Where Everybody Knows Your Name

People sometimes ask me if I miss flying. After all, who wouldn’t want to zip around at supersonic speeds and cloud-surf over the world’s oceans. I smile as I struggle to answer. What I should say is, “sure do!” or “only when I think about it,” which are boilerplate answers to the question. Another common question is, “what is it like to fly a fighter jet?” and as I’ve written before, how do you answer that one in a sentence or two? But back to the first question: Yes, I say, then add, as we aviators tend to do, the specifics. What I miss is naval aviation, the challenge and the camaraderie.

My wife and I were privileged to attend a Navy Change-of-Command and retirement ceremony last week in San Diego, where my friend VADM Mike “Shoe” Shoemaker relinquished command of Naval Air Forces to my friend VADM Chip “Bullet” Miller. It was held aboard Naval Air Station North Island, technically called Naval Base Coronado, but I hope the colloquial North Island lives on forever. It was held in a spacious aircraft hangar on the flight line not far from the I-Bar…more on that later.

We arrived the night before and saw friends. Actually we saw friends on the plane, friends of over 30 years, and there was not a moment during the next three days and nights that we were not among the types of friends you “grew up” with. We’ve been to each others homes, we’ve put each other up in our homes, and watched our kids play together and form their own life-long bonds. Some children we’ve known since infancy and pre-school attended, and some children were in dress blue uniforms.

On Thursday morning we rose early, and with the lobby mobbed with friends we hadn’t seen in some time there was no time to grab a bite to eat and still make the ceremony. Like Tailhook conventions, you make small-talk for 15-30 seconds before time or a coffee-line pulls you away. However, sometimes we had longer to really catch up, to understand what each other is doing, and to convey how much we mean to each other.

In this aviation community it is custom to begin these ceremonies at 1000am on a Thursday. Knowing it would be well attended we arrived early, to park the car, to find the assigned seats, and to socialize. I drove up with my parking pass displayed and identified myself. The Chief monitoring the parking lot asked me if I was family; well, I said, we were squadronmates and roommates. Close enough sir, park over there with the family!

We entered – joining a long line of friends – and got our seating assignment as the Navy Band played the familiar and stirring National Emblem. Row upon row – upon row – of seats were arranged with the dias platform at the hangar bay entrance, with naval static-display aircraft parked outside on the flight line. Business suits for men, most of us retired, and semi-formal business attire for the ladies, a smaller number also retired. It is our American social custom to shake hands, even after decades apart from someone you spent months living with. Our eyes meet and we move toward one another, shipmates who remember each other in our 20’s, squeezing one another’s hand in a manly grasp – and sometimes bringing that in for a closer hug signifying a shared experience and kinship. The ladies radiate dazzling smiles and share warm embraces – with everyone. It is like a family reunion. It is family, and we compliment each other and remark about the kids and the latest Facebook update until others grab our elbows as the process is repeated.

The ceremony begins on time, to the second. We stand as the official party is “piped” aboard through rows of side-boys as active duty salute. As Ruffles and Flourishes sounded I watched my friends in their Full Dress Blue regalia with pride, recalling flight school, and fun FA-18 hops over North Florida, and backyard bar-b-q’s with the kids running around. On the dias I know all the admirals, three of whom I have personal relationships.

The colors are paraded. All stand – not standing is unthinkable – and once the flag approaches we place our hands over our hearts while those in uniform salute. All one thousand guests are at attention, if they served in uniform or not, and all are still as the soloist sings the words to the song we all know by heart. During the last stanza I saw them over Point Loma, six dots signifying the familiar Delta formation, smoke-ON, and as the anthem ended the sound of 12 F404 engines increased to booming roar as the Blue Angels – their Hornets hook-down to make a statement – thundered over the hangar at 200 feet. Cool.

These ceremonies are pretty much cookie-cutter: A solemn invocation, guest speaker speech, medal award (Distinguished Service) to the outgoing commander followed by his farewell speech, the actual change of command, speech (short) by the incoming commander, benediction. This one was also a retirement for Shoe, hanging it up after almost 36 years of commissioned service. An American flag he had flown over his two carrier flagships and Naval Air Forces HQ was passed up the line as a poem was read. After it was placed in his hands, Shoe gave it to his mother in the front row, herself the widow of a veteran buried at Arlington. Moments later, with the crowd on their feet, Shoe, Peggy, and their girls were “piped over the side” between the side boys in naval tradition as all saluted Shoe, “going ashore” for the last time. At the end Peggy let out a whoop. Freedom!

There is a time in each ceremony, when the outgoing and incoming commander face each other, and using the words used on ship bridges as watches are changed every four hours all over the world, transfer authority and responsibility from one to the other. Shoe told Bullet he was prepared to be relieved as Commander, Naval Air Forces. Bullet saluted and said, “I relieve you, sir!” and Shoe answered, “I stand relieved.” At that moment Bullet took the conn, or in aviation terms, the lead, and both reported to Fleet Commander “Notso” that one was relieved and the other had assumed command and commensurate responsibilities even I can only imagine. In front of the assembled staff and 1,000 witnesses there was no doubt. We love our change-of-command ceremonies, and they are effective.

Once dismissed we fall into more handshakes and embraces with all around us, and congratulating Shoe and Bullet after standing in long lines to do so. Outside on the sun-splashed flight line the “petting zoo” of fleet aircraft await guests to get a closer look, and a catering tent forms a line that begins near the hangar. The legends mingle about, current rising stars chat in groups, and we see friends and shipmates we note to find later; sadly, I missed chances with a few in the giant crowd.

