i'm writing a book - right here!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

[ the following post shows my original book outline as i've envisioned it coming together in a way that chronologically recounts each day of the journey (plus connections before and after) and interlaces the more exciting stories throughout the book. i think the recurring themes might help to tie the whole thing together, too. the outline below is not set in stone by any means. and i have a number of expanded chapters still to add that i have not yet written down.

i will need help with databasing all of the logbook entries and typing up all the quotes that i collected along the way - if we use them.

i'm not sure i have it in me to write an interim book. i think i just need to keep my nose to the grindstone and chip away day by day to complete this one and find a publisher for it.]

[AAC Cadet Leader]

"Have Goggles, Will Travel!”

Book Outline:

Journey Route Map of USA
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
Tell me. From the Beginning.
Getting the Idea
The Planning Stages ~ Selected journal entries.

Mom's Daily Telephone Log chronologically reports the people, planes, and places day by day. Interlaces with expanded chapters.

Expanded Chapters ~ Highs and lows, twists of fate and lessons learned:
Spray Pilots
Islands in the Prairie
Frozen Barnstormer
Twentynine Palms
Clark & His Arc
Southern California
The Kari-Keen Man, the Cab Lady, the Ex-con and the Incessant Talker
Time Trapped (poem)
Captain Dave
Backyard
Freight Dogs
Barnstormer’s Specs and Power Helmets
Jenny Ride (poem)
Just another Pilot
A Room in a House
Night Flight (poem)
You Can’t Get There From Here
Orlando Country Roller Race
The Things I Shouldn’t Tell You
More Ponderings From My Little Control Tower
A Grass Strip Forever

Scrapbook of Memories:
Airport Cafes
Hangars
Barnstormer’s Superstitions Legends and Practices.
People and Quotes ~ A listing by state of about 3,000 people interesting one line
aviation quotes they gave Martha to remember them by. (for a second book?)
Glossary ~ Pilot slang and a few technical aviation acronyms explained.
Antiquated Glossary ~ Early aviation terms no longer in use.
Hosts and Helpers
The Aviators List

The Aviators (photo, quote, plane and journey flight info for each of 199 pilots)

Pilot Logbook ~ Condensed reprint of the logbook entries, sequencing each of the 345 flights by: number, participating pilot, aircraft flown, date, time at takeoff and landing, miles flown, landings survived, airfields of origin and destination, endurance, and remarks.

Recounts from some of the Aviators

Map 24x36" follow-along fold out map of route of 345 flights through all 48 Continental states in the USA.

Index

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Each day, during my journey, I would call my mother in Ohio and tell her where I was, with whom I had flown, and some of the highlights of the day. She would always listen with great interest and usually had one or a few new phone numbers to add to my list of pilots who had called, offering a ride if I got near their state.

My journey wouldn't have been possible without Mom's continuous daily assistance and encouragement. Not only did she talk to all of the people who called, but she wrote several in-depth reply letters every day. My mom has been my best friend forever.

I have 68 pages of my Mother's hand-written notes she kept on many of the details of my journey. She added to it daily, writing down the details as I would tell them to her when I called in from wherever I landed. My additional comments will be added in [brackets] within Mom's Telephone Log. I'm not sure if lacing our notes together like this is the way to do it, but it's the closest way I can think of to try to cover the whole story and keep it somewhat chronological. Perhaps an editor will think it is too much information for one book, I don't know. Everything previous to this I consider the introductory and preface sections of the book. So, here comes page one. Drum roll, please...


From Mom's Telephone Log ~
Day 1
Saturday, May 28, 1988
Florida
9 a.m. At Rosie O’Grady’s hangar at Orlando Executive Airport, Channel 6 CBS was there, filming Church Street Station's Dixieland Band - a banjo, tuba and trumpet accompanying a 1920’s vaudeville-style singer, Spats Donovan, while he serenaded Martha with “Blue Skies.”

Joe Kittinger called for the crowd to gather around them in the big hangar. He had arranged months ago to be Martha’s first pilot. In front of the crowd, he announced, “I hate to tell you this Martha but we have an engine problem with the Stearman and I’ll have to bow out. Like some women, airplanes are unpredictable! Can I still get one of those silver wing pins you’re giving your pilots?”

Martha replied, “Well Joe, if you can’t fly me somewhere, I can’t just give you a pin, but if you’d like to buy one…”

Joe Kittinger then pulled out a ten dollar bill from his pocket and offered it to Martha.

