Postponing Personal Interviews

We are going to have to postpone the personal interviews for at least a week or two. Although I haven’t gotten any responses yet from anyone volunteering to go first we need time to get approval from the head librarian before we can set up an Event on the Facebook page. Once we do get approved we will bring our camera, tripod, laptop, and scanner to each meeting so those that bring pictures we can go ahead and scan them in and give them back.

I still have to create a flyer to have ready for future talks with people like the Lake City Women’s Club, maybe some of the retirement homes and local churches that have been around since the 1900s. There are some other marketing ideas I have been mulling over and hope to have them fleshed out really soon. I have sent out emails to a couple of people asking for their assistance with research, biographical information about the main players and hints on whom to interview. The 1989 Historical Building application had a list of names that were interviewed but it lists just their names and whether it was in person or phone interview. And, sadly I am finding that quite a few have already passed away and others have names too common to stand out during an online search. I have been depending a lot on Facebook to help me identify people to interview.

I am also working on biographies of all the main characters such as the builder, the building owner, his daughter, the first hotel manager, etc. I am utilizing lots of genealogy resources and trying to come up with a complete history. The local newspapers never did any kind of profile, I guess because everybody knew everybody else but that doesn’t help 100 years later. I am looking forward to sitting down with someone at the Historical Society now that the Olustee Battle is over. Perhaps we can find more pictures from the Ozaki collection.

The college library will be closed for 10 days this month so that will put me behind in the microfilm newspaper viewing schedule by a couple of years. Hopefully, I can at least get through the first decade this coming week. Then all I have to do is actually view each page and pick out the information to add to the research folder. I have viewed through 1903 and will begin 1904 next week. We have downloaded through 1907 so far.

I have also finally created a rough outline for the chapters, written the first three pages – strictly in a rough draft format – and hope to finish the first three or four chapters in the next two weeks. I have broken down with this project and began to use the Scrivener Writer’s Program. With all the reference materials that I am having to utilize, it is essential that I have each source documented properly so that I can create the Bibliography without pulling out all of my hair. I am using the non-fiction book format and will let you know if it’s really worth the $40 to register it. The trial version is a full version for 30 use days. After the 30th day that you open the program, it will lock up. So, if I only use it once a week it should be good for 30 weeks. That’s really great for me right now. I am still in the gathering more information stage and can’t really commit to writing every day yet.

Till next time.