Juggling, Jacksons, & Jefferson Bass ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

       Juggling just seems like an obvious book choice for this letter.  Yes, I do have several books on juggling and those of you who know anything about me know that I am a juggler and have an interest in the art.  Of course I would have some juggling books even though it's not a category most people would think of exploring.  Really, though, there are a lot of books about juggling and I have several.  Keep looking through the shelves and you'll find some other entries for 'J'...

      

Jackson history  (Colonel Edward Jackson:  Revolutionary Soldier)

       My actual last name being Jackson makes books about my family history of definite interest to me.  Fortunately my aunt Nancy Jackson and another relative Linda Brake Myers compiled this hefty history of over 1100 pages detailing the family lineage from their first arrival in the Americas in 1756 up to the 1990s when this book was published.  This highly detailed book is a real gem.  Probably difficult to find--I'm not sure how many copies were published--but I'm proud to have such a fine book on my family's history on my father's side.  And I'm named in the book as are my children!

Stonewall Jackson by James Robertson

         This famed Confederate general would be a distant cousin to me on our family tree.  My relationship to him has been confirmed by DNA testing.  Despite the choice he made in the Civil War, Stonewall is still highly acclaimed as one of the greatest military strategists in history.  There are several books about him, but this is the only one I own.  I started to read it a number of years ago but then stopped for some reason.  It's time for me to go back to reading this biography.

Juggling The Art and Its Artists by Ziethen & Allen

       Most of the juggling books I have are somewhat smaller books about how to juggle or different juggling tricks.  Typically they are cheaply made paperback books so most of these are not on my bookshelves.  However the Juggling book by Ziethen & Allen (a writing team made for A to Z) has a place on display in my collection.  This is primarily a picture book from 1985 that mostly depicts European jugglers of whom I am not familiar.  But there are some jugglers I've met and the photos are very nice.  A good coffee table book I guess.  Maybe even a collectors' item of sorts.

Jugglers' Bulletins

       Speaking of collectors books, here is a one of a kind book that I had custom bound by a book binder in Richmond VA back in 1977 or so.  I had visited the former editor of the bulletin of the International Jugglers Association, Roger Montandon who was living in Oklahoma at the time, and he indicated that he had all the back copies of the bulletin from the forties to mid-fifties.  I was very interested in collecting juggling materials at the time so I bought a set of these back issues that were just loose paper copies.  To keep them in good order I decided to have them bound.  Maybe someone else has also done this, but I seriously doubt that it looks like my copy.  I ordered it special.  I wonder what this might be worth to some serious collector?

Jefferson Bass

       This should go under the letter 'B' you say?  Well, actually no because this "author" is actually two people--author Jon Jefferson and Dr Bill Bass.  There are several books in this series of forensic crime novels.  Aside from the books being good, I was drawn to these books because Dr. Bass was my anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  He was one of my favorite professors as he was entertaining as well as informative.  Bass is renown as a forensic scientist who has been called in to solve many crimes.  He is also known for his studies of decomposition of corpses through is work at the Body Farm in Knoxville.  Great series for anyone who enjoys good crime writing with solid science to back them.  Flesh & Bone and Carved In Bone are but two of the books that I have, but if I really dug I'd probably find a few more.

      Has anyone in your family published genealogies of your lineage?    Do you enjoy researching your family history?  Have you read any of the books in the Body Farm series?

Persnickety Penman: Actual Accuracy

            Last Wednesday I wrote about my relationship to Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson and I made a mis-statement which I have gone back and corrected.  Originally I stated that there were no direct decendants of Stonewall Jackson,  This is not true.   I was corrected by my aunt, Nancy Jackson, who is a past president of the Jackson Brigade.

         Actually Stonewall's daughter Julia bore two children before dying at age 26.  These two children had several more children and this line continues to the present time.  When I made my original statement I was relying on faulty memory which I backed up with an incomplete geneological chart which I have in my possession.  The chart does not continue on with Julia's offspring so along with the data from my misinformed memory bank and this chart I came to the conclusion that no descendants continued on Stonewall's line.

         This is only a blog post, but nevertheless I like to know that what I state here is accurate.  I suppose my mistake was a fairly minor offense, however if this had been done in a published article or a book this would have been quite serious.  A historian or an author of a nonfiction work would be subject to derision and loss of credibility to have made such a serious error as this.  Solid research from multiple sources is imperative when citing claims as factual.

         So what about fiction?   If a writer makes major errors in a work, the suspension of disbelief can be severely impaired if the facts aren't straight.  A glaring error might cause a reader to become distracted from the story and shake their head at the author's carelessness.  Especially if you are dealing with real places, people, or events, you should take care to research everything you can about those devices you are using in your work.

           In the novel I am currently working on, A Desert Place, I continually refer to an atlas to make sure my locales, highways, and travel distances are accurate.  I also refer to various online resources to obtain details about cities concerning neighborhoods, demographics, crime statistics, and other detailed facts in order to make sure that the feel  of the settings I use are realistic.  Whenever possible, since my story deals with events of 30 years ago, I have consulted meteorological  information sites to make sure the weather that I describe on specific dates in specific locales is accurate.   I am trying to create a sense that the story I am telling is something that might have really happened.

         When writing fiction, how far do you go to be detailed in accuracy?  Am I being too picky about my details?  What are some of the sources you like to use for obtaining accurate data?  Have you ever made a glaring inaccuracy in your writing that was funny or perhaps caused a problem?

Some Obscurities, But There Nonetheless

          In my Monday post I had mentioned that a short piece which I had written about myself and my blog appears in the current issue of Jackson Brigade Quarterly (Vol. 18, No.2 issue dated February 2010).  This quarterly magazine is a publication of  Jackson Brigade , which is a genealogical association for descendants of John and Elizabeth JACKSON, who were the great-grandparents of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. 

        Stonewall Jackson, along with Robert E. Lee, was one the greatest confederate generals in the American Civil War.  He is considered to be one of the greatest military minds of United States history. Stonewall Jackson is part of my family tree.  I am  not a direct descendent of Stonewall Jackson, but I descend from his family line which is celebrated by the Jackson Brigade organization.

          I am proud to be part of this heritage and this was the primary reason for my article in the Quarterly.  Since membership is spread all across the United States and I am a fairly recent member of the organization, not many members knew of me.  The article gave me a chance to tell a bit about myself and my blog.  I hope to see members of the Jackson Brigade add themselves to my blog followers. And if Stonewall Jackson is a part of your family tree and you haven't joined the Jackson Brigade check out the website and find out how you can join.   In the future I hope to include some more stories about this Jackson family and those related to it.

         Unfortunately, most readers will not have access to the article that I have written for Jackson Brigade Quarterly since distribution is limited to members of the organization and a handful of libraries and historical organizations.  However, on the internet you can read another article that I wrote back in 1990 that is a tribute to my father.

         I was quite surprised many years ago when I ran across this article listed on Google.  The article does not appear under my pseudonym which I use in this blog and on my current written work.  You can read this article which appeared in the magazine Juggler's World , a quarterly publication of The International Jugglers Association.  My father had been among the earliest members of this organization and served as president in 1957.


          Getting published is almost always a thrill for a writer.  After all isn't that why we write?  I hope to have many future posts about articles that I get published.  Do you have any articles appearing in recent or upcoming publications?  What are some of the more obscure publications in which your written work has appeared?