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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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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…
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The cost of doing business
One aspect of preparing this book for publication has surprised me. I’ve had to pay for photos, and they’ve been expensive. I should say quickly that I didn’t have to pay for photos. I could have refused and used only my own photos or those that were free, but the book would have suffered if…
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Gather, write, rewrite
Writing this book or a writing a newspaper article is the result of a three-step process: gathering, writing and rewriting. I loop back and forth from one step to the other as long as time allows. So even though my deadline to submit the manuscript for The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia is a month away,…
Author & Lecturer
Jim Hall 