For our Halloween Edition: Witch Moon?

This moon!

Photo by Richard Fogg

For our Halloween Edition: Misty Morn

Or is that Misty Mourn?

Photo by Richard Fogg

Caption Crazy!

It is often said a picture is worth a thousand words, so we've provided the picture in hopes that you'll provide the words. Silly or serious? Either is fine!

What came to mind when you saw this picture?

Please write a caption, log line, or flash fiction and share as a comment below!

Janet Fogg
Photo by Richard Fogg

1,254 days from query to contract. But who's counting?

Me!

The publication trek can be exhausting, discouraging, debilitating, frustrating, and yes, even exhilarating. As so many of us grind through an emotional and consuming submission process, I decided to pause for a moment, to look back in time.

Fogg in the Cockpit was released a year ago, after a long publication journey. Were our travails abnormal or fairly typical? From rejections, to no responses, to referrals, to a contract offer that faded to naught, to a lost manuscript, to multiple offers, everything seemed to happen. Ultimately though, we landed a contract with Casemate, a terrific, supportive publisher.

My husband and I started working on this book in 2004 and completed the first 60,000 word draft in early 2007. It was time to send out queries!

• 1st Query 03/24/07 Talbot Fortune Agency: Rejection
  2nd Query 04/02/07 Dystel & Goderich Literary Management: Rejection 
• 3rd Query 05/07/07 Stackpole Books: No response 
• 4th Query 07/30/07 Potomac Books: Rejection 
• 5th Query 05/08/08 University Press of New England: Rejection 
• 6th Query 05/08/08 Naval Institute Press: Rejection 
• 7th Query 05/11/08 Carlton Publishing Group: No response 
• 8th Query 05/11/08 Burford Books: 06/12/08 Burford requested sample chapters, 06/20/08 sent sample chapters, 06/21/08 declined 
• 9th Query 05/11/08 Westholme Publishing: No response
• 10th Query 05/11/08 Camroc Press: 05/13/08 Camroc requested sample chapters, 06/20/08 Camroc requested full manuscript, 07/03/08 declined and suggested we try a university press 
• 11th Query 05/18/08 WW Norton: No response 
• 12th Query 05/28/08 Skyhorse Publishing: Rejection 
• 13th Query: 05/29/08 to Hellgate Press: No response for 21 months (see below) 
• 14th Query: 05/30/08 to Schiffer Publishing: Rejection 
• 15th Query: 07/08/08 to Utah State University Press: 07/09/08 USU requested two copies of full manuscript, 07/10/08 USU acknowledged receipt of manuscripts via email, no further response 
• 16th Query7/25/08 to University Press of Kentucky: Rejection
• 17th Re-query 11/21/08 to Stackpole (referral from one of their authors): Rejection
• 18th Query 03/09/09 to University of Oklahoma Press 03/16/09: requested full, no further response despite several follow-up emails
• 19th Query 05/01/09 to FPP Aviation: 05/03/09 FPP requested full manuscript, 05/05/09 sent full manuscript

Months passed. Who said silence is golden? I would rather receive a rejection than no response!

We decided to self-publish, read Lulu’s guidelines and registered with them. Then dogged determination visited and we decided to send out a few more queries. Just a few.

Our last salvo:

• 20th Query December 29, 2009 to Norlights Press: Rejected
• 21st Query January 3, 2010 to Casemate Publishers

I have to pause now to re-visit the 19th Query that we sent on 05/01/09. On 02/18/10 we received an email from FPP stating they wanted to make an offer. (Happy dance!) On 02/23/10 we met with publisher, received a verbal contract offer, and were told that a contract would follow. On 03/27/10 we sent a follow-up email re: status of contract.  No response.

Yet again that dreaded no response.

But then everything happened at once.

• 03/29/10: Received a charming response to the 10th query we’d sent 21 months previously. In summary, our query and sample chapters had been misplaced by the press during a move. Hellgate requested a full manuscript which we sent 03/30/10.

