Neal Graffy, local writer and Santa Barbara historian, along with co-author, singer/songwriter and award-winning screenwriter Annie J. Dahlgren will present their recently released book, A Murder at the Potter Hotel, at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society’s monthly meeting from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, at the First Presbyterian Church.
A Murder at the Potter Hotel is set in Santa Barbara in 1908 with the arrival of the 16 battleships of President Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet during their global voyage. A murder occurs at the waterfront Potter Hotel and Leontine Birabent, a piano teacher, inadvertently gets involved and sets out to determine what happened.
The authors will discuss the history of the Potter Hotel and the Great White Fleet and then talk about the writing of the book and of course take questions.
“We have real Santa Barbarans throughout the book and several fictional characters, so it was quite a challenge to keep the history and characters true and still be able to keep the fiction and the history believable.” said Graffy. “Leontine Birabent, the lead in the story, was the woman I met when I was 14 who got me so interested in Santa Barbara history.”
Special interest groups — such as beginning genealogy, civil war Genealogy, writers’ support group, German ancestry, Italian genealogy, French-Canadian genealogy, computer genealogy, DNA and Jewish genealogy — will meet at 9:30 a.m.
The society’s monthly meeting starts at 10:30, and Graffy and Dahlgren will present at 11 a.m.
You do not need to be a member to enjoy this wonderful free presentation.
A calendar of genealogical events can be found at the society’s website.
— Glenn Avolio is the public relations chair for the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society.