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A fortuitous phone call
One of my goals for this book was to figure out exactly what happened to Shedrick Thompson. If I have succeeded in doing that, it’s in large part because of Tom Davenport. I was still working at the newspaper when Tom called and introduced himself as a Fauquier County, Va., filmmaker. He said he was
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A new title, or learning to play well with the other children
Before History Press agreed to publish this story, they asked me to complete an 8-page application. One of the questions they asked was: are you capable of working with other people on a long-term project that requires a “high level of co-ordination.” In other words, do I play well with the other children? I answered
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What am I going to do with the rest of my life?
It’s done. It’s gone. I sent my manuscript to the History Press on Friday. With that delivery, I met the second of two February deadlines. The first was for the photographs. This one was for the book itself. Actually the book is still just an email attachment, a Word document of 51 pages, 32,000 words,
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We will begin with a few words by Claudine Ferrell
I am grateful to Claudine Ferrell for writing the introduction for this book. Claudine is a professor of history at the University of Mary Washington, where she has taught for more than 30 years. Her doctoral work at Rice University focused on lynching in the South. One of the librarians at Mary Washington told me about
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What color would you like, sir?
The questions that my editor asked reminded me of the goofy things that Gilda Radner would say as Baba Wawa on Saturday Night Live. But I understood why he wanted to know, and I enjoyed answering him. Again, he was thinking about the cover for this book, and he wanted to know two things: What
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Thinking about a cover
My editor has been thinking about the cover for this book, and last week he asked me to list the photos that I thought would work best. I told him that when I think about Shedrick Thompson’s hanging, I am reminded of the famous picture of the lynching of Leo Frank. Frank was lynched in
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My book in 125 words or less
The latest assignment from my editor is to write a paragraph for the back cover. He said to highlight the key places, people and events in the book, and convey the chronological and geographic scope. And please do all that in 125 words or less. The assignment reminded me of an exercise I used when
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Every author needs a Facebook page
First came the writing, then the production, and finally the marketing. To help me market The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia, I hired Christina Dill, who created this website, and Susan Larson, a Facebook expert. Susan is the publisher of Fredericksburg Today, an online news site, and teaches social media at Germanna Community College. With
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One down, one to go
Today I met the first of two deadlines in my contract with History Press. My agreement says I will submit a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 80 photos by Feb. 1. I sent 68 pictures to them today, 12 days early. Actually “sent” the pictures does not describe what happened. I created a
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Hold your horses there, Jim
Banks Smither, my editor at History Press, read this website last week and offered a word of caution. He said it appears here as if the title of my book has been determined, and that the book will be published in July 2016. Neither is certain. The title I gave the story is Death on
Author & Lecturer
Jim Hall 