Hi everyone. I have been down with some health issues lately so I'm not publishing regularly but I just had to share this bit of news with you in case you can join us tomorrow night at the local library. This is Mark's second presentation and it ties in with the book #2 he's been working on about how to use different types of records to confirm the identities of individuals being researched. He's presented this one already in Corpus Christi and San Antonio and those went very well. It's always exciting for me to see how he helps other researchers find new avenues to explore in order to get beyond roadblocks they may have encountered.I'm feeling better and plan to be at this event so I hope you will be there, too! If you are, please be sure to introduce yourself if we haven't met. I love to meet new people who follow the blog. Well, I just love to meet new people anyway, even if they don't read the blog. :-)
The weekend before last, we went to Corpus Christ for another presentation about the research Mark is doing for his books (book #2 in process). The library system there is celebrating their 100th birthday and all year there are keynote speakers visiting their fair city, with former first lady Laura Bush headlining. :-) Pretty neat stuff. We had a great time on our little getaway. Mark gave a great presentation about how to use local resources in doing African American genealogical research. We had local customers as well as library staff in attendance so it was a lot of fun.
:) It's Mark! Last Thursday Mark had his first official book signing and I made it in time to catch the last few minutes of his talk and then I worked the purchasing table. The books are moving pretty swiftly and the publisher even spoke with Mark about buying some back...interesting! I am so happy for Mark because he enjoys talking with folks about the book. Saturday we went to drop copies off at Hastings, a local book/music/movie store, and while he was waiting to do paperwork, I strolled around looking at the books. Next thing you know, a "fan" was chatting him up and he signed her book for her. Sweet. I loved it. 
We're back!!! And it is so wonderful to be home after ten whole days away. We are both feeling refreshed and ready to tackle things we need to do. But first...Mark's books arrived finally!!! I was so hoping to see them before I left for NC but it wasn't meant to be. But they are here now and I am so, so happy for Mark to get his first book on the topic published already! It's so cool to stack the books up and flip through them, knowing that he pulled together all the information...and to think about all the stories to be told about those people listed. It's truly amazing. It's also a very interesting look into what life was like for Seguinites back during the 1840s through 1865. The publisher (Janaway Publishing) did a fantastic job on the format and look of the book. We really appreciated that they spent more money in order to make sure the old documents and photographs came out great. And now Mark's going to start a lecture and signing tour -- he's got a couple of "gigs" lined up so I'll keep you posted on where he'll be. [By the way, thank you to those of you who have ordered copies and others who have called or spoken with us about buying a copy from us. We really appreciate your interest and support. :)]You can also check out Mark's blog because I believe he's going to post about the book this week also. :) Congratulations, honey. I am SO proud of you!!
Lately we have been living in the past. What I mean is that I've been looking at old pictures. The digital camera era is super-fantastic BUT I still enjoy flipping through the photo albums once in a while. Some of my college friends started posting old pics on their Facebook pages so I went looking for some of my own in order to share with them. I also found some pictures that my mom brought with us when we left Vietnam; here's one of me. Last year I scanned in four albums worth of black and white photos for everyone in the family. I love looking at them.Mark's been living in the past, too! He's making one more change in the book but he's pretty much done and it's now on the publisher's site (Janaway Genealogy Publishing) and I am thrilled for him!! [Congratulations, honey!] Mark's book is titled Slave Transactions of Guadalupe County, Texas and you can read a little more about it on Mark's blog about "Smokey" Joe Williams.
I am so, so proud of Mark! Yesterday he gave his first book talk about his new book, which will be published next month. It's about the slave activities in our county and it's been almost one year in the works, though if you really think about how he got to this point, I'd say it was ten years in the making (when Mark first starting researching Smokey Joe Williams).A couple of work buddies and I showed up at the Seguin Library and at first there weren't many people there. But folks started trickling in and all in all, there were about 79 people I was told! That was so great! I really enjoyed watching Mark share the stories we learned during his research -- stories of families and individuals, slaves and slave masters and mistresses -- really fascinating. AND the best part was that people in attendance asked some really great questions that allowed us all to explore our past. It was pretty cool.I'm proud of you honey!! Can't wait to see the book in print.