That afternoon we gathered on the rooftop with bottles and cups – not that we are glorifying anything, mind you – and reflected on the ceremony and caught up with those we had not yet had a chance. A loud, booming, deafening sound erupted next to us and soon a JSF appeared behind our building as it took off to the west. It turned hard left and departed to the south along Point Loma; several in our group knew the pilot flying it. That afternoon two Super Hornets came into the break and landed, with us has-beens watching the entire time. The next morning I ran into one of the lieutenants that flew one, one whom I’ve met before.

The next two days and nights were filled with social events; a huge reception at the Island Club, golf (Friday and Saturday, with a few legit par holes!), side trips to Coronado and a gathering at the famous I-Bar. Legend has it you’ll always see an old friend there each time you walk in, and I’ve found that to be pretty much true over the years I’ve visited, in a flight suit or civvies. Like the weekend, it is where everybody knows your name. (Don’t touch the model airplanes, and don’t put your phone on the bar!)

We went to mass Sunday morning to give thanks before lugging our stuff to Lindbergh for the flight home. Just to be there at such an important ceremony, to see so many of our closest friends, to enjoy the balmy SoCal sun while the rest of the US was scraping ice off windshields (we should live here!), and spend time smiling and laughing and enjoying each other’s familiar company – it is priceless.

While the ages of those attending ranged from mid-90’s to teen, most of our group that served with Shoe and Bullet are around 60, plus or minus. The ladies are aging gracefully and us guys are grayer, heavier, balder…but all of us wiser, knowing how special moments like these are. We look forward to the next time, to solve the world’s problems, to tell the same and sometimes new sea stories, to get the latest on the kids, and inquire about elderly parents who need our care now. To laugh and smile.

The challenge of naval aviation such as leading a complex airborne evolution is long past. Thankfully, my memories are rich. But the camaraderie I experienced remains, and we look forward to the next gathering in the coming months, or years, among familiar friends, as familiar as family, and not taking any of it for granted.

in Living History

My How-to of Independent Publishing

So, you want to publish a book. Given that you’ve written one, that is an admirable goal. You should share with friends and family – and thousands of strangers – what you’ve created. Why not? We are called to share our talents, and to help where we can.

In recent months several people have asked me about the process of book publishing in today’s new normal of ebooks, print-on-demand, and audiobooks. After rejections from what I’ll call “New York,” I found – through my network – independent publishing. As I wrote in a previous blog post, the dominant e-reader Kindle has revolutionized publishing like nothing since the Gutenberg Press, and fellow author and veteran Jeff Edwards of Braveship Books, who is an award-winning writer of remarkable success, walked me through it. Here are the steps I’ve used in my journey as an author/entrepreneur.

  1. Write, re-write, repeat     Whew! You finished your book. Send it to the editor?…not so fast. Print it out – on paper – then take a pen…and make corrections. You’ll see things, and fix things, and re-word things, and correcting it out on paper allows for “fresh” eyes and quick edits/notes. Stephen King gives himself several weeks after writing a passage before coming back to it and editing in this way. Cut, sand, and polish, polish, polish, polish. Between rejection letters I did this for months and it paid off. James Webb said he re-wrote Fields of Fire six times before it was ready, and knew he had a fine piece of literature when he did. You need to have that feeling too, to know deep down that, “this is good.”
  2. Collaborative Editing     My superb editor, Linda Wasserman, would edit a chunk of the manuscript (say 2,000 words), send me the edited chunk via email, and then we’d meet on the phone to discuss the edits. Every paragraph, every sentence, every word. Linda challenges me to justify my word choices, and often has me read a sentence or paragraph. This is a fascinating process, and it allows us – yes, us – to make a good passage better. Linda suggests, but she also allows me the author to have 51% of the vote when we have disagreements. There is content editing (storyline, prose) and copy editing (spelling, punctuation). Both are important, and Linda does both, she’s a gem. Linda compiles all the edits into a working rough…this process takes many months (over six months) of detailed effort, but worth every moment spent on it. (And by the way, it’s words. People ask me how many pages my novels run. Pages are font and format dependent. A word, on the other hand, is a word.)
  3. Beta Readers     We remember the teachers (instructors, flight evaluators) who pushed us. You want your beta readers, readers who are going to give you a “sanity check,” to push you. While there are always exceptions, your loving family members are probably not good beta readers. You want friends/professional associates you can trust to give you that constructive criticism we all crave. In my techno-thriller genre – with readers who cannot wait to catch errors – I need the beta reader to catch them first, but also to suggest alternate story outcomes and question the techno-details. Editor or beta reader – which comes first? Not critical, and they can occur simultaneously. Once edited, if a beta reader (or me) makes major changes, I’ll use my judgment if the changes need Linda’s eye. For the editor and beta reader, my job is to get them the best possible manuscript from which to work. Polish, polish, polish.
  4. Cover Design     We’re in the home stretch now, about a month from publishing, and the book needs a cover. This is also the subject of a previous blog post, but suffice to say I used 99Designs. I held a “contest” to solicit cover designers from around the world, giving them a basic run-down of my novel and general ideas for a cover. Off they go, and they design covers for Kindle, Trade-paperback, and audiobook; all different. They are pros, and they know to allow space for the ISBN bar code, the spine, back-cover metadata, etc. 99Designs allows you – and people you invite – to rate covers and work direct with the designers for changes. Another fascinating process, and in the end you declare a winner, 99Designs releases the prize money to the designer and you, the author, have rights to the cover you purchased. This process took me 2-3 weeks each time…the final decision is tough.
  5. Metadata     Of warfare, Clausewitz said “…everything is simple, but even the simplest things are difficult.” Metadata is the “stuff” in the book that is not part of the manuscript. The author bio and back cover blurb are two examples. (The acknowledgments section is part of the manuscript.) Like everything, this needs some thought to make the most of each word in this precious space. Have them ready for when you enter them; more on that in a minute.
  6. Formatting     There are two types of formatting; PDF and MOBI. A trade-paperback, an actual book you can hold, uses the PDF format. Most of you could plow through that, right? Well, a professionally done book requires the right number of pages, and logical page breaks, etc. Your first page needs to be blank – because the inside front cover is blank, right? For Kindle, a MOBI zip-drive is required. Jeff and Braveship do this for me, after we’ve both given the manuscript a final scrub, and when complete I have the formatted files.
  7. Uploading into CreateSpace and KDP     This takes me about 45-60 minutes each on the CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing accounts I created. Both methods have a step-by-step process that guides the author. Enter your ISBN, enter your genre, enter your cover. For your trade paperback, do you prefer white or cream colored paper? I guessed “white?” until Jeff said no – cream is easier to read from. Cream it is, no argument. You enter your metadata and answer various questions in the process until you come to the last box: Publish your book. Once you click on that, it is on Kindle or available on CreateSpace within 24 hours, and all of this is at no cost to you. For CreateSpace, they ask if you want an electronic or trade-paperback copy to give one last look. I choose the hard copy which shows up at my door days later. Mistakes that are found are corrected, reformatted, and re-entered. Once complete, the book is “live” with a publishing date.
  8. Promoting     After I published Raven One, Linda told me I just signed up for a new “job.” For those of us who approach this from a professional standpoint, promoting and marketing is an effort and there are many great books and resources on how to do this. Perhaps a future blog post, and I’m still learning. Frankly, it was through my promotion efforts that Tantor Media found me and offered an audiobook contract. Before that of course, the manuscript was written, cut, sanded, and polished in careful detail.

