Menu

Elaine Cougler

About Elaine Cougler

https://elainecougler.com

Elaine Cougler is the award-winning author of historical novels about the lives of settlers in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution. She uses the backdrop of the conflict for page-turning fictional tales where the main characters face torn loyalties, danger, and personal conflicts. Her Loyalist trilogy comprises The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck and The Loyalist Legacy, all available on Amazon, Kobo, and Audible. Her latest book is The Loyalist’s Daughter, the prequel to her Loyalist trilogy. Elaine also wrote the Amazon #1 Bestseller The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity. Byron native, Ronald G. Calhoun, was the chair of the Canadian Cancer Society team who managed the Marathon of Hope, Terry Fox’s run in 1980. Ron also managed the Jesse’s Journey walk across Ontario and later across Canada, as well as Steve Fonyo’s Journey for Lives and the blind Ken McColm’s Incredible Journey across Canada. Ron’s honours are many and well deserved. Elaine is delighted and humbled to be the author of this important book, a different kind of Canadian history. Elaine leads writing workshops and speaks about her books to many groups. Through her website she blogs about the writing and reading world and more. She lives in Ontario with her husband. They have two grown children. Links: Elaine can be found on YouTube and LinkedIn and through the following links: @ElaineCougler www.elainecougler.com http://www.facebook.com/ElaineCouglerAuthor

Posts by Elaine Cougler:

IMG_3730

Legacy: The Nelles Story Book Review

,

I found Dorothy Turcotte’s book, Legacy: The Nelles Story: Pioneers, Loyalists, Founding Families, very intriguing not only because I’ve written myself about this time period but because of the method she uses to tell the Nelles story. (Amazon listings) She uses first person for the 4 Nelles characters (each with his own section) and that allows her to show what each might have been thinking and doing throughout a turbulent time in Ontario’s history.

Wikipedia

She talked a lot about Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) and the close relationship between the settlers and the Mohawks and other tribes, as did I in my Loyalist trilogy. Brant was a very close friend of Robert Nelles and often used the path running by the Nelles home to visit, even if he arrived in the middle of the night. He would simply slip inside and sleep before the fire until the family woke in the morning. I learned even more about both the native peoples and the times in this short book that is for sale at the manor in Grimsby Ontario.

Plaque beside manor door

When I met Linda and Barry Coutts, the couple who renovated the Nelles Manor in Grimsby, I was most intrigued by their knowledge of our history and by their personal quest to bring the manor and its former inhabitants’ stories to light. Well done!

A period painting in the Nelles Manor.

For historical fiction about the time period, try the Loyalist trilogy!

Click image to purchase on Amazon. Available in print, ebook and audio formats.
 
The Man Behind the Marathon

Marketing Your Brand New Book–5 Great Ideas to Try

, , , ,

Having a successful book does not just mean writing it. We all know how important that is but visions of the back closet filled with boxes of books haunt all of us. Every writer needs to find ways to get that book of theirs into as many hands as possible. Here are a few suggestions that I’ve found worked for me.

5 Proven Ideas for Selling Books

Get over your shyness and talk about your work. With my first book I made sure I always had a copy in my purse and a box of books in my car. People couldn’t wait to see what I had written. Gone were the times when I was too shy or humble to talk about being a writer. When you get a question like ‘what are you up to these days?’ recognize that opens the door to your excitement about your new book. So much better than talking about the weather!

From that first foray into telling people about my books I moved to speaking gigs. At first groups called me but when I saw how many books I sold I started offering my speaking services by calling or emailing them. At each one of those gigs, I always set up an attractive display with books, a banner, and sign-ups for my twice monthly newsletter. If it’s a large group I give a free book to someone at the back of the room–maybe it’s for the person who reads historical fiction or who came the farthest to hear me or who answers some question I make up. The point is as I pass the book back to the back of the room all of those passing it have a chance to hold the book and, hopefully, wish they had one of their own.

