” It think the title is a take-off on that quote. Hawk is going after it on the course, Racing the Dream.
What did you learn when writing the book?
Although I’m a Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, I learned so much about the design, building, and flying of racing planes. Of course, I got a lot of help on it from Jack Dianiska, the founder of the U.S. Air Racing Association every month as I wrote the book, sending him chapters to review and critique. I also connected with racing pilots Scott Holmes who flew in Formula 1 and Juan Browne who flew biplanes at Reno. I really got a great insight into sitting in the cockpit during races from them.
What surprised you the most?
It really shouldn’t have been a surprise, but the folks at the National Air Racing Championship were extremely friendly and supportive in getting me permission for artwork, photos, and results—especially as busy as they were putting on the final race in Reno after sixty years. They really are great people.
Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
Oh my gosh, yes. And I still get grief from other folks in my writer’s group about it and that was a few books ago. No spoiler alerts here, but it was one of the characters from the White Hawk Aviation Adventure Stories.
What do you do to get inside your character’s heads?
For Hawk, of course, it wasn’t much of a stretch, being a pilot myself. What I am most proud of is that I have two first-person stories with female narrators, The Darknet and Lodging, and readers say that I really captured the perspective of a woman detective and a young high school girl. I really don’t have a technique or method for getting inside a character’s head, except doing the basic research. Somehow it just comes to me.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.
Born in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and Philosophy, then worked in the private sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the Aerospace & Defense manufacturing market. He is the author of twelve novels, two novellas, and a book of verse. His writing spans various genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories. Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.
Connect with M.T. Bass
Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Amazon ~ Goodreads
Stories by M.T. Bass
White Hawk Aviation Adventure Stories
My Brother's Keeper
Jungleland
Racing the Dream
***~~~***
Murder by Munchausen Sci-Fi Thriller Series
Murder by Munchausen
The Darknet
The Invisible Mind
Motherless Children
Murder by Munchausen Trilogy: Books 1-3
***~~~***
Article 15
Somethin' for Nothin'
In the Black
Crossroads
Lodging
Untethered
5 comments:
Thank you for featuring today's book. It's appreciated.
It is great to be featured in a Q&A on your blog. If I can answer any questions from readers about flying or air racing, please post them in the comments for me.
The Reno Air Races are featured in my story. Has anyone else been to them?
Thanks.
~Mudcat
The cover looks good. Enjoyed the post.
The book sounds great and I love the cover!
The book sounds very interesting. Great cover!
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