Spent yesterday distributing books to outlets in Beaufort. (Note to the locals: "The Road to Frogmore is available at the MacIntosh Book Store on Bay Street or in the Visitor Information Center in the Arsenal. Other distributors will have their supplies shortly.) We also did some preliminary research on the Leverett family for next book. The 300-year-old Episcopal Church was great fun as we hunted for family gravesites.   We also discovered that Mrs. Leverett's family home, pictured below, is now known as "Secession House" because it was in a meeting held there that the Beaufort delegates voted to support secession and immediately departed for Charleston to join the cause.  Note: Even more interesting to me, I learned that this is the house that General Rufus Saxton used as his headquarters in Beaufort. Saxton, of course, played a fairly large role in "The Road to Frogmore," and there are two scenes that are specifically set in his house, although I did not know exactly which house was his at the time I wrote the book. Makes for a nice tie-in between the books, however. Now I'm on my way out to Middleton Place, just outside Charleston, to do a two-hour book signing in the Museum Shop. Stop by if you are in the area. You don't have to pay general admission to get to the shop. We'll be there from 2 to 4. Tomorrow we head back to Memphis, so there will be a slight blogging break! See you on the far side! |