Prepare your books in various formats. First, I concentrated on finishing the print version and had it ‘perfect bound’ with a great cover. Immediately I researched and settled on two types of e-books: Kindle because it is the giant Amazon’s e-book format and Kobo because at the time I learned that it had 18% of the market in Canada and I live in Canada. Never one to pass up a new idea, I met a clever fellow who lives in the same city as I do but who is a legends singer (John Denver and Glen Campbell among others) so he has a recording studio in his home. Jack London is a dead ringer for John Denver and sings his songs so well. He and I recorded all of my trilogy in his studio and I put them up on Audible.

 

My book which is currently just finished (ten days until the first launch) is The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity.

This book has its own following because of the famous and semi-famous people I wrote about. My challenge is to capitalize on all of that by telling never-before-told stories that link to heroes we know and some we don’t. I try to hone in on that quality in all of us that recognizes good in others. I’m not interested in denigrating anyone and have told the story as it has been told to me by Ron Calhoun. For most of the 86 years of his life he has been a consummate volunteer.

There are several launches and speaking gigs planned with more joining the list every day. The next six months are going to be wonderfully busy with interviews, workshops, speaking gigs and book sales. I love it all!

And now for the best idea of all! Sell your books in large quantities. This could be a whole post itself as there are many ways to try to achieve sales in large numbers to one buyer. I sold many copies to one company because my book fits in well with their theme at Sports Discovery Camp. All of these people who walked, ran, or “Fox-trotted” across this country had to be fantastic marathoners to achieve their goals so the theme fits in well with Sports Discovery Camp, a division of STEM Camp here in Canada. Here is the ad they used.

Coming soon to Amazon print and Kindle e-books as well as Kobo e-books.

 

Click for website.
The Man Behind the Marathon

The Fun Part!

For every author there are the months and months–in my case, with this book, twenty-two–when the end seems far over the distant hills, almost an insurmountable distance to travel. As in most tasks, though, my lifelong habit of just doing a little every day has brought The Man Behind the Marathons to completion.

I received the first few books last Friday.

Over the next two weeks the rest of my order will be arriving and I’ll have lots to fill all the requests accumulated so far. Thanks so much to all those who have encouraged me to carry on with this story of Ron Calhoun. Those excited emails and comments have made all the difference.

I hope those of you who are close enough will come out to the first major launch on June 24th. My husband and I chose that date to honour Ron Calhoun whose 86th birthday that will be. Here is the open invitation:

Please join us and help us celebrate!

IMG_3723

When Writing Catastrophes Happen

, , , ,

My edits for The Man Behind the Marathon

So. There I was feeling proud of myself because my finished manuscript was safely in the hands of my interior book designer. She is in Paris, France, but with the wonder of technology she seems to be right beside me in my office.

Her job is to help me pick out a font, a font size, a size for the finished book, margins, white space, and to know about everything my printer and cover designer do so that my final book comes out looking perfect .

I’ve used Shelley on my previous books and she knows her stuff. She’s saved me from having a finished product that I’d rather toss in the garbage than haul out and put on my sales table at my speaking events. Shelley is awesome!

Last Friday bright and early in the morning I sent Shelley the beginning pages, the end pages and the final manuscript itself just in time for her to work her magic. Sure enough, on Monday morning two emails came into my InBox, the first third of my book set up for me to check. Excited, I went right at it and found 6 pages with edits to be made. I didn’t send them right away as the phone rang.

On the other end was the subject of my book, the wonderful Ron Calhoun. He needed to book a time with me for corrections he had found in the mss copy I’d given him last Friday night. Now, Ron checked the manuscript for factual errors six months ago so I was surprised. We agreed to chat Tuesday afternoon.

I held on to the corrected pages that were all ready to copy and send to Shelley via Dropbox.

On Tuesday Ron and I worked for over an hour and a half over the phone as he gave me edits. He found some things that I definitely wanted changed and many that he wanted changed. He suggested a couple of edits that would save us from lawsuits. He noted completely wrong names. He went on and on for the duration of the call as I tried to make his suggested changes in red so that I could come back and think about them after the call.

