NextThreeDays: Event Display

Meet the Author with "A Partial Sun" Author Lawrence Bechtel
Venue: Christiansburg Library, Christiansburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: Lawrence Bechtel
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free

Sponsored Content:

Feature Your Company/Event Here

Description:
Christiansburg Library presents a Meet the Author event with "A Partial Sun" Author Lawrence Bechtel on Tuesday, October 8, 2019.

Local artist and author Lawrence Bechtel will discuss his first book, "A Partial Sun" based on the life story of one of Thomas Jefferson's slaves.

In 1852, after much searching through the Black districts of Petersburg, Virginia, the amateur historian Charles Campbell finally located Isaac Granger, a former slave of the late Thomas Jefferson. Though disinterested at first in sharing his memories, Isaac was at last persuaded by the persistent Reverend to tell the full story of his time in Philadelphia as a young man in the early 1790s. It was supposed to have been a simple story: he would apprentice with a Quaker tinsmith and then return to Monticello to produce tinware for sale. But Isaac was impressionable and more thoughtful than Mr. Jefferson knew.

Born and raised in Wheaton, Illinois, Lawrence Bechtel graduated from Wheaton College with a B.A. in English in 1971 and spent some years after that experiencing the wider world. Eventually, he settled in Southwest Virginia, raised a family, earned an MA at Virginia Tech, and began teaching in the Virginia Tech English Department. He also begin writing and figurative sculpture and over time secured significant public commissions. He became the designated storyteller for children at the Blacksburg New School and from that experience eventually recorded three CD’s worth of original stories.

Lawrence has published the first two novels of his historical fiction trilogy, "The Tinsmith's Apprentice, A Partial Sun" in 2019 and "That Dazzling Sun" in 2020. He is working on the third, "A Slow Eclipse", which he expects to publish in 2022.

Lawrence Bechtel is also a celebrated sculptor as well as a published author. Indeed, sculpture and writing are for him deeply intertwined. In fact, his trilogy of novels, The Tinsmith's Apprentice, began with sculptures: first a portrait bust of Thomas Jefferson, followed by one of Isaac Granger Jefferson.

Links:

• http://www.lawrencebechtel.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/lawrencebechtelbooks

Books will be available for purchase and signing after the event. Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, visit: http://www.montgomery-floyd.lib.va.us/ or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christiansburg-Library-Montgomery-Floyd-Regional-Library-System-Va/343472325300 or call 540-382-6965.