One day later…

• 03/31/10: Received an email from Casemate (21st query) expressing interest. “We would be very interested to discuss this project further as we feel this is a very interesting story and perspective on the war.” 04/06/10: Casemate scheduled a conference call with us. 04/08/10: Received a verbal offer from Casemate contingent upon increasing word count from 60,000 to at least 75,000, but preferably over 100,000. 04/09/10: Sent additional material to Casemate to show that we could, indeed, increase the word count.

But wait, there’s more!

• 04/13/10: Received an offer from Hellgate, the press that had moved their offices and misplaced our query for 21 months.

Now what? Casemate was interested but we had a bird in the hand. Two, if you counted FPP, though we were now skeptical about them as they hadn’t responded to our emails.

• 04/15/10: We let Hellgate know that we had an offer from Casemate. The Hellgate editor was terrific. He assured us his offer would stand while we decided who to go with. He complimented Casemate, said they were a great press.

We debated the pros and cons of the offers. And then debated some more.

• 04/21/10: Let Casemate know that we had an offer from Hellgate.

Paranoia reigned. No word from Casemate.

• 05/14/10: Casemate scheduled a conference call to review contract terms.
• 05/25/10: Back to the 19th Query, FPP. Still no response to our follow-up emails or a voice mail, so we sent a letter and email withdrawing our manuscript.
• 05/25/10: Let Hellgate know that we were going to accept Casemate’s offer.
• 06/20/10: Sent additional material to Casemate with estimated new word count. 07/08/10: Still no contract draft from Casemate, sent follow-up email.

We were now considering going back to Hellgate.

• 07/26/10: Phoned Casemate and left a message re: status of contract. 07/28/10: Casemate phoned us, explained the delay, and reinforced their interest in the manuscript. Reviewed terms, deadlines, and estimated publication date. They would need the bulked up manuscript by 11/01/10. Yikes! We asked if we could have one more month, until 11/30/10. 09/01/10: Received the contract.

We received the contract!

• Deadline for submittal of the bulked-up manuscript was 11/01/10.  

Wait! What happened to the extra month we requested?  Oh well, we can do it!

• 09/03/10: Mailed signed contract to Casemate.

Time for champagne! Pop!!

This might have been an overly verbose way of reminding everyone, including myself, that it takes stamina, persistence, and determination to get published. To borrow from Galaxy Quest, a shorter message might be, “Never give up! Never surrender!” 

by Janet Fogg

Janet Fogg is the author of Soliloquy, an award-winning historic romance, and co-author of the military history bestseller, Fogg in the Cockpit.

Book Trailers! (Part 1 of 2)

Whether at the bookstore, in the library, or online, I love browsing for books, and with the never-ending escalation of social media and the on-line experience in our day-to-day lives, book trailers continue to increase in popularity, though there’s debate as to their effectiveness in increasing sales.

Alex Marcoux, author and SEO expert, said, “Whether a trailer sells books or not, what makes a book trailer worthwhile is the traffic a video generates for the author’s website (if the video is SEO’d properly).” 

Bonnie Ramthun, author and RMFW’s Published Author Liaison, told me the book trailer for her middle grade novel The White Gates, “turned out to be quite useful in promoting the novel in schools.  Teachers show the trailer to the kids to get them interested in reading the book.”

Isn’t that what it’s all about?  Getting someone interested in reading your book and looking at your website to see what other books you’ve written?  A good book trailer does both and a great book trailer will be shared by viewers with friends.

Some publishers now generate book trailers for their authors, but if your publisher isn’t one of those, the least expensive approach is to design and create your own trailer.  Or is it?  Time is precious and you’ll need to learn new software.

Bonnie Ramthun enjoyed making the trailer for The White Gates.  She said, “I learned a lot while I was researching book trailers.  In my opinion, book trailers should be no more than a minute long, the length of a television commercial.  I used purchased music to avoid copyright issues from shockwave-sound.  I used iMovie on my Mac to create the trailer and the clips were shot by my son, Tom, a snowboarder.  I'll be doing a book trailer for my next series because I think trailers are an important marketing tool.”