For less than five dollars people can have my novels delivered to their Kindle App, and for not much more to their Audible App. Less than 5% of my readers prefer a good old-fashioned book to hold, and CreateSpace (which has several print factories in the United States) prints one book (or whatever ordered) and ships it to the reader’s door. The photo below is of me three years ago with the proof copy of Raven One, which now has a new and improved cover. Thousands of hours of effort went into that, and in my own “new normal” of diverse business endeavors the effort is well worth it. If you’ve got a book in you, publish it. It has never been easier.

 

in Writing

The Christmas Bombing, and Courage

Over the weekend I visited a homeless shelter. Not to call attention to that, but it is related to this story.

I brought some copies of my books to donate, and, not sure how, went to the check-in window to talk with whoever was working it.

A volunteer, an older man – gray, glasses, moustache (guess that’s me without the moustache) – was there and I first asked him where I could get a cup of coffee. Nice as he could be he directed me around the corner to come in and help myself. I then presented my books to donate to the “library” which was little more that a wooden box outside by a shack. He looked at the covers. “You a pilot?” he asked. Yes, I said, back in the day, and my novels are about today’s aviators. How about you, I asked him.

“Yeah, Vietnam. C-7’s at first.”

Yes, the Caribou, I said.

“Yes,” he said, surprised that anyone would know that (those of you who know me well are smiling). He then added, “Then I went to B-52’s.”

I was impressed and said “wow” or something like that.

“Yeah, I was in Linebacker II.”

Wow I said, with my eyes big and full of respect. The “Christmas Bombing” I added.

“Yeah, the Christmas Bombing. I was there – glad I made it.”

The so-called “Christmas Bombing” in December 1972 ended the Vietnam War. For over ten days hundreds of B-52 sorties originating from Guam and Thailand rained destruction on Hanoi to get the North Vietnamese back to the table, end the war, and bring our POWs home. The powerful but lumbering B-52s had not yet ventured into the Hanoi area of North Vietnam, the most heavily defended airspace on earth. Lethal surface-to-air missiles took a fearsome toll, but the bombers kept coming. I knew about their need to change tactics to avoid greater losses, but what can you do in an airplane bigger than most airliners and not much more maneuverable? The crews knew the dangers, and after three nights of doing the same thing, how dumb that was. But they persevered – they went in.

So when my friend and fellow aviator Ed Beakley sent this fascinating video clip to his network, the story of one man who displayed courage and spoke truth to power, I watched with new-found respect. BGen G.R. Sullivan said no, we aren’t going to keep coming at them the same way night after night, and he took a courageous stand for his men. The men in this clip are all in their 70’s and 80’s now; the youngest might be 68. Take 35 minutes to watch this story, the story of Linebacker II, that served to end the Vietnam War, which began 45 years ago tonight, December 18, 1972.

My new friend at the shelter described going in at night, seeing bombers ahead of him burst into brilliant flame when hit, and watching the flaming wreckage fall to earth amid fireworks of rockets climbing to meet the next targeted bomber. He told me that he just tightened up in the cockpit and all but closed his eyes waiting for it to be over, a sensation I’ve heard related by other Vietnam aircrew. He obviously survived, and said he soon left the Air Force, having served our country with honor…and serving society today as a volunteer. Looking at him today you would never know what he did then. Shakespeare wrote that, “Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day.”

