Author Penny Loeb in front of the model of the Space Shuttle in Coalwood, WV. Homer Hickam, author of "Rocket Boys" and Coalwood native, donated the model. Photo was taken after the May 2002 floods that nearly destroyed Coalwood.
Dogs are Zeke (right) and Jesse, both strays rescued from the coalfields: Zeke from Mingo County, Jesse from Boone.

October 20, 2007: As a first-time author, finding readers--and buyers--for my book has been a sometimes difficult, often interesting, and always rewarding experience.

While I greatly appreciate the University Press of Kentucky for doing such a wonderful job publishing the book, having a university press has presented problems I never anticipated. But those roadblocks are making me work all that harder to reach readers.

This is an ongoing diary of successes and failures--and most importantly the wonderful experiences I have had.

I want to say that over the first two months since the book was available, Trish Bragg has been my inspiration. She believes so much that everyone should read the book; and when I get discouraged it only takes a phone call to recharge my enthusiasm. Trish has an unflagging belief that her friends and neighbors in Mingo and Logan Counties, as well as other coalfields in Appalachia, can do the kinds of things she did: force a huge deep mine to stop taking--and pay back for taking--her neighbors' wells, be the named plaintiff of a landmark lawsuit over mountaintop removal, all the while going to college in her late 30s and commuting two hours to Charleston to win her BA summa cum laude.

Also tremendously helpful have been Freda Williams and Elaine Purkey, both of whom suffered through the highs and lows of the past decade of struggle against the mines.

We both decided to concentrate first on having people read the book in West Virginia's southern coalfields. Book distributors, I learned, don't go there--and there aren't many places to even buy books. I quickly realized that I and Trish would be the book's main distribution system. (More on the distribution problems nationally with the big chains later)

August 11, 2007 MY FIRST SALE!
With my first box of books from the publisher, I eagerly set off for Lewisburg and the State Fair. Going through the town, I see a bookstore. So I stop. Turns out it isn't the major bookstore--a town with two, highly unusual! But the owner buys three books at my cost of 40 percent off. At the State Fair, I walk through the building with state ageincies, but no one wants to buy the book--even someone at the Division of Natural Resources whose daughter wrote a paper on mountaintop removal. Quickly the much-reported reality sinks in: people don't read anymore! Oh well. It's a hot day. Zeke and Jesse, my constant companions, are hot in the car. We go home.