Mining Family History (for Stories)

My new middle-grade series, GHOSTS OF ORDINARY OBJECTS, grew out of my own interest in family history. My mother’s family is from a tiny community outside Blacksburg called McCoy. (In the series, the coal camp of “Big Vein” is very loosely based on McCoy.) From the early 1900s to the 1950s, coal mining was a way of life in McCoy–and several other places in the New River Valley. In this talk, I’ll share what I learned about my family, the history of the area, and the time period in which the books are set.