HOLLOW SQUARE PRESS - BLOG

HOLLOW SQUARE PRESS

MR. FRANK

8/9/2024

[No, that is not his cabin, and that is not Mr. Frank. This HABS photo was taken maybe a ear before Mr. Frank arrived at Umbria. But I like to think that the cabin he occupied there looked like this one.]

I was only 4 when Mr. Frank died in 1943, but I do have a strong memory of him. He would come to my father’s post office in Sawyerville, Alabama to pick up any mail for the people living or staying at Umbria Plantation just to the east. Tall. Skinny. Old. I’ll stick with those last 2, but tall? To a 4-year-old all adults are tall. I knew that he had been a hobo who showed up in Sawyerville one day going from house to house asking to sharpen knives for a bit of food, and when he got to Umbria the folks there took him in and provided a home for him.

WHY I WRITE

5/19/2024

On May 9, 2024 I gave a book talk at the Hale County Library in Greensboro, Alabama about my 2 most recently-published books, White on Black: Thinking about Race in a Small Alabama Community and Remembering My Forebears: The Turbervilles of Greensboro and the Mays of Hollow Square and Sawyerville, Hale County, Alabama. I threw in mention of my forthcoming book Sawyerville, Alabama, and the Earlier Communities of Erie and Hollow Square: History and Reminiscence, for I view each of these books as part of a trilogy.

The title for my talk was Why I Write. I had composed a neat outline of what I wanted to say and printed it out in large type to keep me on course. And guess what, that train leapt off the tracks shortly after I began. I don’t think I embarrassed myself and I do think the audience was entertained. Or so I hope.

UMBRIA IN PHOTOGRAPHS, 1971 AND 1999

4/27/2024

In December 1971 when the plantation house buned it was still owned by Mrs. George Spigener, who with her late husband had restored both hohse and grounds to a state of beauty. The house was empty when it burned, Mrs. Spigener having remained in her Tuscaloosa home for the holidays. The Spigeners had hired my first cousin Stephen May, Jr. to oversee house and ground, and at the time of the fire he and his wife were on a trip to New Orleans. Ther son Billy (Steve III) called them as soo;n as he heard about the disaster and they rushed back to see ruins.

In the spring of that year Steve had asked his brother Albert Y. May, a local photographer, to take pictures of the house and grounds. At some point the slides were given to me, and I had thenm digitized. Here they are for you to see.

Smaller photographs may be enlarged with a clidk.

THE COLLAPSE OF A COLLEGE

3/30/2024

On May 31, 2024 Birmingham-Southern College will close its doors forever after a long history. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from that institution in 1961, along with honors including membership in Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa honorary fraternities. This is the second time an institution from which I received a degree has closed: in the early 1990s the Columbia University School of Library Service, from which I received a Masters of Library Science, was closed down by the larger institution. Maybe I’m the Typhoid Mary of institutions . . . But the handwriting had been starkly on the wall for both institutions for some time.

REMEMBERING & THINKING

2/1/2024

Recently I have added 2 works to my published oeuvre: “White on Black: Thinking about Race in a Small Alabama Community” came out a few months back and “Remembering my Forebears: The Turbervilles of Greensboro and the Mays of Hollow Square and Sawyerville, Hale County, Alabama” is available in both paperback and eBook editions on February 1, 2024.They are, in my opinion, companion pieces, each one shedding some light on the other.

A.i. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

11/30/2023

I’ve watched A.I. Artificial Intelligence many times since it came out in 2001. I first saw it in a theater on opening day with my sister and my late friend Tom Miller. We all loved it. I’ve never stopped loving it. I watched it again last evening, and if anything I love it more than ever. And with more than love: great admiration.

What a gift Stephen Spielberg has given us here, and what a great tribute to his friend and mentor Stanley Kubrick. Some early reviews complained of an uneasy blend of Spielberg and Kubrick. I find it a perfect wedding of their talents. I always wait through the end credits to see Spielberg’s dedication of the movie to the master. Also, if you are as moved by this movie as I am, you need that time to reflect and wind down.

ART. ARTISTS, AND KINDLE CREATE

11/5/2023

A few weeks back I downloaded from Kindle Direct Publishing a program called Kindle Create. I made use of it on an earlier project, but now I wanted to create something in which that program would take the central role. Hence the compilation “Star-Gazing and Navel-Gazing: Art, Artists, and Me.”

AT LAST, UP AND RUNNING!

10/15/2023

It took a while. I thought everything was just fine, and when I got my proof copy I discovered that the page numbers at the top had been lopped off and the text crowded against the top of the page. That won't do!

So back to the page design section of Kindle Diirect Publishing. This time I took special care with the top margin, and when I got my proof copy I was happe enough and hit the PUBLISH button.

Now before you report to me the typo on the back cover and another one in the description on Amazon (and I assume other book sites), be assured that I am too well aware of them already. I will correct them eventually. I find that I need to step back from this project for now and worry about other things. Eventually I will examine the entire book with a careful eye for any additional problems that I would like to correct and will handle matters after I make my list.

Terence Davies. November 10, 1945 – October 7, 2023. rEST IN PEACE.

10/10/2023

To honor his life on the occasion of its passing I will share a chapter from my not-yet-published “Star-Gazing and Navel-Gazing: Art, Artists, and Me.”

16. THE LONG DAY CLOSES
(AND OTHERS)

EXPLICATIONS OF EFFORTS OF THE ELDERLY EDITOR

9/25/2023

Having just self-published White on Black in eBook and paperback through Kindle Direct Publishing, the matter of editing and production of books is much [just corrected from mush] on my mind.

Production first, to get that behind us. The paperback looked perfect in the online proof on the Kindle publishing site, so I bravely hit the PUBLISH button. I did order a proof copy, and it arrived nearly 2 weeks later. Cover looked reasonably okay, and then I opened it. Page numbers at top were all cut off, and the first line of book text was at top of the page. That was bad. I had goofed. Back to the drawing board re design.