The White Gates:

While photos alone can be used to create an effective trailer, I personally enjoy the combination of live-action and photos and took a similar approach when creating the book trailer for Fogg in the Cockpit.  Using Windows Movie Maker software I blended photos with a 1944 gun-camera clip.  I did spend quite a bit of time learning the software and fine-tuning the duration of the images against the music, a process I thoroughly enjoyed.  One decision was whether to include text across multiple photos, and as you can see, for this particular trailer I decided to let the images stand alone, with just the opening screen, closing screens, and the first gun-camera slide providing text.

Fogg in the Cockpit:

I want to also mention the “special effects” that I created for Fogg in the Cockpit, and I’m not talking about the built-in options available in the software, where images can be made to fade, zoom in or out, and so on.  At the end of the video a P-51 taxis across the screen towing a blacked out screen.  This was done with Movie Maker and Photoshop, as I emulated the early days of stop motion by separating the P-51 image from the background, moving the fighter across the background screen a few frames at a time, and then creating a jpg of each specific image.  It took 160 jpgs for those few seconds, plus another 100 or so beforehand as I figured out spacing and timing.  Would I do it again, even though it was tedious and time-consuming?  Yes.  It was a challenge to see if I could pull it off, and I’ll use that clip in the credits on future (non-book) videos related to the 359^th Fighter Group.

What about the images you plan to use in your trailer?  You should either own the copyright on those images or have permission to use them.  There are a number of royalty free sites, though some require that you give credit to the original artist.  Read and print-out their terms of use, or request permission if terms are unclear.  There are also sites where you can purchase the rights to use affordable stock photos.  Again, make sure you understand their terms of use.

Alex Marcoux explained, “While I was taking a spirituality class I was assigned a project, to do something I had never done before, and we were encouraged to step out of our comfort zone. It was then I attempted my first trailer, and Back to Salem was made with Cyberlink’s PowerDirector.  Since my novel Back to Salem had been made into a short film a couple of years earlier, I was able to use some of the raw footage from the film (courtesy of Atlantis Moon Productions) as well an original song (“Down to the Water”) which was recorded for the short film.”

Back to Salem:

Oh, and while I’m thinking of it, be aware that video size does matter when posting on some sites, though 100MB is the topset that I’ve seen most often.  My recent non-book related video was about 13MB and it was over two minutes in length, so I suspect it’s unlikely you’ll exceed the max

Next Monday we’ll continue our discussion about music for your trailer, whether you want a teaser trailer in addition to your regular trailer, and we’ll take a look at several professionally produced trailers.  We’ll also suggest sites where you can post your trailer.

Hope to see you next week!

By Janet Fogg, with Alex Marcoux and Bonnie Ramthun

Fountain, a true story

by Janet Fogg

Thud!

I bolted upright in bed, as did my husband.

Heart pounding, struggling to speak, I threw off the blanket and stood up, shivering. “F... fountain,” I finally forced out as I groped for my robe.

“What?” Dick asked. He switched on the lamp.

I shook my head, slipped on my robe, and trotted into the living room, flipping on the overhead lights. Dick followed close behind and we wandered the perimeter of the room. Nothing had fallen from the bookshelves and the wall of west-facing windows appeared intact, not that I expected to see broken glass. That wasn’t what we’d heard, what awakened us. We surveyed the kitchen, quickly checking cabinets and refrigerator shelves. Nothing seemed out of order. Our house was silent.

“Maybe it was something outside,” Dick said.

Unconvinced, I padded down the hall to the bathroom and stopped in the doorway to peer in. The heavy, framed print that once decorated the wall had fallen and was now wedged behind the toilet. Fingers of water reached across the tile floor.

Dick sidled past me. He reached down behind the base of the toilet for the shut off valve as cold water curled around my toes. I threw towels on the floor to dam the thickening puddle before it escaped.

As the flow of water stopped, Dick straightened and turned to face me. He raised one eyebrow á la Mister Spock.

“Fountain,” I whispered.

Evolution of a Book - A Pictorial

by Janet Fogg

Chintithpit-mang, or, Naming Your Characters.

By Janet Fogg

Recently my husband shook his head and laughed when he saw me re-reading Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Dick liked Footfall but he also jokes about books in which a character’s name or title is overly long or not easily pronounced, as they often are in science fiction or fantasy novels. Footfall is one of those. Chintithpit-mang. Fathisteh-tulk. Raztupisp-minz. Sure, an alien named Ralph might not be particularly frightening or set the right tone, but if a reader pauses while reading isn’t that also a problem?