Tonight, let’s lift a glass to the aviators – in Thailand and Guam and aboard the carriers at sea – of Linebacker II as you enjoy Sully: A General’s Decision (Painting by Robert Bausch, USAF Art Collection)

in Living History

America’s Team?

The Jacksonville Jaguars football team has a soft spot in my heart.

I was flying Hornets in Jacksonville during the 1996 season, the year they went to the AFC Championship game in only their second year of existence. Jacksonville fell in love with the Jaguars at first sight, and what a fun team, with Tony making huge running lanes for Natrone, and Mark throwing bombs to Jimmy and Keenan. Coach Coughlin was the stern task-master that called the shots, and the Jags owned Jacksonville.

My friend and qualified Hornet tailhooker Sam Kouvaris of Channel 4 hosted a weekly TV show about the team, as is found in most NFL cities. Sam invited my boys and I to the studio the following season for a taping of the show, and afterward the players he had as guests – they were not the stars mentioned above – signed autographs for the kids and a few dads. (Not me!)

My older boys, aged 10 and 8 at the time, stood in line for a chance to have these NFL football players sign their posters or jerseys or whatever they had. The players, heads down and not saying a word, signed what was placed in their hands by the adoring and awestruck kids. No smiling, no eye-contact. I felt bad for my boys, who even at a young age could sense that these grown men wished to be someplace else and not having to deal with the rock-bottom drudgery of being a pro athlete – signing autographs for kids. I don’t think anyone asked for a snapshot, too intimidated. The only sound heard was the squeaking of their Sharpie’s as they just scribbled their names as fast as they could.

The following week I took my family to NAS Cecil Field to see the Blue Angels perform at the Air Show. Over the years I’ve known many Blue Angel demo pilots and 1997 was no exception. I knew from talking to them that the demo could have had a close-call, and in the debrief there could be a frank – and I mean frank – reconstruction and personal accounting that left no doubt. Talk about putting your big-boy pants on, and rank means little or nothing. It’s six human beings who are risking their lives…no sugar-coating.

But before the debrief, and there is one after each demo, they pilots go to the crowd line and sign autographs. Not only that, they interact with the crowd, thank them for coming to see them, and pose for pictures. They do that until all have a chance for an autograph, or until pulled away to debrief or get back in their jets for the flight home. The photo above is of my friend Keith Hoskins, “Judge” as we know him by, taken when he was a Blue Angel demo pilot. Look at him smiling as he hands the little boy a program, down at his level, with what I am sure is a beaming parent behind the boy. This is not unusual…all the team members interact with the crowd this way. I assure you it is not an act, and despite the pressures of flying the demo, the long hours, the “commits,” the need to be “on” all the time representing the Navy and Marine Corps team, they make everyone feel special. All the guys (and gals) I’ve known on the team are great people.

I’m in my second season of “boycotting” the NFL. It’s more than disgust with Kaepernick and his fellow travelers taking a knee, more than the enabling of the league that allows these guys to hurt their product on company time. It is the ungratefulness they display, their sense of entitlement, playing a game for a living with the endorsement contracts and broadcast booth careers that follow. When the Blue Angel pilots finish their tours on the team they put on a green or khaki flight suit and go back to the fleet, America’s REAL team, deployed for months at a time, away from home, and risking their lives even more than when they performed the Loop Break Cross.

We saw the 2017 Jaguars, in England, make a political statement that at it’s core disrespects our country. Many of those that defend it live in Jacksonville, and word has it that this Veterans Day weekend they will make a statement of their own and not show up at Everbank Stadium. I have many retired shipmates in Jacksonville – they are seething at the Jags and won’t show up as they play the Chargers of all teams, a team that just last year jilted another Navy town. The Jaguars issued an apology to their fans, many of them active and retired military. Sorry guys, you screwed up and I think you are going to pay. When military guys screw up, and it happens, sometimes with spilled blood, there is a strict accounting. You are going to be held accountable, Jaguars, by the fans this time, not Coach Coughlin. Put your big-boy pants on and take it, and after this passes, smile at your good fortune and never take any of it for granted. Make every star-struck kid feel special…and earn back my respect. (And we’ll forgive…I’ve missed opportunities to make people feel special too.)

This stuff matters. Showing respect for the national anthem should bring us together as Americans. . Unfortunately, the disrespect trickles down. I was at a Division II football game in Pensacola over the weekend. The anthem was done with honor and the fans in this military town stood hand over hearts with respect. Scanning the sidelines, I noted that none of the players from either team were on them. Guess that’s a way for the schools to avoid even a hint of trouble vice setting a high standard for their student athletes to live up to. Is this going on elsewhere, a trend?

We need men and women to lead, now more than ever, in all parts of our imperfect society.

in The Passing Scene

The Kindle Turns Ten

“This is like the Gutenberg Press,” my fellow author and Braveship Books publisher Jeff Edwards told me regarding eBooks in 2013. We were discussing my manuscript titled Raven One that had been rejected by New York agents and if it had a future. Jeff, who has had tremendous success as an independent novelist in the techno-thriller (USS Towers series) and science-fiction (Blues series) is a fellow veteran and someone I could trust. He convinced me that this eBook thing was real.

The Amazon Kindle E-reader turns 10 today, and like Jeff said, it revolutionized the way we read and approach reading. And publishing – big time.

