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.

September 3, 2007 THE GOVERNOR BUYS MY BOOK
Today is the annual United Mine Workers of America Labor Day picnic in Racine in Boone County. Freda Williams, whose father fought in the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain over unionizing the mines, went with me. A big draw for politicians running for office, in past years the picnic has featured national luminaries, such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson. In this off-election year, attendance was smaller, coupled with the declining number of union mines. Still I met a number of local people interested in my book.
First sale was to state Senator John Unger, a Democrat running for Congress next year in the northern part of the state. I had read of Unger's impressive community action resume, including working with Mother Theresa but had never met him.
Freda, always enterprising, grabbed Governor Joe Manchin, who had my picture taken with him and the book. Not only did he buy one, but he plugged it when he spoke to the gathering. Then he and his wife rode off on their motorcyle.

September 12, 2007 SIGNINGS AT SOUTHERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN LOGAN AND WILLIAMSON -- AND BOB SCHULTZ MEETS TRISH BRAGG
When I called the Schultzes to say I would be in Logan the next day, I was so sorry to hear that Bob had been in the hospital in April for removal of part of his colon. He hadn't been able to work at the Hobet 21 mine since. Still he wanted to come the book signing.
This was the first time I had talked with him since he had gotten the book a few weeks earlier. He had seen the entire book beofre publication, but had not seen the title or cover. I was a little worried. You can imagine my relief when he said "you were fair to us (meaning the miners)." He said he saw a little of my tree-hugging leanings, but the book was okay.
Both Christians, he and Trish talked quite a bit and hugged when he left.
We had more people at the Williamson campus, where Trish had taken most of her classes. I met Wilma and her husband and Katherine and her husband, both professors Trish had studied with. I especially enjoyed meeting a woman from Matewan whose whose academic career mirrored Trish's. She had grown up so poor up a hollow that she had to wear her brothers' hand-me-down shoes, subjecting her to mean taunts from other kids. Now in her late 30s or early 40s, a single mother with a teenage daughter, she had bummed around the east coast, filled, she said, with a lot of anger. A friend advised channeling that frustration. And she ended up going to college in Pikeville in middle age, much like Trish had done.
I also met Patricia Feeney, a recent graduate of Berea College in Kentucky, who is an organizer in Mingo for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Trish had already been giving her tips on the kind of organizing she had learned a decade earlier, the kind that so empowered her and helped her win justice from the mines. Their conversations have continued since, one good thing coming out of the book already!
Now I have to go home, an eight hour drive to northern Virginia. I live alone and have four horses and a donkey that I never planned to have at my age. I can only ask/afford someone to take care of them for a couple of days at a time. And the next night, I'll turn around and drive eight hours back to Mingo for the King Coal Festival the next day.