Central Valley Writers Workshop - Claudia Hagen
Claudia Hagen
Claudia was born in Spokane, Washington, the eldest of four siblings. She became an avid reader at an early age and began writing short stories for her own amusement at the age of 10. Encouraged by her school friends and teachers in
middle school, she submitted her work to teen magazines receiving an occasional acceptance letter. Born into a wheat farming family, she learned to cook huge noon harvest meals beside her beloved grandmother, a strong influence on her throughout her life. Her grandmother always told her, "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you cannot do something just because you are a woman." Armed with this advice and following it throughout her life, Claudia pursued many interests in a few areas women were not well known at the time. Among those interests were aviation, hot air ballooning, and the air show industry. She has had several articles published in ballooning and aviation related material. Carrying on the family tradition of nursing, Claudia graduated from nursing school specializing in cardiac and critical care. She taught many different classes, held supervisory positions, wrote policies and procedures, and had several articles published in nursing journals and magazines. After twelve years of ballooning, business ownership, air show organizing and thirty-six years of nursing she recently retired to spend more time preserving her own health and focusing on the new chapters in her life. Now living in California's Central Valley, married with three grown sons, and a big handful of grandchildren, Claudia is enjoying her retirement reading, writing, cooking, gardening, and traveling. However, her family relates, since she misses flying, she has become quite adept at flying a jet-powered broom! |
The Mystic High Adventures of Fannie Flame
is a behind-the-scenes look at Claudia's struggles and triumphs
while floating over and through twelve years of ballooning. Hilarious, heart warming, and history making. The Night the Fortress Fell
While on a routine ferrying flight from Great Falls, Montana, to Ephrata, Washington, a massive B-17 Flying Fortress tangled with an unexpected blizzard. The blizzard won. Dubbed the Fairfield Fortress by the author, the bomber crashed its way into the lives of its crew, a farm family, and the small wheat farming town of Fairfield, Washington. |
