Smartsville and Timbuctoo (CA) (Images of America)
Title: The making of a local history book Author: John Hollis Publisher: Appeal-Democrat Date: 12/7/2008 Just because it's a labor of love doesn't mean it isn't a lot of work. Neither Lane Parker nor Kathy Smith were authors. Lane is a freelance editor and Kathy is a baker. Neither of them lives near Smartsville or even Yuba County. What they have in common is a love of research and a deep interest in history. I was researching my family history and wanting more information about the towns that my great-great-grandparents settled in Smith said. Parker's reasons were a little different: Even though I don't have any family there, one of my great-grandmothers had gone through there in the 1950s on a road trip. She wrote in her travel diary about the apricot and peach orchards when they went through Grass Valley, then she wrote about Timbuctoo of Mark Twain fame. I'd never heard of Timbuctoo, so I thought it'd be neat to see. It was years later that I went looking for the town and I couldn't find it Parker said. That just made me more motivated. Perhaps if I'd found it that day, I probably never would have started researching it. Each had their own reasons, but both had one common resource: Kathy Sedler and her Yuba Roots Web site. They turned to her because she compiles information on Yuba County vital statistics. In February last year, (Sedler) told me about this woman in Sacramento who's researching the same towns, Parker explained. The way (Sedler) presented it to me was that Kathy was researching Smartsville, Parker said. I thought, 'That's great.' So we e-mailed back and forth about where we were in our research, what we knew and what we had. We actually met the first time at the California State Library (in February 2007) when we started to put the book proposal together. Parker said. When the Arcadia book was coming out about Marysville, I thought someone there would be interested, because they do things in districts Parker said. Arcadia Publishing is a leading publisher of local history in the United States. It has applied state-of-the-art technology to create historical publications about local niches. I called up their West Coast editor and I proposed Timbuctoo, but I almost talked myself out of the job because I said nobody lives there, he said. So I suggested, 'How about Smartsville and Timbuctoo?' That made more sense to (the editor). I told her that I didn't know much about Smartsville, but there's another person I know who does. Then the editor got back to me and asked if we could do a proposal said Parker. They had very little time because the proposal was due in late March. We had to provide some photos and captions to Arcadia Smith said. Then we had to fill out a questionnaire about the area and the potential buyers to find out what the market would be. Then, in a day or two, we heard back with the approval, Parker said. It was going to be a daunting chore. Their time frame for turnaround was really fast. They wanted us to do it in four months, but we got an extension Smith said. Parker said that they had roughly eight months to complete the book. Because Smith lives in Sacramento and Parker lives in San Francisco, phone and travel costs added up. Maybe if we lived here in town it would be different Parker explained. It would have been a lot easier and a lot less expensive. That was when gas was up around $5 a gallon But they both said it was worth it. This is a labor of love. --Appeal-Democrat