Most of the edits I agreed to, some I refused and one I flat out said no. He wanted me to soften my words about his job responsibilities with General Motors; I said that sentence absolutely had to stay. The man is so humble!

This morning I worked through all the edits for two hours, reorganized the pages I had to copy for Shelley and made note of all the edits I’d made to the manuscript. I’ve learned in the past to update the manuscript because every once in a while someone needs your mss in Word for a contest or something.

The edited pages, eleven of them out of fifty, are on Dropbox for Shelley. I’ve made copious notes about my process so I won’t forget what I’ve done and I now just have to wait for Shelley.

What have I learned? Even though your subject has approved your work earlier, you better make sure to check the facts with them with the final manuscript. I’m so glad I did but I could have saved myself a lot of last-minute agony if I’d done this a couple of weeks ago.

Not to worry. The book is still on schedule and I expect to have lovely copies complete with 28 pictures and a fabulous story for the early part of June.

Now on to planning the ebooks!

The Man Behind the Marathon: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity

 

Join us for the fabulous launch June 24, 2019, at the Lamplighter Inn, Wellington Street, London, Ontario at 7 pm. It’s going to be a blast!

fob from Beth

Motivation: Staying Positive to Reach Your Stars

, , , , , ,

Potential For Greatness Fob www.pyrrha.com

Over the past twelve years, I’ve learned a lot about the writing world at conferences in large cities, at various writers group meetings and sitting right in my desk chair in front of my own computer. My journey has taught me to mostly count on myself and to always be true to what I want, to what I need and to what I am continually seeking.

One of the things that has helped me along the way to launching the three books of The Loyalist Trilogy and very soon  The Man Behind the Marathons is using positive thinking. Oh, I do experience those middle-of-the-night doubts as most of us do, but I’ve learned to recognize them for what they are–my subconscious wanting to have a bigger say in how I lead my life. No way should we ever let that happen.

Early in my writing journey my adult daughter sent me a wonderful gift. She sent me the same necklace (pictured above) that she bought for herself, so I suppose it’s no surprise that today she is writing her first book and plans to have the rough draft finished by the end of June. Here is the descriptive note included with the necklace:

Potential for Greatness: The oak tree is an emblem of strength, endurance and prosperity. The acorn signifies potential, power and luck.

What a rewarding message that was when I was starting out and still now as I am launching my fourth book. I come back to it over and over.

Another positive message I have on my desk is my coaster for my water glass. As you can see it’s been with me long enough to be stained and worn but I rely on this message. I’ll never toss it out into the garbage. This quote from 19th century writer, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) means more and more to me as the birthdays pile up.

You might think I put this one in just for a laugh. “She shines in beauty” might have been more apt a lot of years ago, but this mug was a gift from my nephews when they were very young. It tells me about my name, mostly, but also makes me think of all the people who love me. This is a certain mood lifter!

On the top of my credenza my mother, as she looked a few years before she left us, reminds me to always do my best. She was a perfect role model, a woman who gave her life to other people and taught me and my many siblings to do the same. I only wish she were here to see and read my books as she was a voracious reader; she died before I started down this wonderful journey of writing so she never knew about this joyous writing path I’ve taken. Reading was one of the things we loved to discuss. I treasure the books I got from her library after she died; it’s like a little of her essence is on them still.

When I was talking this post over with my daughter, she told me about this message on her desk: Say no to everything that doesn’t make your heart sing. What would our lives be like if we did that? Staying positive would be a lot easier, I think. After all, we are meant to be happy, or didn’t you read The Secret?

Because I’ve learned to keep my focus on my dream, I’m looking forward to my new book launching in June.

Note: The title became The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity.

I’ve spent the last two years interviewing Ron Calhoun and writing three drafts of this book. It’s creative non-fiction so that was a new type of book for me. Writing this has been a struggle at times but, overall, a really great experience. I learned so much about Ron Calhoun and each of the journeys he masterminded. I also learned a lot about creative non-fiction and the nuances it allows the writer to put into a true story. Very cool.

