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Ron Calhoun

2 Ron Terry Thamesford

The Man Behind the Marathon of Hope: Ron Calhoun

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Terry Fox and Ron Calhoun, July 1980. Photo from Ron Calhoun’s collection, used with permission.

Well here we are 40 years after our Canadian hero, Terry Fox, started his Marathon of Hope across Canada with the behind-the-scenes help of Ron Calhoun. Ron was the Canadian Cancer Society Special Events Chair who worked out all the details to make Terry’s run successful. And he did a fabulous job.

From the starting date of April 12th, 1980 to the day Terry was forced to suspend his run in September of that same year, his story grew and grew. And so did the dollars raised. Today the Terry Fox Foundation counts the total at approximately $800,000,000.

Municipalities all across the part of the country where Terry ran treasure the memories. They are so delighted to have been part of this huge undertaking that they find many ways to salute that indomitable young man.

Last year my husband and I were in London walking along the Terry Fox Parkway near the Thames River.  We were there to take part in inducting a new park bench to celebrate Ron Calhoun(and his wife Fran) and his tremendous contributions to our area and to the whole country, if not the world.

Ron at 86 reliving the Marathon of Hope when he spoke at the dedication of the bench in London, Ontario.

Just this past week, Woodstock, Ontario added their own memorial to the hundreds across the country. Here is the story in the Woodstock Sentinel Review.   

John Versaevel, the chair of the Woodstock Terry Fox Run, and Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch watch the raising of the Terry Fox flag at Museum Square Wednesday July 15, 2020. The day celebrates the 40th anniversary since Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope travelled through Woodstock. Greg Colgan/Sentinel-Review/Postmedia Network jpg, WD

The appendix of The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity lists many of the many awards and accomplishments of Ron Calhoun. He was a quiet, rather unassuming man who liked to ‘drive from the back seat’. In other words he liked to suggest ideas and then see how others would proceed with them.

He used this method in many instances as John Davidson, of Jesse’s Journey fame, experienced. Ron helped him in his quest to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. John is now the humble head of Jesse’s Journey which gives out to researchers around the world $1,000,000 every year to help eradicate that disease.

With Ron’s passing in February of 2020, an initiative to have him awarded the Order of Canada, along with all of his other awards came abruptly to an end. Unfortunately at this time the body in charge of awarding those medals only gives them to living recipients.

This seems unfair as Ron Calhoun’s services to this country and the world have not disappeared because of his death. His has been an exemplary life, much of it spent in service to others. He told this author that he hoped when he died that he would have left this world a better place. I think he has done that in spades. He deserves recognition.

 

 

The Man Behind the Marathon

Marketing Your Brand New Book–5 Great Ideas to Try

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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.
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When Writing Catastrophes Happen

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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

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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

The Man Behind the Marathon Cover Reveal!

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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.

Ron-Calhoun

Biography is My Marathon of Hope

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Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope. Painting by Cliff Kearns, used with permission.

Here are some points that might both explain how I’m writing the biography of Ron Calhoun (Behind the Marathon of Hope: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox Raise Millions for Cancer) and give some guidance to others contemplating writing a biography themselves.

This book is about a living person rather than an iconic figure from the past which fact presents me with a huge advantage. I have been able to get the story directly from the star’s mouth; in fact, I’ve been interviewing Ron over the course of the last year, sneaking out time whenever our busy schedules have permitted. We’ve talked about Terry Fox, the most famous of those Ron has assisted; John and Jesse Davidson of Jesse’s Journey; Steve Fonyo, a Cancer survivor whose run presented huge challenges; and blind Ken McColm who ran across Canada to aid Diabetes research.

Ron received his honorary doctorate.

Either at my home or his I set up the tiny recorder and push record. Ron and I have about a two-hour discussion as he explains documents in front of us, tells stories from the past and answers my questions along the way. I have a sheet of topics and questions for him to explain and that leads to many interesting conversations. I’ve discovered that my interviewing style is more like a conversation where I even share salient points from my history which fit in with what he’s saying. Ron first worked with my mother in the Cancer Society and our families have a long history, making this conversational style most appropriate.

The question I am having to ask myself is whether to use or how to use all the information Ron gives me. Ron has many unique documents some of which I’ll put into an appendix at the back of the book but I’ll try to keep the narrative of Ron’s life a flowing story. Footnotes are useful here as well.

I like the third suggestion in the following very simple list from the web particularly as these questions start my own brain thinking about what might be good for my particular project.

To write a biography you should:    (Click link for more information.)

  1. Select a person you are interested in.
  2. Find out the basic facts of the person’s life. Start with the encyclopedia and almanac.
  3. Think about what else you would like to know about the person, and what parts of the life you want to write most about. Some questions you might want to think about include:
    • What makes this person special or interesting?
    • What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? other people?
    • What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person?
    • What examples from their life illustrate those qualities?
    • What events shaped or changed this person’s life?
    • Did he or she overcome obstacles? Take risks? Get lucky?
    • Would the world be better or worse if this person hadn’t lived? How and why?
  4. Do additional research at your library or on the Internet to find information that helps you answer these questions and tell an interesting story.
  5. Write your biography.

