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My Book is Published!

When I posted my blog on November 28, I didn’t expect to be able to submit my local history book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 to Amazon for publication that afternoon!

I’m thrilled to announce in today’s blog post that Harrisburg, Did You Know?  Cabarrus History, Book 1 is now available as an e-book and in paperback on Amazon! It contains the first 91 local history columns I wrote for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper. The paperback is indexed and the e-book, of course, is word searchable on your electronic device.

Many of my blog readers live in other parts of the United States, as well as in other countries around the world. You might not think you’d be interested in reading a book about Harrisburg, a town in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. You might be surprised, though.

Topics covered in the book include newspaper article series I wrote about the cotton economy, early mail service, the coming of the North Carolina Railroad in 1854, early telephone service, and the memories of a World War II US Army veteran who shared his memories from being trained for D-Day through the end of the war in Europe. Those series, as well as other articles should be of much wider interest than Cabarrus County or even North Carolina.

For instance, any railroad enthusiast or World War II history buff will enjoy reading those two series of articles. For Revolutionary War history buffs there’s an article about a local man who was a Minuteman and there’s a series of articles about a group of local young men and teenage boys who disguised themselves and blew up a shipment of the Royal Governor’s ammunition that was on its way from Charlotte to Rowan County, NC to put down the Regulator Movement in 1771.

There are articles about the one-room schools of the 1800s and early 1900s, as well as the three Rosenwald Schools that served the black students in this area in the early 20th century.

The Harrisburg area was served for decades until 1960 by a physician from Russia. Anyone who likes to read about the days of the country doctors who made house calls will enjoy the series of articles I wrote about Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko.

NASCAR fans will enjoy the articles I wrote about the first World 600 stockcar race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is actually in the Harrisburg community. Some articles on other subjects have a connection with the property where the speedway is, including a visit by George Washington in 1791.

I had the pleasure of interviewing some of my community’s oldest residents and preserving their memories through the local weekly newspaper (which ceased publication a decade ago) and now I’m happy to see their memories in this book. I also drew from old newspapers in Charlotte and Concord, genealogies, US Census records, and other sources.

There are sad stories and there are funny stories. Isn’t that what life is like? Some of our local history and our history as a nation and as human beings in general is sad. Some of it is embarrassing to future generations. What one generation knew as cutting-edge technology makes the 21st century reader laugh.

Something that comes through all the articles is how we’re all alike. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. There are people who overcame tremendous odds to accomplish the things they did.

The people I had the privilege to interview were all “salt of the earth” people. They didn’t brag about anything they’d done in their lives. They were all just good, hard-working people who quietly did what they could to make our little corner of North Carolina a great place to live.

Since my last blog post

In addition to getting Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 published, I continues to format Book 2 for publication in 2023. So, if you like Book 1, you can start looking forward to Book 2 in a couple of months if all goes as planned.

By the way, I noticed on Saturday that Amazon had dropped the price of the e-book version of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina from $12.99 to $2.99. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I have no control over the price of that book since I wasn’t the publisher. For all I know, they’ll change the price again by the time you’re reading this.

Until my next blog post

Thank you for indulging me today for blowing my own horn. This is really exciting for me!

Happy reading!

Remember the brave people of Ukraine as they suffer from the war and bitter cold.

Janet

30 thoughts on “My Book is Published!”

  7. Congratulations Janet!!! This is marvellous! A most lovely cover and I know it is a most interesting book, especially for those from your area. Wishing you all the success with this Book 1 and the ones to follow! All the best to you.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. You’re right about that! I didn’t know if I’d be able to create the cover myself, but through Book Brush dot com I was able to do it — and quickly!

    Like

  9. Thank you, Francis! I’m glad you like the cover. Getting permission from the deceased artist’s son was almost too good to be true. The town came to be after the North Carolina Railroad came through the area in 1854 and established a train depot here. If not for the railroad, Harrisburg might not exist. The railroad/depot portion of the artist’s mural was perfect for the cover!

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I would if I knew how, Rebecca. How inept am I? Just go to Amazon and search for Harrisburg, Did You Know? and it should pop right up. You’re the second person who has asked me for the link and I have to keep confessing that I’m so technologically-challenged that I can’t accommodate. This is embarrassing. Is there an Amazon book for dummies? Sign me up!

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  25. Thanks, Rebecca. I’ve done that for other things, but the address for my book is ridiculously long and I thought there had to be another way. I guess not. LOL! https://www.amazon.com/Harrisburg-Did-You-Know-Cabarrus/dp/1888858044/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31IC391EBL3CN&keywords=Harrisburg%2C+Did+You+Know%3F&qid=1670519229&sprefix=harrisburg%2C+did+you+know%2Caps%2C638&sr=8-1. See what I mean? This is crazy. I guess I’ll have to go with it anyway. Thank you for getting me straightened out about this. And thank you for ordering my book. That is so kind of you!

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Oh, once you copy the address you could write your book name in a post you’re writing, highlight it and paste the address over it to make a link! You might look up online a way to simplify the address, I remember there is a way.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Another way to embed a URL address in your text is highlight the desired text and click on the symbol (-) in the menu, enter the address in the box provided. Then hit return. You’ve got a link 🙂 To edit the address, click on the highlighted word and click on the pencil symbol. Hope that helps 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Who knew? It sounds like that works the same way as the little link symbol in WordPress — or, I guess that’s what you’re referring to. I still can’t get over how long the Amazon link to my book is. That’s what threw me off. I thought it would be shorter. Thanks, Rebecca!

    Liked by 1 person

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