The launch is in June. More about that later. For now here are my three books from my Loyalist trilogy. Seeing them completed and out in the world as print, electronic and, most recently, audio books helps me keep going on those difficult days. They are another positive influence, helping me reach my own stars.

Click to purchase on Amazon.

 

 

the-man-behind-the-marathon-final-ebook-cover-final copy

Marketing Before Launching?

10 Quick Steps to Take Before Your Book is Available

  1. Decide on your cover about six months before launch. Make it spectacular.
  2. Get permissions for any artwork or photography you are going to use and promise to put them in the opening pages of the book.
  3. Make a list of places or groups who would be interested in hearing about this new book. Begin contacting them for speaking gigs.
  4. Plan creative launch parties. Have more than one in different cities and honing in on different groups.
  5. Write blog posts about the new book; its subject; its new cover; characters, real or fictional; why the topic interests you and anything else that excites readers about the book coming.
  6. Set up a website with the book’s title as the url. This will help with people finding you through Google and other ratings. Mine is www.themanbehindthemarathon.com.
  7. Add a page to your author website dedicated to your new book. Link to your book website from there and make sure you set it to open a new page so that your visitors will now have both your websites to flip between in the http line at the top of your webpage.
  8. Talk to everyone you can about what you are doing. Send out your newsletter to your list (I do mine through MailChimp) and share your excitement.
  9. Do video bits to put on your sites, on Facebook or other social media. I interviewed my subject, Dr. Ron Calhoun, and will be posting short clips with him.
  10. All of these things and more will tell the world what you’re doing. I had a call from someone on my list who wanted to help get the word out. We are doing a bus trip across Newfoundland, that fabulous province, and I’ll be talking every day about the four people in my book who went across Canada. I’ll also be talking about Dr. Ron Calhoun, The Man Behind the Marathon[s] bringing to life those 4 journeys. Remember Terry Fox?

If you’d like details of this 12-day bus tour across Newfoundland with fabulous stops, a professional tour guide to tell you all about what you’re seeing, and me to tie in the exciting journeys of Terry Fox, Steve Fonyo, Ken McColm, and John and Jesse Davidson, PLEASE email me. You could join us!

nightstand

No Time For Reading?

,

You know you should read. Your people taught you to read. You know it teaches you, it calms you, it excites you, and it even intrigues you and sometimes keeps you joyously awake all night.

But you’re guilty of letting the rest of your life take you over so that you have no time to read. (Or do anything else for that matter!) You pick up your iPad at night and ignore that pile of books on your night table.

Here are some ways to keep reading in your life and to teach kids to keep it in theirs.

  1. Buy or borrow books.

  2. Make them about topics that spark your interest.

  3. Stack them beside your bed.

  4. Put the one you’re reading on top and pick it up often.

  5. Pick a time to read. It may be 15 minutes before you go to sleep at night or it may be first thing in the morning. Whatever fits into your schedule.

  6. Think about your reading as you talk to friends or take your morning coffee break.

  7. Sit with your kids, your siblings, your parents, or your friends and read or talk about reading. You’ll be modelling the behavior you want your kids to emulate and the benefits to all of you will be fabulous.

  8. Join a group like Goodreads where you can connect with people who read.

  9. Write reviews for your books on Amazon and on Goodreads. (I now have 604 books on Goodreads that I have written reviews for.)

  10. Commit to reading a certain number of books a year. My goal for 2019 is 24 but lots of members have more. I like to pick what I know I can manage and if I get more, all the better.

Favorite Books

Please share your books with friends but make them accountable. These are treasures you’re letting them read. If you really want to get excited about reading search out books that show the great links between reading and learning. OMG, it’s fabulous.

Come and visit me on Goodreads. I’ll be happy to share my Books Read list.

The Man Behind the Marathon Final Ebook Cover Final

The Man Behind the Marathon Cover Reveal!

, , ,

For a year and a half and more I’ve been working on The Man Behind the Marathon: How Dr. Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions For Charity. Today I’m happy to present this cover design by Sharon Clare based on an original oil painting by Cliff Kearns and a photograph by Dan Peer.