Paperbacks came about in the 1930’s but in 1971 Michael Hart digitized the Declaration of Independence. 1971 was also the year the first email was sent – between two main frame computers.

With the advent of the CD, Jurassic Park was released in 1985 on CD-ROM, and in 1993 Digital Book released 50 digital books on floppy disk. In 1998 the first dedicated eBook readers appeared, and the first ISBN for an eBook was issued.

In 2004 Random House and Harper Collins started to sell digital versions of their books. That was the same year Jeff Bezos of Amazon challenged his engineers to build the best eReader before their competitors could. They came up with what we know as the Kindle, so named by Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma, “to light a fire.”

In 2007 the Kindle sold out in 5.5 hours and was out of stock for five months. Barnes and Noble countered with the Nook in 2009, and today there is iBook, Google Books, Kobo and others, but they never caught on like Amazon Kindle. In 2011 eBooks outpaced paperback, and last year 6.9 million eBook titles are available. Last year, Amazon sold 485 million units of them.

They have revolutionized publishing, and for independents like me are a viable way to publish and get exposure to thousands of readers. Actually tens and hundreds of thousands of readers. Amazon dominates the market, and all an author like me must do is enter a MOBI zip drive on Kindle Direct Publishing…at no cost. Jeff was instrumental in formatting and guided me every step, but I, the author, set the price, and for a price point of less than five dollars a reader can download a novel onto their Kindle, or Kindle app on their phone. Amazon pays the authors 70% of the price – that the authors set! The authors keep their rights, and after sales decline after the initial splash can market them as they wish. The reader can keep an entire library on a thin tablet – or smart phone – and read them anywhere. Win-win.

After we finished discussing eBooks, Jeff said Print-on-Demand is next. I said I wanted to concentrate on eBooks for now. I could sense Jeff shaking his head on the other end of the line. Print-on-Demand is independent of eBooks and done through CreateSpace – another Amazon company. With a PDF format, same thing. Hit “enter” on CreateSpace at no cost and your 9×6″ trade paperback is out there. If only one person wants to read an actual book, they order it at the  CreateSpace store or on Amazon and Amazon prints one book and ships it to their door. For me though, 97% of my novel sales are Kindle…ninety-seven percent! With hundreds – no thousands – of downloads, this is serious income, and titles can stay in the top 100 of their genres forever – no need to pull old tiltles from shelves because their are no shelves. Here’s an image of Raven One on Kindle and the trade paperback with the new cover. To each his own!

EBooks continue to grow, but there is a newcomer – Audiobooks. Audiobooks are about to eclipse eBooks in sales – $3.5 billion last year – and here Amazon rules the roost too, with Audible. The most popular device to experience and audiobook? Your smart phone with the Audible app – right next to your Kindle app. The big publishing houses are all over this now, and both R1 and DH are on Audible, as well as Kindle and trade paperback. To each his (or her) own indeed.

I’ve received reviews and notes from readers in Europe, Australia, India, and even Russia. To be able to speak to people through my stories, to give them insight into my former world and a view of our society they would not otherwise experience is gratifying to say the least, and before the eBook they probably would never have been exposed to my works. “New York” would not publish me, although some NY agents were kind and encouraged me to keep trying. No regrets. They would not let me write the books I wanted to write anyway, and Jeff says we Braveship authors write “smart books for smart people.” If you want to publish, there’s never been a better time, and the only barrier is your own ability to write, cut, sand, and polish…then format. Don’t give up.

My sons got me the Kindle in these photos for Christmas a few years before Raven One was published in 2014. Last year Declared Hostile joined it. New York hasn’t called and I don’t wait by the phone for them – but Connecticut called! Tantor Media, based in Old Saybrook, CT, saw my works on Kindle and offered an audiobook contract, where you can find them today.

What will they think of next? Happy Birthday Kindle…wishing you many more.

in Writing

Am I allowed to write that?

You may have seen that the Biloxi, MS school board recently pulled Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird from their 8th grade required reading list. Apparently it makes some people uncomfortable. Unsaid is that it is the use of the n-word; never mind that the message of the story is one of courage and justice in the face of bigotry set in the vernacular of the day. What’s next, Gone With the Wind, and to answer my own question, yes, probably.

As a novelist, and reader, I appreciate and deliver authenticity. Lee and Margaret Mitchell pulled no punches and in their times wrote about society the way it was. Two fearless women who knew they would experience backlash from people they may have considered friends. Their stories did so much for our society, (talk about making people uncomfortable) and as time capsules allow us to see how far we’ve come.

In the hyper-sensitive society of today, can a novelist like me write novels without fear? Can I, a white Scots-Irish male, use the n-word in my novels if I wanted to? The answer is no, and while I don’t want to anyway, it is okay for hip-hop artists to use it in their songs or for African-Americans to use in everyday conversation. I’m also Catholic; am I allowed to bash the Catholic Church? Well, societies’ answer to that is yes, much of society encourages that, and it seems these days anyone can without fear, Catholic or no, and if I object that a non-Catholic is ripping my religion society tells me I’m the one with the problem.

I once had a reader ask me how I can write about an African-American character and give voice to his dialogue. Well, this character is a carrier pilot – will you grant me that I have some background in this area – who happens to be black. I served with aviators who happened to be black, or female (or Hispanic, atheist, Asian, homosexual, Jewish), and a theme of my novels is that the airplane does not care what kind of human being is flying it. This is true throughout the military…can you do the job? Nothing else matters. We bonded.