One of the surprises I’ve had is the amount and the variety of information available to me for this project. Just now I’ve had to resort to putting everything into the chapters as I’ve laid them out in my chapter list at the beginning of the book and not worrying too much about writing perfectly integrated information. That narrative quality will be more important in editing but just now I really want to see the shape of the story. I need to get control of the process and this is how I’ve chosen to do it.

I have sixteen chapters and am planning a prologue. Some of the chapters are very long, some short, and others almost empty as I haven’t got to them. Once I organize the information in this way, I’ll revamp the whole thing with a view to evening out the chapters, making sure I end each one so the reader will have to turn the page, and giving the book a rising action quality, as much as is possible with a biography.

This book is a different kind of history for me, whose historical fiction books started my writing career. There I could use the actual historical facts as a framework upon which I imposed the fiction part. A lot of the book came out of my imagination. I’m pretty sure Ron Calhoun, his family, friends and the rest of the world actually want me to make this whole book factual, so my approach to it has to be quite different.

I’ve contemplated using sidebar boxes with related information but have decided to go the appendix route. That will give the biography a narrative quality. I’m telling a story. Yes, it’s a real person’s story but it’s a story and I want it to read like one and not like a list of facts. With Calhoun’s exceptional stories this format is working well. The appendices will be substantial with Ron’s documents. Pictures will be included as well.

Another narrative quality here is my use of direct quotations, possible because my subject, though eighty-four and having outlived every other person on that Cancer Society team back in 1980, is still very much alive. Ron was the chair of that committee. He gets to tell the story. A weird thing that has been happening as I write the story is that I often find myself using Ron’s own phraseology. He’s a wordsmith himself. That means I can hear his voice in the writing making this a biography that is almost alive with his very personality. That may diminish somewhat in revisions but I hope to retain that flavor.

Photo by http://www.charlestonfootprints.com/charleston-blog/calhouns-moving-grave/2014/01/07/

Now if you happen to be American and are not quite so conversant with Terry Fox’s name I must tell you that Ron Calhoun is related to a Vice President which John F. Kennedy included in his list of five most important vice presidents of the United States: John C. Calhoun. Like John C., Ron can trace his Calhoun lineage back to the twelve hundreds. And Ron even engineered help from a local historical society in Charleston, South Carolina, to get his famous ancestor’s gravestone repaired. The man takes on any cause he possibly can!

The last point necessary to address today is the question of what to do with all the information you find about your biography subject that doesn’t make it into the book. I have two thoughts. Come up with a guideline for choosing what will make it into the book, either in the main biography or in the appendix. Then take those items which are just too far away from the main topic of the book and use them for marketing tidbits, blog posts, Twitter bits, Facebook articles, or any other similar venues. They can lead nicely into your main subject matter for a speaking engagement. They might link your subject matter to a newspaper article. Do not simply discard any of the research you’ve done.

My deadline for completing this rough draft is the end of August. Then I’m setting it aside for a month and living my life outside of writing. When I get back to it, I’ll be looking at the whole project with fresh eyes and the revisions will begin. Publication is sometime in mid 2019. Meanwhile, here are my beloved historical novels to tide you over.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Different Kind of Historical

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When you think of it, every story we tell is historical. As soon as we use the past tense, as in “my daughter woke up in the middle of the night with red spots all over her chest”, we are dealing with history. To be considered a part of the historical fiction category, though, the subject matter should be at least fifty years in the past, a rule set and followed by the writing community.

That idea of categorizing sometimes leads us writers to wonder just what genre our new story actually fits into as it may have historical elements but they are more fantasy than history. Or it may have historical elements as the backdrop for a murder that needs to be solved. Is it historical or is it crime fiction?

This leads to agents having difficulty knowing where to sell a story. It may be excellent but their job is to sell it and they do all they can to figure out where their market might be. At lunch yesterday this very problem led me to suggest my author friend might be better to self-publish her book as it does not clearly fit into one category or another and I wondered if an agent would struggle to find a market for it. The book is extremely creative in its structure and story line, something readers love to see, but the author must decide how best to actually get it to those readers. Should she try to traditionally publish or do it herself?

In a similar vein, the new book I’m writing started out as creative non-fiction but I’ve completely restarted it as a biography. You see, the framing device that I had thought was so clever, actually began to be extremely unwieldy, so much so that a few weeks ago, lying awake at three o’clock in the morning, I decided I had to start over and write this thrilling and uplifting story about Ron Calhoun and Terry Fox and a lot of other amazing people as Calhoun’s biography.

That decision is allowing me to use a more sequential time line and include a rising action aspect just as I do in my historical fiction. And it relates to my historical fiction very well as I’m telling the story of a man born in 1933 who came to be so connected with historical figures during his long lifetime (and he’s still going!). My working title for this is The Man Behind the Marathon of Hope: The Story of Ron Calhoun and How He Helped Terry Fox Raise Millions for Cancer.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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