“Uh, Joe they’re custom-made and solid, sterling silver.”

“Will you take a check?” Joe asked.

“Can I see your driver’s license, Joe?”











9:30 AM. Mac Barksdale arrived from Orlando County Airport in his 1946 Champion, and they took off on the first flight for Zellwood, Florida. Three planes escorted them at the beginning of the flight: Johnnie Vincent in Rosie O’Grady’s (one seat only) Ag–Cat they use for skywriting and banner towing; a Mooney with TV cameraman in it; and Ralph Wainwright, a local Orlando pilot in a 1946 Aeronca Champ.

Steve Prindle, a pilot from Washington, D.C. who has offered to help Martha with publicity, talked with reporters.
Day 1 continues...

[cfgray]

Martha,

The structure you have outlined here is solid, I think, but a suggestion... lead with your strength, which is story-telling. The data mine, the travelogue, can be added as appendices.

I know this will be a great read and very well received, keep chipping away at it, it will be another great adventure once it is published.

Best,
cfgray

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 1 continued

Al Kimball from Tangerine Airfield in Zellwood, Florida flew Martha on the second leg in a 1941 Stearman from Orlando Country Airport (Plymouth) to Tangerine Field, where Martha’s friend, Jim Kimball and his son and brothers have an antique plane restoration facility.

Then Al flew her on the third leg to Eustis, Florida where Ralph Wainwright was waiting, who flew her to Ocala in his 1946 Champion.

The fifth, sixth and seventh legs she flew with Mac Barksdale again in his J-3 Cub from Leeward to Ocala to Perry, Florida.

At 12 noon Mrs. Bassett called from Live Oaks, Florida asking Martha’s arrival time. The person picking Martha up (Jack Hurdle, II) was making a two-hour flight and she could not change plans at this time. Martha told Mrs. Bassett she would try to stop in a few months on her way back to Orlando.

At 7:30 PM Martha called from Perry Foley Field, in Perry, FL while she was waiting for Jack Hurdle in a Cessna 195 to take her to Harold, Florida.

Then, her last flight of the first day was at dusk, from McCutchan Field in Harold, Florida to Coastal Airport in Pensacola with Earl Caudell in his 1951 L-19 Bird Dog.

Alabama 7:10 PM. They arrived at at dusk, landing at Coastal in Pensacola and drove to Alabama to have dinner at Quincy’s and spend the night at the home of Major Charlie Streit and his wife, Joan from Perry Foley and Harold, Florida.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Telephone Log
Day 2
Sunday, May 29
Florida
Joan Streit drove and Martha from Alabama back to to coastal Pensacola where the last flight landed last night.

[Joan's husband, Charles Streit picked me up at Coastal Airport in Pensacola and flew me to their private airstrip, called Streit's Strip in Robertdale, Alabama where the have their home.]

From Pensacola, Earl Caudell (Aero photographer and real estate business) with son, daughter and friend flew in to Streit's Strip and took Martha on an air tour of Pensacola in his 1951 Cessna Birddog (Vietnam observation plane) flew 30’ over water – very exciting!!
[But, first, Earl flew me over to meet some of his friends nearby at Dan McConnell Airfield, also known as "Pleasant View Farm."]






Local television film crew photographed them. Martha is staying the night with the Caudell’s and will tour “Golden Wings Museum, in Pensacola tomorrow with Mr. Caudell.
Alabama 8 PM.

Mac Barksdale called to see how Martha is doing and if she has been to Tallahassee.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 3
Monday, May 30
Florida to Alabama
At 9 PM Martha called. She said she was dropped off this morning at Roy E. Ray Airfield in Irvington, Alabama by Ray Braswell, an electrical contractor who flew her from Pensacola to there in his 1946 Piper Cub. He is a friend of Caudell family. They took off at 10:20 a.m. and arrived 11:40 a.m. He gave her a great tour, pointing everything out to her, including a huge, old mansion she took a slide of along Mobile Bay and tall cliffs along its east shore.
The hangar talk back in Pensacola yesterday was that Roy E. Ray Field, about 25 miles south of Mobile, Alabama was having an airshow or a fly-in of some sort today, so Mr. Braswell and Martha assumed it would be an easy place for her to find the next ride.

When they arrived, there was no flying going on and no one around. Mr. & Mrs. Grice who have their home on the field and are part-owners of the airfield came out of their home to greet Martha and Mr. Braswell and told them that the airshow was yesterday!

