J. Keith Jones

I just got back from the post office. The proofs for “The Boys of Diamond Hill” begin their short journey to McFarland Publishers where it will soon be an actual book graced by the beautiful cover they have designed for it. Here’s hoping it will have a long life enhancing they scholarship of the region and the conflict and that it makes certain that these folks will not be relegated to the scrape heap of history. These people are the quintessential “everyman” that national events sucked into a conflict much larger than they at first understood and assigned them their own special place in history.

The proofing processing is nearing its end. I had a very productive weekend, proofing and indexing the “Boys of Diamond Hill.” The manuscript is proofed and the index just has to be polished, alphabetized and formatted. It will then — next few days — be on its way back to McFarland where they will do their magic and finalize turning this process of transcribing and researching — from reading other books and source documents all the way up to crawling around in old cemeteries and tracing my fingers along the words and numbers of nearly indecipherable grave stones — into that few ounces of ink and paper called a book.

I arrived home this afternoon to a box on my front porch. The proofs for “The Boys of Diamond Hill” were inside. Time to proof read and index the book. It is scheduled for the printer a month from now.

Also got a copy of “Young Junius” from author Seth Harwood to review. That will be next on my agenda. Seth does good work, I am looking forward to digging into it once I get my proofing and indexing done.

Hi folks,

If you are planning to pre-order the Boys of Diamond Hill online, it appears that the best price currently is through Barnes and Noble’s online store.

Click this link to order through Barnes and Noble.