A better question some readers ask is how I can write about women, their feelings, fears, their worldviews as distinct minorities in the male-dominated culture of military aviation. This is more of a challenge, but because I’ve served alongside women, dealt with the issues, experienced the dynamic inside a military unit…I can and do write about it. Women make up roughly 15% of the force, we cannot “man” the fleet without them, but only 4% of carrier pilots are female even after the door to front-line combat units has been open for almost 25 years. They serve ably and attain high rank, all earned after decades of service. Politicians often say we need more women in combat, at all levels. Why? Will that demographic alone make us more combat effective? We’ve been in combat for most of the past 25 years and our performance is superb; I think we can say approaching flawless. Our force is diverse, but men and women in close quarters lead to real tensions, even today, let’s not kid ourselves. Or if you do not know, let me tell you.

I do not advocate turning back the clock – we couldn’t operate without women – but I do not think we need to push women into infantry and special forces. Convince me, a retired officer, that unit combat effectiveness will be increased.

Know who would ban my novels given half a chance? Some politically correct precincts of the Navy, and retired senior officers have conveyed this to me. While my novels are of strong men (Flip and Cajun) and women (Olive and Annie) at sea and in the air, I too pull no punches and write also of the tensions, racial and sexual, of human beings working under pressure with the fears and uncertainties found in warfare. I write of teamwork and camaraderie, of love of country and honor and accomplishment but also about political miscalculations and bad behavior, sometimes personal and sometimes institutional. I write of personal redemption while holding a mirror to our society (especially in Declared Hostile). The Navy (military) is a force for good in our world and I was privileged to serve with many great people but we were still people, flawed and prone to mistakes if we didn’t pay attention. I made plenty, and that I convey the human side of today’s military to fascinated readers who do not have a background helps them better understand the 1% who serve today. Would the Navy support the making of the movie TOP GUN the way it was made, today? I’m not sure. (I hear talk of TOP GUN II. Raven One would be the perfect vehicle. You be the judge.)

One can tell that Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell loved the South, but were not so blinded they could not shed light on injustice where they saw it. Lee had more of an agenda, and Mitchell wrote of how things were amid the shocking and amusing schemes of selfish yet strong Scarlett. In their remarkable masterpieces, both gave voice to strong male and minority characters. Both knew we readers were smart enough to make our own conclusions, to be entertained, and to reflect. They faced backlash. Today’s novelists, in our overheated times, must not be afraid either. You readers are smart enough.

And if you have an 8th grader, buy him or her a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Getting them to put down the video game to read it?…can’t help you there!

in Writing

You Can (and do) Judge a Book by its Cover

This chestnut of the publishing industry is instinctive for readers. We walk past the bookshelf at a supermarket or airport bookstore and our eye scans dozens of images before they are drawn to one that we seek. If you are looking for military action adventure, your subconscious will reject the pastel colors (flesh tones?) and soft fonts of romance novel covers and pass them by, looking for bold colors and sharp fonts that invoke machines and danger. Our brains filter for us in nanoseconds, and retailers help us by organizing their shelves for our tastes.

Research shows that a bookstore browser will spend eight seconds evaluating a cover; on line this is less, and a literary agency has a policy of three seconds for the cover to “grab” them before they pass. On your mobile device the cover image is 58 pixels square. The cover, and title, must be effective and hold attention for over three seconds.

I knew Raven One was a good title; I think Hollywood co-opted it for Rogue One, but let’s move on. My vision for the cover was a FA-18 Hornet silhouetted by a setting – or rising – sun. This would invoke drama, purpose, an image of a menacing fighter high above. That image and a cool title would convey to the reader that this book is about fighter combat. It is about much more, but a simple yet striking image would push people to give an unknown author a chance. There are plenty of terrific images on Google and my gut told me they are not for the taking. Later research confirmed they are not.

My publisher Jeff Edwards asked me if I had a cover design, and I sent him this:

He hated it.

He had me go to 99Designs and hold a “book cover contest.” After giving guidance, 99Designs then put the word out to designers around the world and within hours I had dozens of designs to choose from, and over the next several days, hundreds. Holding on to my original vision for the cover, I directed the designers toward it. I then made what may have been a tactical error.

99Designs allows contest holders to conduct a poll, and so I asked people in my circle, from all walks of life, to comment on a short-list of designs I thought had merit. My hope for Raven One is that it can appeal to all, and it can, but it is certainly in the military action-adventure thriller genre. I’ve read novels from westerns to young adult to romance to mysteries to techno-thrillers, and if people that prefer these genres read just one military action novel in their life, my hope was and remains that it would be mine. The comments I got were all over the place, and the cover I preferred was not among the top two. It was a struggle, and after agonizing for days I went with Dima Li, of Kiev, Ukraine.

This cover showed a single jet in an angle of bank with weapons on the wings, dark and mysterious, with a dramatic sky. The reader knows this is book is going to be about modern fighter combat, and the title font is powerful, my name is simple. It was an effective cover; Raven One has sold over 20,000 copies in all formats over three years, rising to the Top 100 of all Kindle Paid and all Kindle Free.

Through reviews and feedback I’ve learned that 80% of my readers are male. And they skew older – frankly this is the future of publishing with fewer and fewer readers each year as fewer and fewer young people turn to it as a form of entertainment. My books convey to the reader what it is like in today’s military and explain geopolitical realities in a way that entertains without overwhelming, but after giving copies to young readers with heartfelt requests to give it a try – with few exceptions they do not.

