ChessieWriter

I’ve now written two nonfiction books about the coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania; the place my mother’s family comes from. The first, “Coal Country Connections” is based on the over 70 signatures in an autograph album from the 1880s owned by a woman from the region, and the book is about the lives of the signers of the album. The second book, “You Dream Every Night That I am Home” is based on the real letters of a young Civil War soldier from the same region who was killed in battle, and in this book you can read his letters and learn about the places and people he wrote about. The connection between the two books is that the daughter of the Civil War soldier was one of the signers of the autograph album.

After publishing the second book on Amazon this summer, I realized that the best way for people in northeastern PA to find these books was for them to be in local bookshops. I thought about the places that I’ve found helpful in my research and historical places that I like to visit there and created a list. I contacted those places and was thrilled that they all agreed to carry my books. Those places are:

Anthracite Heritage Museum 22 Bald Mountain Road, Scranton PA 18504 phone: (570) 963-4804

Luzerne County Historical Society 49 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 phone: (570) 823-6244 (you can find these books in their online shop or at one of their historic sites–call to check where you might find them)

Eckley Miners’ Village, 2 Eckley Main Street, Weatherly PA 18255 phone: (570) 636-2070

Mauch Chunk Museum, 41 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe PA 18229 phone: (570) 325-9190–they carry “Coal Country Connections”

Sellers Books + Art, 65 Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229 phone: (215) 514-6443

To the wonderful people at the organizations above, thank you for helping to ensure that the stories of the people in these books are not forgotten.