Happy Hello Dear Readers,

This Newsletter is a tribute to McFarland Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina. At long last, I visited McFarland on Monday, January 24. Having met McFarlanders reaffirms and deepens my respect and admiration for the company.

THE TRIP, JANUARY 19 TO 26

When we first arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee, we decided to take a trip to Sweetwater, Tennessee because James’s grandmother, Sara Garland Stamper, was born there. He had never been there before. It was a nice trip (good roads and pretty scenery) but it was further than we thought it was. When we got to Sweetwater, we found the library and went there to see if we could find anything about James’s G’ma, but we didn’t find anything in the time we had. When we went left Sweetwater, we headed to Sevierville which is where we were going to stay Thursday and Friday. On the way we saw the deep pink sunset with clouds above the mountain. We decided to go to the Alabama Grill which is named after Alabama, the country western group.

From Sevierville we traveled to Murfreesboro, Tennessee where James taught Communication Studies at the Middle Tennessee State University. The campus had grown so much that we had to get a map to locate the department. From there we revisited the houses in which we had lived, the church we had attended and a couple other most memorable places.

From Murfreesboro it was on to Lebanon, Tennessee for the night. From Lebanon we drove all the way through the southern Appalachian mountains to Jefferson, North Carolina to McFarland Publishers. The roads were winding and the mountains were beautiful. Some of the curves had a 25 mile an hour speed limit.

McFarland is located outside of Jefferson, North Carolina. A large piece of sculpture introduced us to the publishing house resting on the side of a mountain. Across the highway, McFarland’s newest expansion stands, a ware house and print shop for small runs. When we entered the publishing house, we were greeted by the warmth of part of McFarland’s library. We were soon met by the production manager. Her congeniality “went with” our long standing sense of her. We then met the vice president, my Muse, my inspiration and my counsel. Every author needs these three components, but I am especially fortunate to find them in one person, and at McFarland’s.

Our tour of the company began with an introduction to its president, Robert Franklin. I have enjoyed a positive and rewarding working relationship with him. Meeting him was indeed a highlight of the visit. His talents and creativity reach beyond publishing to theater arts and to works of art. In fact, the publishing house walls are filled with his art collections.

We then toured the company and concluded with lunch with the President, Vice President and three of the staff. When we returned to say goodbye at the publishing house, the president presented me with a McFarland T-shirt.
The warmth, kindness, acceptance and respect that I sense there is the same as I have sensed from McFarland all the years I have written for them since I received my first contract in December 1994. I am indeed a very, very lucky author.

By the way of introduction and according to McFarland’s web site at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/about.html:

“McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, founded in 1979, is located in Jefferson, North Carolina, a small town nestled in the northwestern corner of the state. The company is now one of the leading publishers of scholarly and reference books in the United States, with over 2600 titles published to date, including over 1700 in print. McFarland publishes 275 new titles each year for a worldwide market; many of them have received awards as outstanding reference or academic titles. McFarland is recognized for its serious works in a variety of fields, including performing arts (especially film), sport & leisure (especially baseball and chess), military history, popular culture, and automotive history, among other topics.”

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Cheers!