[They told Mr. Braswell and me that everyone had flown out by early this morning! Then they went back inside their nice, cool home. (It must've been 105 degrees outside.) Mr. Braswell offered to take me back to Pensacola, but I declined his offer. I did not want to backtrack. I told him not to worry, that I'd figure it out and I waved him goodbye and thanks as he made his take-off run down the grass strip into the hot, humid noon air.

So there I sat with my bags on the hanging bench by the little, lifeless EAA club office on just my third day into it, in my second state of 48, for the first time (of many, many times) on my journey - alone - and not knowing with whom I would get my next ride out.


An hour or so later, I knocked at the Grice's door. They generously offered me the use of their phone to try to call some pilots on my list as well as their guestroom, dinner, and a swim in their backyard pool. I gratefully took them up on all of it.

I called a TV station in Mobile, Alabama to tell them my story, hoping it might be a way to get my next ride out if an aeroplane owner happened to see it on the news. An hour later, a solo television reporter, who doubled as the cameraman showed up to interview me. He looked pretty competent when he was interviewing me, but the editors back at the station must not have read his notes too well. When the ten o’clock news segment was aired, Mr. & Mrs. Grice and I watched it and the completely misconstrued Mobile news report. It showed me walking around an old plane, while the newscaster’s voice-over said:

“Martha Esch is an airshow performer who is flying all over the USA, but she arrived at the air show at Roy E. Ray Field a day late and the airshow she was to perform in had ended.” That was their whole quick, incredibly inaccurate news synopsis. Oh, great, I thought. Now I look like a complete fool. Airshow performer - missed my airshow. Geesh!]

Back to Mom's Log (Mom's words are not in brackets)...
Tomorrow, Martha will fly to Meridian, Mississippi, located halfway between New Orleans and Tennessee on the eastern border of Alabama.

[Roryanimations]

Hi Martha, and I hope it is OK to assume we are on first name terms, being fellow aerodromers (if that is a word). Actually the firsttime I "met" you was on the "What are you reading now" thread, when you confessed to not reading much at all, so it is quite an undertaking to write a book. Graham Greene said all writers should read at least two books a week, so how are you doing on that??

I also have a book in my laptop waiting to come up for air, and I have written a lot of other stuff, from songs to screenplays, all of it - except some of the songs - only for my own amusement, or so it seems!! I haven't read through all your material yet, but I like the easy conversational style of the bits I have read, and if it is consistent, it is certainly a wonderful and original story, and you look great in the Earhart gear!! And as someone said on page 1, to have a dream and fulfill it is an achievement in itself!! Good luck with those stone-headed publishers out there, let's hope you find one with the vision not to think you have to be a sports personality to publish a memoir!! (Or have I missed the bit where you already have a publisher? In which case, oops, and I promise to read the whole thread soon)...

[Roryanimations]

I just snuck in a bit more reading of the thread. I think the structure you propose is excellent, especially interlacing Mom's log with the chapters. Perhaps you could lead each chapter with the relevant log, if that works with the actual material - like a title page to each chapter... But for now the main thing is, the chapter titles are Great! They all beckon the reader (or me anyway).

I forgot to say, but please put me down for a copy - even if you publish it as a zamisdat, it will get plenty of readers I am sure... (As you can tell, I am still not sure if you already have a publisher)

[AAC Cadet Leader]

hi rory,
thx for the great comments and advice.

nope, no publisher yet. i'm hoping a publisher - again, a really good publisher - will see and like this thread and will come to me with an offer. *waving arms in air* so, if you or anybody reading this knows a really good one, please pass them this link that will bring them to the beginning of this thread:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/no...ight-here.html


right now, i'm focusing all my available hours on the task of assembling all the writings that are listed in the above outline and am adding a few new chapters to the mix.

next, i'll tackle the task of reformatting my multi-media slide show to take on the road in late Spring of 2008. i don't have the kind of $ or time to spend on a conventional route to finding a publisher...and i already tried that once back in 1990 when i signed a two-year contract with a literary agent. the guy was really enthused about getting me a book deal, then after he sent it out to three publishers with no results, he gave up. so, i'm not in a hurry to get a literary agent again.

hey, if anyone here refers me to the right publisher, i'll give you ten free copies of the book and the first ride in my travelair biplane - the one i'm going to buy myself when i make my first million!

~martha

p.s. as far as me reading books? ...well, no.... i still hate to read books. puts me instantly to sleep.