I encountered that while racing through one of the Harry Potter books. Yes, I was reading far too fast as I couldn’t wait to get to the end, but the first time Gregorovitch was mentioned I stopped cold. Huh? Oh wait, not Grindelwald, but Gregorovitch! Or was it the other way around? Anyway, I do remember a sense of frustration at the time, even though I was only pulled out of Harry’s world for a moment.

Then there’s the "Kwisatz Haderach" in Dune. Not terrible to pronounce but perhaps not euphonious, either. In fact, my husband calls Maud’Dib the “Itzak Kwaggle.” We were both entranced by the book but the phrase "Kwisatz Haderach" made Dick pause and he's always made light of it, though I didn't stumble while reading those words.

At the conference last year Connie Willis explained how she minimizes character-name confusion in her books. She makes a list of the alphabet and when she names one of her characters the first letter of that name is crossed off the list. No fair using the same letter twice, so you won't find Violet and Viola in the same book unless similar names are imperative for moving the story forward. I like that. No, it doesn’t address the science fiction/fantasy challenge of creating names that are appropriate for the culture AND easy to read without crossing your eyes, but then again, now I’m thinking about a story where the main character is a really scary alien named Ralph... Be afraid.

What's New from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers?

For your reading pleasure, these Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers authors announce their new releases:

-------------------------

Fogg in the Cockpit by Richard and Janet Fogg has a new cover and a new release date. The novel has been selected as a featured novel by the Military Book Club.

Casemate, hardcover $21.75
June 2011. 256 p. (978-1612000046)

Renowned for decades as the world's foremost railroad artist, Howard Fogg's career spanned half a century and some twelve hundred paintings.

However, while his art has been welcomed for decades, few of his enthusiasts have been aware of his prior career, as a fighter pilot in the U.S. 8th Air Force during World War II. Fortunately Fogg left behind a detailed diary of his experiences, which illuminate this brief but exciting aspect of his life, as he flew 76 combat missions in bomber escort and ground attack roles in P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs.

You can find more information at the blog, Fogg in the Cockpit, and Janet's website.

-------------------------


"Blood Debt" -- a novella by Jeanne Stein
Hexed, an anthology
Berkley mass market paperback $7.99
June 2011. 336 p. (978-0425241769)

"Blood Debt" introduces a new love interest for Anna Strong when they are thrown together to face a tribunal determined to make her pay for the killing of the black witch Belinda Burke.


"Superman" -- a short story by Jeanne Stein (taken from Crossroads, book seven, due out in August)
Chicks Kick Butt, an anthology
Tor Books, paperback $10.08
June 2011. 352 p. (978-0765325778)

"Superman" takes Anna Strong and her DEA agent friend, Max, into the Mexican desert to stop a coyote luring unsuspecting victims to their deaths. The coyote turns out to be a rogue vamp with a bigger agenda than Anna realizes.

Learn more about Jeanne and her books by visiting her website and the blog, the biting edge.

-------------------------


Karmafornia by NC Weil
Fool Court Press, $16.95
June 2011, (978-0983489306)

Set against the turmoil of late 70's Bay Area California, Karmafornia spins the latest incarnation of a love triangle. When ambitious Laura, new to grad school and Berkeley, and her go-with-the-flow boyfriend Walt, meet bright arrogant fruitarian Cob at a party, she strikes sparks with him while Walt sees trouble coming. Their struggles with history and desire play out against the backdrop of Proposition 13, the Jonestown tragedy, the SF City Hall murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk, the rise of "new wave" punk rock, and the Twinkie defense.

More information about NC Weil and her novel can be found at her website and blog.


Compiled by Pat Stoltey from author submissions

"We have paid the full price with lives, pre-aged youth, and great sorrow."

By Janet Fogg

In observance of Memorial Day, the day we honor Americans who have died while in military service to the United States, an excerpt from Fogg in the Cockpit, Howard Fogg – Master Railroad Artist, World War II Fighter Pilot, by Richard and Janet Fogg.

