When Mary Clare isn't hunkered down in her office in the Main Building the senior systems analyst is busy researching and writing historical fiction with her sister Liz Clare in their Austin home.
The sisters' debut novel, "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark," written under the pen name Frances Hunter, won the 2007 Writers' League of Texas Violet Crown Book Award for best novel. The award will be presented to the sisters during the Texas Book Festival.
The novel, filled with mystery and intrigue, is about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The story follows the pair and what happens to them after they return from exploring the uncharted West and examines the mystery surrounding the death of Lewis in October 1809 from a gunshot wound while traveling along the Natchez Trace.
"The idea for the book got started when we were interested in going on a trip and following the Lewis and Clark trail," Mary Clare said. "While we were reading about Lewis and Clark we found that Lewis died three years after returning to civilization."
Lewis was 35 years old when he was shot and the circumstances surrounding his death were very suspicious, Clare said. The sisters agreed the mystery and intrigue-filled story was perfect to create a novel around.
The pair had never written together before but with similar writing styles and a passion for the subject it came easily to them.
"We got so drawn into the story about what happened once Lewis and Clark returned from their trip and their different reactions," Mary Clare said. "Clark was very happy and got married but Lewis had a hard time dealing with the celebrity.
"It's like a modern celebrity story of too much too soon. He wasn't able to find a wife, got into debt and was hooked on alcohol and drugs."
Clare said Lewis was on his way from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., to explain irregularities in government finances when he was killed. She said there was never an official investigation into the death of Lewis and whether he died by murder or suicide remains a controversial topic among scholars to this day.