So when it became time to update Raven One’s cover to make it more alluring to the next level – read Hollywood and video game designers – we knew we had to go with the ones who brought, or bought, us. Braveship’s Jeff Edwards, an accomplished military techno-thriller author, thought the R1 cover was like an airline brochure but he shrugged his shoulders and let me choose. This time I brought Jeff in on the process. Once again holding a contest with 99Designs, together we put down the guidelines for the designers. This book is about aircraft carrier aviation with lots of drama and action. We envisioned a dramatic night carrier catapult launch, with energy, power, mystery, danger. We wanted a powerful font, and one that we can use for future books as a brand.  We began our contest and the designs came in, but much slower than three years ago. The designers did not seem to be reading the detailed brief, and the quality out of the gate was lower than expected. Alarmed, I extended the contest and 99Designs could not have been nicer in accommodating my requests. They were impressed that four master designers and three excellent ones were competing. That made me feel a little better, but it was also troubling with the low numbers of designs. The contest progressed and this time Jeff and I did not conduct a poll, but if we did we would have requested input from people in our circles who actually read military genre fiction. The question is simple: would you buy this book?

After the first round we identified designer ZamajK as a dark horse with potential, and he was most receptive in tweaking his design to meet our requests. He came on strong, and his Photoshop talents are remarkable. Below is his winning cover. To convey the dazzling white afterburner behind the jet, he illuminated the jet blast deflector, and did a terrific job with the aircraft external lights. The steam swirling about also conveys the power of the launch, and the night sky invokes drama. The “targeting reticle” suggests combat, and you can just feel the jet hurtling down the track…where is it going? What will happen next? Raven One is a multi-faceted story of men and women in a carrier fighter squadron, a story of jealousy and resentment, determination and courage, but you only get one cover image to draw people in for over three seconds.  ZamajK, who is from Sweden, produced a cover that can increase the understanding of what Raven One is about.

Now, the cover of Declared Hostile shows a Super Hornet shooting a Maverick missile at a boat in broad daylight. What is going on with that? Actually, a better question is; would you buy the book?

in Writing

George Walsh; 96 years young

At the far right is my friend and fellow aviator George Walsh at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park, standing with Phillip McClusky, the son of Battle of Midway hero Wade McClusky. Between them is sculptor Susan Geissler at the dedication of the statue she produced to honor and remember what Buffalo native McClusky did 75 years ago.

http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/04/long-last-native-son-honored-instrumental-role-winning-wwii-midway-battle/

More than anyone else, George made this long overdue recognition of McClusky by his own hometown a reality. George is a man who gets things done.

When World War II broke out, George left his home in Flatbush and like so many hundreds of thousands and millions of American kids went into the service. George became a Navy carrier pilot, and by 1944 was deployed aboard USS Ticonderoga flying the front line SB2C Helldiver dive bomber as part of Bombing Squadron Eighty. When a kamikaze ripped through Tico only 20 feet from his squadron ready room killing six of his fellow aviators, he and the survivors of VB-80 went over to USS Hancock to continue their combat sorties against a determined enemy. Men like George didn’t let off the gas in the war against Japan one bit.

After the war like so many others of the Greatest Generation, George made his way in the world. He married and went into Madison Avenue marketing. He had his own marketing firm, and told me his biggest client was Barbasol Shaving Cream. George was working in Manhattan in advertising in the 1960’s, during the time depicted on the old “Mad Men” series. I asked him if he ever watched the show and he said no – why would he want to watch bad behavior and images like that? He said his time on “Madison Avenue” was not like that.

He sold his firm and went into investment advising, along the way fathering four children who were successful in life and blessed him with seven grandchildren. He was a leader in his community of Darien, Connecticut, and we can think of him like those Billy Joel sang about:

…our fathers fought the Second World War

Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore…

Along his life’s journey he had his share of disappointment. His loving wife passed away years ago, and he suffered a stroke. He offered me a drink once and I asked if he was going to have one. “No, I’ve already had my lifetime supply,” he smiled.

I met him through fellow Battle of Midway enthusiast Will Dossel whom many of you know through his nom-de-guerre Steeljaw Scribe. Five years ago I visited George in his spacious Darien home in a wooded neighborhood, not far from the waterfront, where he raised his handsome family. Evidence of a life well lived.

He brought me to his study, and I was stunned with what I saw. Dark wood shelving was covered with books about naval aviation, many I recognized and many I did not. George had a blog, still does, and what he writes about is the Battle of Midway. He knows of what he writes.

George knows that it was dive-bombers, led by CAG Wade McClusky of Enterprise – and by Commander Max Leslie of Yorktown – that found and destroyed three of four Japanese carriers in the waters off Midway on June 4, 1942. That afternoon Enterprise dive bombers went back and sank a fourth. George writes that throughout the Pacific War it was dive bombers, not submarines or big gun ships, that accounted for more Japanese naval tonnage than any other weapon system. He’s analyzed the decision matrix of leaders in Makalapa Hill and on the carrier bridges. There were all kinds of SNAFU’s – to be kind – on the American side during that battle and even though we knew exactly where the ships would be and even the names of the ships we still almost blew it. McClusky – and Leslie – saved our bacon that morning.

