Update again

Happy New Year!

As we head into 2016, our biography of Dan Showalter is still in pre-publication. Co-author Gene and I have been assured that this many-months progression is not unusual, so all seems to be moving along. Will keep posting updates as more information becomes available.

Update on Publication

After some time in review, I'm pleased to announce that co-author Gene Armistead and I have been asked to submit our complete manuscript for further consideration by a major university press! This is not yet a guarantee of publication, but is an expression of a serious interest in our book, so fingers are crossed. Will post a further update as soon as any more is known.

For the latest on publication

I have been receiving comments on this blog requesting notice when the Showalter book publishes. These comments do not come to me with e-mail addresses, but through the blog host. They do come to me for moderation before posting, so if anyone would like to include an e-mail address, I will be happy to send out word once there's any definite news. I assure you that I will not post any e-mail addresses on the blog itself.

Publication is a long process. The book has been under submission to a publisher for the better part of two months, so we should be getting close to hearing from them. Even if the book is accepted, it will still be quite some time -- often as long as a year -- before the actual printed book is available.

In the meantime, I will periodically update with status reports here on the blog, as I have previously done. So by all means, please do check back periodically, whether you might choose to send an e-mail address or not. In fact, sending me your e-mail address may well help publication, as many publishers look to see how many pre-orders or how much interest there might be in the book to determine speed of publication and the quantity of copies printed.

A big thanks to any and all who have visited this blog!

Statistics

In preparing the manuscript of the book for submission to our prospective publisher, co-author Gene Armistead has run some statistics. Just to let you know that this is indeed going to be a substantial work with a huge amount of research behind it, here are some of those statistics as the manuscript now stands:

Total pages: 253

     (This does not yet include additional pages for illustrations to be inserted
       nor the index yet to be generated)

Of the 253 pages, 202 are text, 29 are endnotes, and 22 are bibliography.

Included in the bibliography are:

     26 official records and publications

     12 manuscript and photo collections

     11 pieces of correspondence

     65 historical newspapers

     148 articles

     148 books

Throughout the research process for this book, we were amazed to find how much of the "history" surrounding Dan Showalter was unsubstantiated (even when citations were provided!) and often just a continuation of misinformation from prior researchers. I'm proud to say that every endnote in this work goes to material that actually deals with the referenced text.

I'll periodically update here as the submission and publication process continues!

Just About Done!

With apologies for being so long away from this site, I am pleased to announce that the Dan Showalter book has been completed! Co-author Gene Armistead and I are now in process of doing all the last-minute editing, annotating, and other detail work in connection with having a complete manuscript for presentation, and then it's off to the potential publisher. Our prospective publisher has been told all will be to them by month's end, so then it will be up to their good graces as to if and when it is finally in print.

Needless to say, great excitement on our end over all this -- and will post again once any significant word comes!

Latest News

Happy New Year, anyone out there who might be following this blog!

The news for this new year is that the Showalter book is progressing and may not even been that far from readiness to submit to prospective publishers. While there's still editing to go, Gene and I are down to the last two or three chapters and that should wrap it up.

So please check back and I will update as we continue further in this great project.

Again, a great 2014 to all!

Update

Just thought I'd put up a little update on things for anyone -- is there anyone? -- who might actually be following this blog.

Gene Armistead and I continue to make progress on The Book. It goes in fits and starts around all of the necessities of life and labor, but it's progressing. There should be some really great history in this book -- I'm surprised at how much information there really is on a seemingly obscure historical character, and how more keeps popping up! A work like this, dealing with a man whose story literally spans states and even countries, would have been tremendously difficult to put together not that many years ago; it's truly amazing the information we still come across thanks to the Internet.

And descendants! I am continually amazed at the contacts I've made through this whole process. Gene, of course, is one of those who I most likely never have met had it not been through Internet publication of this blog and the earlier publication of the Drum Barracks exhibit from which this blog stems. But thanks to the Internet, I've now had contacts from descendants from no less than five Showalter lines, from F.E. Kavanaugh, from Lt. Chauncy Wellman, and two from Miss Anna Forman (later Mrs. Peters). It really is remarkable. So a big shout out to Susan and John, Ed, Kenton, Bob, Fannie, Shirley, Larry and Bruce!

Gene and I think there will really be some remarkable history -- and some ground-breaking history -- in our work, so we're really looking forward to completing it and getting it on to a publisher. We're very fortunate in that we've had expressions of interest early on from two publishers, so it looks like this thing may actually happen. I will periodically update as progress continues.