From the June 1944 Informal Report of Morale for the 359th Fighter Group, submitted by Wilbur C. “Chappie” Ziegler, to Captain Maurice F. X. Donahue, Headquarters.

“The month of June 1944 is one that will never be forgotten by any man in the group. The one big memory we will have of this month is D-Day. For weeks, rumors had been flying thick and fast as to when the invasion would start and what part we would play in it. These rumors kept morale high for a time, but then as the days dragged on a new and more persistent rumor crept into the picture. You heard it on the line, in the messes, in the Red Cross Club, wherever men gathered. So much good weather had been ignored that many were thinking that the invasion had been put off for another year. A man’s morale went pretty low as he thought of another year away from home without any substantial gain toward victory. Things went along in that vein until midnight of June 5th, when everybody seemed to sense that “this was it!” Something electric went through the air with the news that the invasion was about to start. As in America, there was no great hilarity or celebration. Everyone knew this was going to cost many lives, but it was as if a load had been lifted. As a group we were like a fighter who had trained for his big fight. He had fought his way up through the ranks and earned a shot at the championship. He is nervous and tense as he awaits the bell for the first round. Then suddenly it rings and the tenseness leaves him. He’s relaxed and confident. He knows he’ll take some pretty stiff punches, but more than that he knows he can win. Well, I think that’s the way we all felt. We didn’t relish, in fact we hated the thought of the losses we would suffer. However, we knew if we were to win this fight we had to take it some time and the sooner we got in there the sooner we’d win and get out again.

“Briefing for the first invasion mission was called at about 0200 hours on 6 June. Naturally it was a very secret briefing, so I cannot report on the reaction of our pilots when they heard the news. When they came out they were full of life, buoyed up with the nervous excitement of the realization that the greatest invasion in history was about to start and they were an integral part of it. I remember when they went into the briefing it was pitch dark outside and if I remember correctly it was even drizzling. In all, it looked like a poor send-off as far as weather was concerned. Then, just as the pilots came out to their trucks, the clouds parted and a bright cold moon lit up the whole field. The men stood gathered around the trucks for the regular post-briefing prayer. It was a moment that I for one will never forget. There wasn’t a sound anywhere on the field or in the air. It was one of the holiest moments I have ever felt as I led those men in prayer. I remember Howie Fogg remarked about the same thing later on in the day. That was group “A”. An hour later group “B” met for briefing and again we had that same experience of a holy moment. I’m a chaplain and yet I can’t explain it. Perhaps it was the knowledge of the invasion, or the sudden clearing of the sky, or the knowledge that some of these men wouldn’t live through the week, whatever it was in those two early morning briefings, we were at a holy moment in the history of our individual lives, our group, and our nation.

“Most of my time was spent with the pilots this month, but I can’t close this report without recording the effect of D-Day on our ground personnel. It was a “shot-in-the-arm” to us all. All gripes, beefs, ill feeling seemed to have been momentarily forgotten, and they worked together as a team more successfully than ever before. They couldn’t fly. They couldn’t share the danger and risk their lives, but what they could do they did, and did it well. Our ground crews went without sleep hours on end. They stayed up night after night, stayed on the job hour after hour, to keep those planes in the air. Working with eyes red from lack of sleep, stomachs upset from irregular eating periods, bodies fatigued from lack of rest, the number of planes they kept in the air and the small number of abortions due to mechanical failure is proof of the magnificent job they did.

“It has been an expensive month. It has been referred to as a magnificent gamble. This is no gamble. If it is we had better quit now. This must be a transaction. We have paid the full price with lives, pre-aged youth, and great sorrow. We who live on must now carry on and finish the task that they so magnificently have started. We must obtain full value for their sacrifice in peace, security, justice, and freedom.”

No Sunbathing in the Nude

Thanks for joining in the fun here at Chiseled in Rock!

When I posted "Log Legs" two weeks ago, I provided a hint about this week's photo, which is perhaps a bit more complex. So without further ado, and for your writing pleasure...

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so we'll provide the picture in hopes that you'll provide the words!

What came to mind when you saw this picture?

Write a caption, log line, or flash fiction! Write the first paragraph of a short story or novel! Please share as a comment.

