Good Morning, The following is an update as to progress on the book AND as to the imminent price change: Over the weekend, the Jefferson Co. Heritage Book Committee has received numerous inquiries as to whether the deadline of Friday, March 31, 2000, is still in place for ordering the book at the prepublication price ($50 for book + $4 for taxes + $5 S/H = $59 total). There is also an option to have a name imprinted on the book cover in gold for an additional $5, with a limit of 25 combined letters and spaces. I emailed the publishers (who are coordinating the effort) to confirm the end of the special prepublication price and the new price. They replied: "...increase on April 1. It will then be $65.00, plus tax and shipping. Tax is $5.20 and shipping is $5.00. This makes a total of $75.20." And, yes, so long as postmarked by this Friday, March 31, you certainly MAY order as many books at the "old" prepublication price as you like! The books make wonderful very unique gifts that will become family keepsakes and are intended to stand up to being passed down through several generations. Ordering now represents significant savings on early Christmas and other gift occasion shopping. Ordering before actual publication is also the ONLY way you will be guaranteed to receive a book. Because of the projected size of the Jefferson County book and the cost in publishing books of this quality, the committee will NOT be requesting a large "overrun" of books. Committee members are hard at work proofreading, making index cards and photo tags, etc., etc., -- getting all in readiness for the printer. We are having work meetings twice a week and several of us are also working daily at home. The response by folks with Jefferson County connections has been almost overwhelming and our "happy problem" is that there is just so much material to go through! It appears we have somewhere in the vicinity of 1,500 separate articles (give or take a couple hundred)!!! Based on that, the publisher has projected the final page count to be in excess of 700 pages! Needless to say all the hardworking committee folks are standing back and saying "WOW!" -- and sending THANKS to all of you for sharing your histories and wonderful photographs. Speaking of photographs, two individuals have come forth to share (for the Topical section) very extensive collection of photos from the early 1900s -- many are previously unpublished and others are unusual photos of well-known landmarks. Among the latter is one of the sculptor, Moretti, holding a sculpting tool at the base of his small original "model" of Vulcan. The committee has the challenging task of choosing a representative selection from these marvelous old photographs and matching with articles submitted without photos. Our frustration, of course, is that space limitations prevent our publishing ALL of them! Before I wind up this lengthy update, and in answer to those who missed the deadline for submitting their articles: The very last section of the book will be Tributes, Memorials, and Advertisements. That will be sent to the printers when the book is almost ready to roll off the press. So, there IS still time to send in anything you want included in this section, INCLUDING family histories, photos, and any type of family or individual tribute. The difference is that this is "purchased" space (helps pay for printing all those old photographs the committee wants to include). These purchased family oriented pages will be placed ahead of the more traditional "advertisements." Tasteful advertisements are, of course, also welcomed. If you would like to include ANYTHING for this section of the book, please contact me privately for additional details. Once more, to place book orders, send check or money order to: Jefferson County Heritage Book Committee P. O. Box 190034 Birmingham, AL 35219 And, we have to say it again! MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU for your interest and participation in this project to preserve our history. It is your input which has made it so successful! Sincerely, Patricia Dietlein, Family Chairperson Jefferson County Heritage Book Committee