“Don’t get your tethers in a tangle”
For my characters originally it means ‘calm down and solve the problem logically’. However, over time, it has simply come to mean ‘don’t get upset or angry’
And it’s my creation.
That’s right, not even Google recognizes it!
It’s truly mine!
Origin of the saying is based on the very first time I ever jumped out of a plane. My chute wasn’t the modern kind, it was an old retrofitted army chute. I had been glad to depart from the plane because the stall warning had been going off (they had clearly overloaded the small Cessna).
Jumping out of the plane was a high adrenaline moment, and frankly, a great relief. Once the chute opened, and the plane flew on, all I felt was peace and harmony…until I discovered my right toggle bar was tangled in the tethers. Until I fixed it, I would have no control over my flight direction, and given all the trees and electrical wires beneath me, it was vital for me to be able to control my descent.
I don’t recall ever being so calm in my life as I untangled the toggle bar. Then I took control and landed the chute without incident.
I did mention the tangled toggle to one of the guys who worked at the chute drop. He just laughed and said it happened all the time, which honestly, I found disturbing.
Scavenger Falters
By
Liza O’Connor
Alisha Kane, the Corps’ best flyer, is promoted to colonel, in charge of teaching the Corp’s SkyRyders her extraordinary flying maneuvers. The man she loves, Logan, continues to place the Corps first and insists they both remain focused on their work. For Alisha, this means ferreting out the best flyers in a Corps that has systematically forced great flyers into mediocrity. Logan focuses on learning Alisha’s flying techniques so that he can become the hero the East Coast desperately needs. The result includes fractured ribs and broken hearts, but through it all they never relinquish their love of the Corps.
EXCERPT
“You can’t tell whether a flyer has skill by his landing,” Taylor objected.
Riley joined their conversation. “You aren’t slamming MAC again, are you, Taylor?”
“I’m not slamming anything, Riley, so don’t get your tethers in a tangle. I’m only saying that it’s not possible to rate a flyer’s skill by their landing.”
“You know, I was pretty sure this conversation would come up tonight, so I brought video.” He pulled out his palm pilot and passed it to Colonel Taylor once he had the file up. “This is Alisha’s landing. She had a hurt knee, so she didn’t want to land on the landing tarmac because it was too far from the door. You tell me if she looks like she needed to take a basic flight exam.”
Not even meat-eaters moved as fast as the colonels when they all rushed in for a view. Finally, Powell quelled the mob by ordering Jack to put the video on the wide-screen projector.
Alisha walked away, no doubt less than thrilled with this brouhaha, but Logan agreed with the general that it was probably a good idea for these officers to see proof of her talent. She wasn’t just a really good flyer. She was a literal deity of flying.
Upon viewing the video, Taylor tried to shift his mistake to Logan. “Logan! You sent an injured girl to take the Captain’s exam?”
“No Taylor, I sent her in to take the basic flight exam, something I was quite certain wouldn’t tax her injury at all.”
After the landing, they watched Alisha’s test flights and then her surveillance run. By the time they were finished and ready to have dinner served, their guest of honor had fallen asleep in a recliner in the back of the room.
“Should we wake her up?” Powell asked. “She looks so damned peaceful.”
And young, Logan thought.
“Let her sleep, General,” Jack suggested. “I’ll have Gunny bring her a snack later if she wakes up.”
“Then carry her back to her quarters, Jack. At least let her sleep in the comfort of her own bed.”
“Maybe, I should do it, sir. Jack will probably drop her.” Logan had spoken up before he knew what he was going to say. Had he known, he would have gagged himself with the loaf of bread on the table.
The other colonels laughed heartily at the slur against Jack. Logan gritted his teeth. As much as he did not want Jack around Alisha, he also did not want to lead the Jack-bashing party. Over the last week, he had found the fellow had many strong qualities and did not deserve the contempt of his fellow officers.
SALES LINKS
The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 2
Scavenger Falters
About the Author
Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.
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