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Trivia. My Editor is an automotive service technician working her way to become a master technician (aka ‘A-Tech’). She also has a Ph.D., and a pile of other accreditation.

I learned the automotive repair industry is, for the most part, still in the backwater of mistaken associations with gender male 'expertise.'

Such things were on my mind as I wrote Cursed L'Hooves.

Maurllan.

Did you know?

• 2022. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Labor shows the median pay for automotive service technicians is $30-34k per year. Women (and men) who aspire to become master technicians can make $70k-100k or more per year. Real technicians buy and use their own tools and tool storage cabinets. Maintenance uniforms are generally provided by the shop and laundered by a shop vendor. Some shops hire zero-experience applicants as most in the industry are mentored by shop A-Techs. Check it out. Expect to bring your own socks.

• 2018. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that only 2.1% of all auto mechanics were women.

• 2014. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collected data showing women maintenance employees made about 88% of what men maintenance employees were making.

• 1943. A slogan of the World War II era was ‘Do the job he left behind.’ Women for the first time in U.S. history made munitions, weapons, war planes, warships, tanks, trucks, and jeeps. Many women were asked to leave their new careers after the war. Reportedly, some were even fired so male vets who survived the war could get work.

Yet, gender females were very much involved in the automotive industry during the First Wave of Feminism:

• 1927. Library of Congress item 94508166 titled, “High school girls learn the art of automobile mechanics.” Black and white photo of Grace Hurd, Evelyn Harrison, Corinna DiJiulian, and Grace Wagner working on a car engine at Central High School in Washington, D.C., during auto mechanics class:

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94508166/

Have you registered to vote?

• 1920. Women's suffrage (the right of gender females to vote) was ratified in the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• 1916. Alice Burke and Nell Richardson traveled by auto 10,700 miles over seven months to help win voting rights for women.

• 1915. Wilma Russey was known as an expert garage mechanic and became the first woman to work as a taxi driver in New York.

• 1914. Florence Lawrence invented the first automotive turn signal which at the time was called the ‘auto signaling arm’. Florence also encouraged women to start driving cars.

• 1910. Only 5% of licensed drivers were women.

• 1902. Mary Anderson invented the first automotive windshield wiper.

resources 102

"'It's just a flesh wound,' she murmured, then the darkness came down over her eyes and swallowed her up. Light came back grudgingly, filtered through long window blinds. Irene was lying on a couch, her heavily bandaged hands neatly arranged on her lap. She was in one of the rooms that overlooked the unknown city outside the Library walls. Someone had taken off her shoes and arranged the folds of her dress so that they covered her stockinged feet. That small thing, as petty as it was, allowed her to relax. There was only one person who'd go to that trouble."

-p.320

Cogman, Genevieve. The Invisible Library, ACE, Published by Berkley, An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, New York, 2016. ISBN 978-1-101-98864-0.

"If this was werewolf business, and, after the previous night, I had to assume it was — I needed a bigger gun. I took down the .444 Marlin and loaded it for werewolf. It was a short rifle, and small unless you took a good look at the size of the barrel. The lipstick-sized silver bullets were guaranteed, as my foster father used to say, to make even a werewolf sit up and take notice. Then he'd put a finger alongside his nose, smile, and say, 'Or lie down and take notice, if you know what I mean.' The Marlin had been his gun."

-p.58

Briggs, Patricia. Moon Called : A Mercy Thomson Novel, ACE, Published by Berkley, An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, NY, 2006. ISBN 978-0-441-01381-4.

"She went down to the silent kitchen, and for want of anything else to do she scrubbed the table. Doing something with her hands helped her think. Something had changed, and it was her."

-p.296

Pratchett, Terry. Wintersmith : A Tiffany Aching Adventure, HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. Copyright ©2001 Terry and Lyn Pratchett. ISBN 978-0-06-089033-9.