Janet Fogg
The non-fiction caption for No Sunbathing in the Nude:
1969 photo by Richard Fogg. Roof parapet, officer’s quarters, Saigon, Vietnam.

Follow us!

Log lines? Log legs!

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so we'll provide the picture if you'll provide the words!

What just crawled into your mind? (Should we be nervous?)

Write a caption, log line, or flash fiction! Write the first paragraph of a short story or novel! Please share as a comment.

Janet Fogg
The non-fiction caption for Log Legs:
1973 photo by Richard Fogg. Gates of Ladore Campground, Dinosaur National Monument.

A hint regarding the photo for next week? No sunbathing...

Winning a Three-Legged Non-Fiction Race!

Why collaborate on a manuscript?

Is the sum truly better than the parts?

In this case it was!


Last week I shared my experience co-authoring screenplays, and this week will look at lessons learned while collaborating with my husband Richard on Fogg in the Cockpit, a military history book that will be released world-wide by Casemate Publishing in May 2011.

First I might mention that the book is based on the diary Richard’s father kept while flying Mustangs and Thunderbolts out of England during World War II. When Richard and I disagreed on an issue, because it is his father's diary I felt Richard’s opinion should carry more weight. As I’d recently seen my first novel published, and since I also spent more time on this book than Richard, he often tried to defer to me. Most small issues were resolved in this manner, but we did have periodic debates where one of us had to persuade the other to his or her way of thinking. Unfortunately, there were two issues we discussed a number of times with no resolution. We just didn’t agree, and ultimately, one of us simply acquiesced.

We recommend you discuss how you'll resolve a major difference of opinion before you start writing. Describe that process in a memo or letter agreement, or better yet, include it in your collaboration contract. As a side note, our publisher recently complimented us for “putting together such a clean package of text and photos,” so they didn’t stumble over either of our two problem-children. Whew!

Non-fiction lends itself to collaboration. Tasks can be allocated. Research, writing, tracking down sources and supporting documents or photos, requesting releases, editing, all of it is easy to share, more so than when writing fiction.

I started Fogg in the Cockpit by transcribing Howard Fogg’s 1943/44 diary and immediately realized what a fascinating document we had. Once the transcription was complete, Richard and I decided to create a book around Howard’s words. Richard researched significant events during the War that were concurrent with Howard’s service while I worked with the Historian from the 359th Fighter Group Association, Dartmouth College, and other sources to track down photos, maps, and reports about the 359th. Richard also tended to research technical material, such as compressibility or P-51 engine specifications, while I developed a mission map and verified geographic references. We shared efforts researching other supplementary material, including pilot terminology, military abbreviations, descriptions of the aircraft used by Allied and Axis powers, and so on.

We both drafted text for the supplementary material and we both edited. We were extremely fortunate to have an enormous number of reports and photos available from the Group Historian, and Richard and I spent days studying everything and debating what to include. Since then we’ve discovered that the Historian had a few other reports we were unaware of. While we might not have used them, I do regret not being aware of those documents until very recently. Lesson learned? Keep asking your sources what else they might have!

The week before our submittal deadline Richard double-checked facts we presented in the supplementary text while I edited the entire document based on the extremely detailed Author Guidelines from Casemate – both nit-picky, time consuming tasks. I also coordinated the 116 image releases while formatting the images electronically, as Richard drafted and refined the accompanying 15 pages of captions.

I should now mention where collaboration saved us. We had a working draft before sending out queries, but Casemate wanted a bigger book, and they wanted that bigger book submitted two months after we signed the contract.

We brushed up our original draft, verified facts, finalized images, and added 121 pages in a combination of new text and excerpts from the 1944 Group Historian's Reports - all in 53 days.

It’s good to have a partner!

What if you’re the “writer” partner collaborating with an expert in some obscure field? Or you've been asked to ghost-write a story? You need a contract that describes how you'll work together, who's responsible for what, how decisions will be made, how you'll share royalties or be paid, and who gets credit for what. Be clear before you start.

Next week, when I look at collaborating on a novel, I’ll include a list of points for you to discuss with your collaborator, as well as an example of a simple collaboration letter agreement.

Janet Fogg

fogginthecockpit.blogspot.com