Look for upcoming posts regarding this book in the next couple of months. It’s history of a different sort but no less fascinating or important.

Here is the excerpt from the draft which I sent out in my newsletter (subscribe at left):

On October 15, 1979, Ron Calhoun received a call from Blair Mackenzie, the Executive Director of the British Columbia Division of the Canadian Cancer Society. A young man had walked into his office who wanted to run across Canada to raise research dollars for cancer. Blair told him about the young man and his idea. Sitting in his office in London, Ontario, Ron, the National Special Events Chair for the Canadian Cancer Society, knew that no countrywide mechanism existed in the Society to handle such a mammoth project.
By the end of the call Ron had told Blair that the young man would have to find his own transportation from the west coast to the east coast, he’d have to line up a vehicle with sleeping accommodations where they needed it, a driver, hotels, food supply—something like A&P—all across the country, and a companion to go with him. If he did all of those things, Ron promised they would talk further.
He thought that would be the end of it.
About six weeks later Blair called again and said, “He’s back, Ron, and he’s done everything you asked. And by the way, he’s an amputee.”

The book is of the man behind 5 different marathons and of his incredible life. His vision and his method of “driving from the back seat” have made history for Canada and the world.

Watch this space for the launch date of The Man Behind the Marathon: How Dr. Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity.

Please share on all your social media places.

christmas-trumpet-10801659

Do You Hear What I Hear?

, ,

Audiobooks are heard not read.

One of my favorite Christmas carols has always been Do You Hear What I Hear? It was written in 1962 by the husband and wife team of Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne in a desperate response to the US-USSR standoff over the Cuban missile crisis. Read the full story here for an interesting behind-the-scenes cameo.

I thought of “Do You Hear What I Hear” when writing this post about the wonderful elation I felt upon finishing the recording of The Loyalist Trilogy for you to hear instead of read.

People always tell me they love listening to me read my books. They say the author’s voice takes the written word to a whole new level. Finishing the trilogy in audio format was a long journey of over two and a half years (read about it here) but worth it.

Now English-speaking people all over the world can hear this author speak her words. I love the idea of bringing the stories of our American and Canadian history to the world through this medium.

Happy listening throughout this holiday season and the whole year!

 

Available in print, e-books and audio books

 

The Loyalist Trilogy Audio Books

What I Learned On My Audio Book Journey

, ,

The Loyalist trilogy audio books, about those settlers who opted to stay loyal to Britain during and after the American Revolutionary War and who found their way to Canada, are finally available for the world to hear.

The Audio Book Journey

Once the books were available in print and in Kindle and Kobo e-books, I started thinking about audio books because of the number of people who told me they could not see well enough to read any more. They needed to listen to audio books. The mother of one of my friends was just waiting for me to get the audio books on the market. Unfortunately Elsie passed away before that happened.

I also noticed the huge numbers of people driving to and from work every day. Often as not they are caught in traffic jams on major highways. Add to that our delight in listening to books in the car when traveling and I recognized an awesome market just waiting for new stories. Why wouldn’t I take part?

Two and a half years ago I started recording in a local studio right here where I live. My musician friend was keen to embrace this new technology and he already had the studio and equipment for his music business. (Jack is a fabulous singer who records his own songs and sings John Denver and Glen Campbell legend concerts.)

The first book took about four months to record. I had lots to learn and Jack had to fine-tune his equipment. We suffered through motorcycles revving up on the street outside so loud they permeated Jack’s insulated studio. One night a train several blocks away spent about ten minutes shifting back and forth and Jack’s sensitive equipment picked it up. We had to wait again. And summer lawn mowers played havoc with our recording times and, one night, a thunder storm stopped us completely.

Click for Amazon listing.

For all of those interruptions, most of the time our sessions went off smoothly. I had a water bottle to keep my voice from getting too husky, Jack stopped me whenever he wasn’t satisfied with what he was hearing and I kept my pen in hand to mark something that needed to be changed in the revision of that first book. (It seemed a perfect opportunity to fix the few errors that had been driving me crazy whenever I was out doing an author gig. Ah, the life of a perfectionist!)

