O'Donovan, Susan Eva. Becoming Free in the Cotton South, Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674041608
A recent find - brilliant, enlightening, entertaining and shocking. What was slavery in Southwest Georgia - what was emancipation in this area of the deep south that was barely touched by the war? When the land-owner reluctantly (not to say unwillingly) says "Y'all are free now", what can a poor boy do - a poor woman - a poor man? What happens when the elderly, the young and the less-than able bodied "slave" is discarded and only the younger men are wanted? How did the black population deal with such new realities?
The work shows the development of the cotton economy in this unique region from its very beginning until the early stages of emancipation. However, the book's strength is its treatment of the daily lives of African Americans. The impact of the planters' initial migration to southwestern Georgia, the ways in which slaves negotiated almost every aspect of their lives with their masters, and the effect of the Civil War on the region are all well developed. O'Donovan also shows the actual process of emancipation at work and how it affected black men, women, and children differently.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
A fountain filled with blood: [a Reverend Clare Fergusson mystery] by Julia Spencer-Fleming.
I have been re-reading lots of genre series stuff I have on my Kindle. A friend recommended this series which I did not know. Lots of similarity to Father Brown., but contemporary USA version. Located in rural East. Small town Episcapal Priest and non-believer Chief of police. Lots of present day stuff, basic who-done-it plots. I think I have been reading series, because it lets me hang-out with people I like for longer than just one stand-alone book.
Which raises my next question. What kind of politician thinks complementary references to Hannibal Lector will get people to vote for him?
I jut read an essay in the NY Times about Michael Connelly, He has a new book (Night Shade) to be released in May. I popped over to Amazon to order it. The Hardback is $15.00 as a pre order. The Kindle version is one penny less. So my question for fans of Connelly is: The physical hardback is surely more costly to deliver to me on the day of publication than the electronic version to be sent over the web to my Kindle. Yet both must be profitable. So who do you think gets the bulk of the higher profit from the electronic version?
I wonder just what kind of deal this entails for the publisher and the author?
From a quick check, it appears amazon makes 30 - 70% of the price on a download with the rest going to the author, and for hard cover books gets 40% plus all its printing costs (either paid upfront or out of the sales before the author is paid). Seems like they probably get the same on either since the printing costs are likely marked up with a big overhead charge. I think Meade has published books with Amazon so he may know more.
for books published by other publishers, I would imagine the amount paid to Amazon is less, but then the publisher also gets a cut. From artists I have worked with in the past (primarily visual artists, not authors, but I imagine it's similar), I found that they're lucky if they wind up with 30% (often less) of the sale price (with the gallery or seller taking the rest); of course their reputation may change these royalties, but generally I don't think artists get that much. I've done work with the recording industry as well, and those contracts are so convoluted that it's surprising the artists and composers get anything--some artists make their own labels and get the profits, so maybe it has changed by now, but i really don't know.
