Under Lock and Key Until September 15
Updated: Oct 9
This week I drove to the Williamson County Public Library with a hardcover of Jetson’s Journey and a black Lab named Jetson.
The book was a donation. Earlier this summer, the library’s Special Collections accepted Jetson’s Journey into the Heritage Collection—the county’s permanent archive of Williamson County authors, kept behind glass on the second floor of the Main Library in Franklin. The novel is set here. The streets in it are real streets, the square is the real square, and now a signed copy of the book belongs to the county it was written about.
Before it went into safekeeping, the Special Collections team let us do something I didn’t expect: they set it on the shelf, right where it will live. Not a display spot—the actual spot. The Heritage Collection is shelved alphabetically by author, and Alston lands at the front of the row. First shelf, first slot, purely because of the alphabet. I’m choosing to take it as a sign anyway.
Then the book came back off the shelf. Here’s the part I love: the library kept it under lock and key until September 15, publication day. Nobody read it early—not patrons, not staff, not the county historian. The library waited with everyone else. There’s something right about that. A book about patience, sitting in a locked case, practicing what it preaches.
Jetson came along, because it seemed wrong to shelve a book with his name on it and not let him see it. He sat for a photograph like he’d done it before. He had not done it before.
My thanks to the Special Collections team at WCPL, who have been generous with a first-time author at every turn. A circulating copy is now in the library’s Local Author Collection—so if you’d rather borrow it than buy it, Williamson County has you covered.
If you’d rather not wait for the library: the book is out now—ebook, paperback, and hardcover.
Launch night was Tuesday, September 22, at Landmark Booksellers on Main Street. Photos and video from the night are here.
—Brock
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