George laments the cover ups involving our poor torpedoes, the track taken by Hornet’s Air Group, the unfair attention given to the torpedo bombers (which I too am guilty of), the wrong decisions of RADM Fletcher and the continued refusal of the Navy to open up the sealed records of Midway. After 75 years it is still not available to the public. Why, he asks. I’d like to know too. All of us want an accurate record from which to study.

George moved out of his home not long after I visited. He moved into an assisted living facility where he still blogs and – at age 96! – wrote and published a book about Midway. The Battle of Midway: Searching for the Truth

Also during this time he has spearheaded the effort to recognize McClusky – who received a Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions at Midway – to be awarded the Medal of Honor. When you read of McClusky’s actions, I too believe it is warranted. It is George, quite hale at 96, who speaks about Midway and its place in world history, and the place of the dive bomber in naval history. It is not sour grapes or resentment. George is a man of action, and he wants to see his fallen comrades receive their due and set the record straight.

It was George, more than anyone else, who made the ceremony in Buffalo a reality, giving the public and local schoolchildren a hero to emulate and be proud of.

Who knows how many carrier based dive bomber pilots from World War II are left. “To what do you attribute your long life?” I asked him at his kitchen table. He thought for a moment, and answered simply. “Luck.”

If you have an interest in Midway, get George’s fascinating book. Find his blog to learn about how Midway shaped the world and McClusky’s part in it. Smile that men like George stepped up to fight totalitarianism 75 years ago, and came home to build up our society to even higher heights.

Lieutenant Commander George Walsh – Warrior, Leader, Friend.

in Midway

The Meaning of Midway

This weekend we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway fought June 3-6, 1942, one of the most momentous battles in world history and an American victory that shaped the world we live in today. That’s right, it shaped the world we live in today and guaranteed freedom for hundreds of millions of people.

I won’t hold my breath for commemorative media coverage that say, a D-Day or Hiroshima anniversary would garner. In my youth I recall the three major networks remembering Pearl Harbor every December 7th, the way the networks reflect on 9-11 every September 11th (and no other days). We like milestone numbers like 50th or 75th anniversary, or this year’s 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the “war to end all wars” that most in our society have no idea why was fought or even where.

Normandy, or Gettysburg, Yorktown, Fort McHenry, Pearl Harbor…are visited by hundreds of thousands each year featuring modern museums with interpretive displays and tour guides that can bring these battlefields to life for families and schoolchildren in a way that imbues meaning to the sacrifice that occurred there. Normandy was where Europe (western Europe, unfortunately) was liberated from tyranny, and Yorktown was where a fledgling republic broke free to form of government of the people. We can walk the grounds and learn of human stories, inspirational stories of daring and pitched battles, and come away with a greater understanding of our history.

On the other hand, Midway Atoll, where the turning point battle of the Pacific War was fought, is one of the most inaccessible places on earth, 1,000 miles northwest of isolated Hawaii. The atoll, run by the U.S. Park Service, requires special permission to visit and one should expect the first answer to be no. The two main islands (Sand and Eastern) have many buildings (and scars) remaining from that day Japan attacked it on June 4, 1942. The geographic coordinates of where the carrier duel was fought, a patch of water where four Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers and one U.S. flattop were sunk is some 200 miles north of the atoll, a desolate wilderness of water that has nothing but floating plastic debris from Asia and an occasional merchant ship stacked with containers full of trinkets or automobiles for customers on either side of the vast Pacific.

At Midway, the United States turned the offensive Imperial Japanese Navy into a defensive one. By holding and winning at Midway, the Pacific playing field was now even, allowing Roosevelt’s “Europe First” strategy to proceed. It allowed us to land at North Africa later in the year and keep the Germans pinned down there and on their southern and eastern fronts for two years before we could mass forces for D-Day. It had effects on how Soviet Russia behaved, and on how Europe was shaped post-war. It is not a stretch to consider that all of Europe could have fallen under Soviet domination were it not for the American victory at Midway.

Most of this is lost on Americans and I would imagine Europeans. Midway rates a mention in American high school history texts, but only a sentence in the one-paragraph account of the Pacific War, buried under pages of guilt-ridden meanings of atomic destruction at Hiroshima and Japanese internment in California.

Everything is political these days, and that is no less true regarding the inter and even intra-service rivalries of who really won the battle. Without taking anything away from the services and ship and aircraft types that fought at Midway, it is irrefutable that Navy carrier-based dive bombers delivered the killing blows, and Midway is arguably the finest hour for Naval Intelligence and Crypto-analysts. But Navy surface, sub-surface, and aviation communities (Marine aviation, Army Air Corps/USAF) still throw elbows at each other to claim glory. To his credit former CNO Jay Johnson designated each June 4 as a day to remember the meaning of Midway and reflect on a hard won and heroic victory. Unfortunately, because the public cannot visit Midway and due to an unclear message from two if not three armed services, the history and meaning of this pivotal battle are lost to most.

Linked here is a You Tube video of a talk I gave at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola during the Centennial of Naval Aviation year 2011. Hope you enjoy it and can learn something of the men who fought this remarkable battle and why, and why it is so important to world history. As an aside, today in the local Pensacola newspaper is a listing of classic movies to be shown this summer at the iconic Saenger Theater on Palafox Street. All worthy films, even 1987’s The Princess Bride. The movie Midway, filmed in 1975 on location in Pensacola, the Cradle of Naval Aviation, about the heroic crews who trained in Pensacola and likely viewed shows at the Saenger in the 1930’s, is missing. The editors may be forgiven – nobody taught them about Midway.

in Midway
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