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New U.Va. book to include Jordan story
I know the rule: Don’t draw conclusions from a small sample size. But I’m tempted to do so, given my experience with two types of publishers, a commercial publisher and an academic one. I see the one, the commercial publisher, as similar to a rocket-docket court system: Move ’em in, move ’em out. The other,…
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Two takeaways from the book’s launch
Sometimes I circle a distant date on my calendar, and it seems to never arrive. Monday, July 17, was such a date, and, praise be, it finally came. History Press has officially published my new book, Condemned for Love in Old Virginia: The Lynching of Arthur Jordan, and it’s now available from your favorite seller.…
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Recipe for this book: Gather, write, bleed
I think of my new book as unique since it is the only writing project for which I spilled blood. It happened in western Maryland on a cold Sunday in December 2019. I was on a scouting trip for what would become Condemned for Love in Old Virginia, my new book. I had visited the…
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With a thump, the books arrive
I checked at the front door several times last week to see if the package had arrived. Finally, on Friday morning, I heard a thump on the steps and looked out to see the brown UPS truck at the curb. My books were there. My contract with History Press says I am to receive five…
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I wish I’d said that
One of the curious aspects of book publishing occurs toward the end of the process, when the publisher sends you copies of the pages of your new book. The pages look exactly as they will in the finished book. The author’s job is to read them one more time and sign a statement saying that…
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Family learns of grandad’s role in Thompson story
Pam Androsky remembers the day she was riding with her father on Fiery Run Road in northern Fauquier County. When they passed what was then the Borden Farm and is today the Marriott Ranch, he pointed to the mountain and said, “That’s where they found a colored man hanging from an apple tree.” George Kenney…
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These are a few of my favorite things
Here are three things that this writer is happy about: The story about my book by Pam Kamphuis, editor of the Piedmont Virginian magazine. Pam asked me to write about Fauquier County’s reaction to publication of The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia. I did, and last week she posted that piece on the magazine’s website.…
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What is the nature of your complaint, sir?
When Pam Kamphuis read my recent blog post about the Philip Carter Winery, she asked if I would step back and reflect on the resistance I’ve faced since publication of The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia. Kamphuis, the editor of The Piedmont Virginian in Warrenton, said she wanted to use the piece on the magazine’s…
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Surprised and disappointed, but I shouldn’t have been
A representative of the Philip Carter Winery in Fauquier County wrote to me over the weekend to ask that my appearance there be rescheduled from September. She wrote, “In light of recent events in the media, etc, we feel that it would be advantageous to both yourself and the winery to reschedule for a later…
Author & Lecturer
Jim Hall 