Francis Hamit, author of the Civil War novel The Shenandoah Spy, will do a Veterans Day fund raising book signing benefit for the Fisher House at the CalNational Bank branch in North Hollywood on Saturday, November 15, 2008, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The book will be offered at its suggested retail price of $18.95 (plus sales tax). Hamit will donate ten dollars for every book sold to the new Fisher House facility at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital. Fisher House is a long term residential facility for the families of wounded and critically ill veterans. It is privately funded and run by a non-profit corporation. Additional donations for Fisher House will also be solicited during this event.

“It’s not really about selling a lot of books,” Hamit said. “The book is available at most bookstores and on Amazon.com. It’s about a way to give back to the community of military families that I come from. My father was a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and forty years ago I was in Vietnam, serving in Military Intelligence.

“This novel is about Belle Boyd, who was a Confederate Army spy and scout and the first woman in American history to be formally commissioned an army officer. Belle was a forerunner of the military woman of today and women today serve in combat at equal risk with men the way she did. It seems like an appropriate way to draw attention to this new Fisher House, which is badly needed and deserves wide public support. So while I hope people will want to read the book, I am more interested in raising money for Fisher House with this event. CalNational Bank, where I have been a customer since 1985, has generously provided a place where we can do that. We will have a container for other donations – a very large container.”