Local Author Signing

On Saturday, March 23, I went to the Fincastle Library to hear a local author talk about her book, West of Santillane.

The book is about Julia Hancock Clark, who is from here, and in 1807 or thereabouts married William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

The author is about my age, and she teaches music at Greenfield. Her book uses the pen name of Brook Allen.

She talked about Santillane, which I wrote articles about when I worked for the paper, and about Julia Hancock and her relationship to William. She has fictionalized the story, and it sounds interesting. She did a lot of research to get the history correct, including going to St. Louis to the Lewis and Clark Museum there.

An old photo I took of Santillane, around 2006, maybe?

The meeting room at the library was packed, and I sat at the back where the door was cracked open. The local historical society sponsored the event, so there were a lot of those folks in attendance.

The room reeked of perfume and cologne, and at one point I thought I might have an asthma attack from it. Fortunately, about that time a nice breeze blew in and the fresh air saved me.

I'm looking forward to reading the book. I thought about writing fiction about Julia Clark once, but I was going to make her a vampire hunter!

People lined up before and after the lecture to get a signed copy of the book.

The executive director of the local historical society (right), introduced
the author (left) and gave a glowing account of her efforts.