Finally Jack presented me with a thumb drive and a number of CDs containing my audio version of The Loyalist’s Wife. I learned about ACX Audible and tried to get my book up on their platform. Oh. I live in Canada and they only took work from authors in the US and the UK. Never mind that Canadians could buy Audible’s books here. We authors just couldn’t sell.

I tried to do a work-around and got my nephew and niece to let me use their US address, but then the IRS became the problem. Finally, I just concentrated on recording book two, The Loyalist’s Luck, and writing book three, The Loyalist Legacy. Believe me, my days were full enough. I figured I’d find another company to host my audio books.

Click for Amazon listing

None of my author friends were spending any time recording audio books. The only authors who were seemed to have big organizations behind them. I concentrated on my newsletter, my website, my speaking gigs, and even took a flying leap into screen plays.

Jack and I finished recording book three in August, 2018, but a couple of weeks earlier I had noticed an article in the newspaper where my daughter lives in western Canada. Audible was coming into Canada. That got my attention. My husband and I came home and I went to my last recording session with Jack bearing that newspaper article. Such a good omen just when we were almost done the third book.

In the third week of August I logged into Audible ACX and uploaded the first two of my audio books. Then we went on holiday for a couple of weeks, expecting to get the go-ahead when we returned.

My Inbox was a disappointment, however, as book two was accepted and placed in ACX’s production queue, but book one was rejected. I immediately forwarded their email of technical mumbo-jumbo to Jack. This started a series of back and forth correspondence between us and ACX as we tried to figure out what they needed. Apparently the volume we’d recorded at was not acceptable. That was strange because it was exactly the same volume as book two (that they had accepted). Jack emailed them for clarification.

Finally, after 2-3 weeks of silence, I found the phone number for their company and managed to speak with a real person. He was very helpful and did his best to solve our communication problems and I grew to love listening to his southern drawl as he and I talked. We figured out that their production people didn’t want to talk with Jack as he was not the person whose book it was. He had no standing in their eyes. I sorted that out very quickly and we got the third book uploaded. By this time the second book had sold a copy!

Click for Amazon listing.

Another week or two went by and I got the longed-for email. Book three was in the queue and had been accepted. In a week or two it would be up on Audible, iTunes and Amazon. Meanwhile Jack was adjusting the levels for Book one in real time, a lengthy process. Finally I got the flash drive and uploaded it. Oops, one of the files was missing. (You have to give them a five-minute sample as well as opening and closing credits.) Jack emailed me the missing files and I added them to my project on ACX, crossed my worn-out fingers and pushed Send.

Since my books were accepted out of order I really couldn’t move ahead with advertising and finding the markets for this new venture. It did not make any sense to advertise without having the first book ready. I did a lot of thinking about it, though, and even a little research on just where I could sell audio books. Last week I got the notice that the first book had been accepted and would be available on all the sites in a week or two. I was ecstatic! And just this Friday morning ACX informed me that The Loyalist’s Wife is up on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

Takeaways From My Audio Book Journey

  1. Audio books are well worth pursuing as only about 5% of books are made into audio books. That means the competition for readers/listeners is much less stiff.

  2. Depending on the market for your books audio books can be more or less appealing. My historical fiction market appeals to middle-aged women for the most part. It also appeals to those drivers to and from work.

  3. If you’re going to try this, do it sooner rather than later.

  4. Don’t be afraid to do your own recording as I did but only if people tell you they “could listen to you read the whole book” as one of my library groups did. You have to have a bit of the performer in you.

  5. If at all possible, when you are stumped by the online instructions talk to a real person.

  6. Don’t expect to get through this journey without flat tires and running out of gas.

  7. But just as you wouldn’t walk away from your car because of one of those misfortunes, don’t run from your project. Keep at it! You will succeed.

Of course, if you still prefer to hold a book in your hand, try these.

Click on the Loyalist Trilogy books below for great historical stories with satisfying endings:

Load More

Back To Top