My
husband and I don’t subscribe to the Hallmark Channel and are just now watching
(via Netflix) the great series based on Janet Oke’s writing, “When Calls The
Heart”, set in a Canadian West coal town called Coal Valley. I wish I had seen this series
before I wrote my own western romance of coal mining, O’NEILL’S TEXAS BRIDE, McClintocks
book two. My book doesn’t include a Mountie, of course. Mine features a ranch
hand hero, Finn O’Neill, who goes undercover in a lignite coal mine to earn
money to buy his own ranch.
On
second thought, perhaps I’m better off using research and my imagination to
create my own version of a coal town operated by a less than ethical man. The
town in my story is not nearly as neat and pretty as the one in Janet Oke’s
stories. The miners get just as dirty, though. And the miner's homes were as basic as in the television series.
My idea of Lignite, only I added more grime (photo purchased from iStock) |
I
confess that research into coal mining in 1885 Central Texas was difficult. I found
plenty of information on early coal mining from BCE to today—but
not much on the specific time period I needed. What I did discover was fascinating
in some areas, not so much in others, and downright scary in places.
I
found the perfect place for my story, the town of Coal, Texas southwest of
San Antonio and near the town of Lytle. In my story, the town is called Lignite
after the type of coal mined there. Also in my story, someone is causing deadly
“accidents” at the mine and the owner wants to determine who is guilty. For
this, he hires my hero, Finn O’Neill.
The beauty of changing the name of the
town in fiction is that the town has whatever buildings I choose and/or need
for the story. Instead of Lytle, in my book the next town is Spencer for the
same reason. That’s one of the fun things about writing historical fiction. The
author gets to build the setting and only has to be true to the period in
customs and dress. I love making up my stories and their settings and I hope readers enjoy them.
The
actual town of Coal was on the Missouri Pacific line
in southeastern Medina County. Coal mines, worked by as many as 500 people at a
time, precipitated the growth of mining camps in the 1880s. In 1881 the
International-Great Northern Railroad built a rail line from Austin to Laredo
that passed through Lytle southwest of San Antonio.
The
community of Coal developed on this line a mile southwest of Lytle and
just north of the mining camps. The high-grade lignite produced at the mines
was sold to the railroads until the advent of oil-burning locomotives. In 1888
Coal Mine consisted of a store, a bandstand, a main plaza, a dance hall, a
Catholic church, and at least two schools. Hmmm, in my story, Lignite has a
store, both a Catholic and a Protestant church, a saloon, two dormitories called longhouses for single men, an infirmary with a nurse on duty, and one two-room school where heroine
Stella Grace Clayton and her sister Nettie Sue Clayton teach. I included a lot
of mystery in this book, but O’NEILL’S TEXAS BRIDE is a romance between Finn O’Neill and Stella Clayton.
Photo model for Stella Grace Clayton (photo purchased from iStock) |
Lignite,
often referred to as brown coal, is a soft brown combustible sedimentary rock
that is formed from naturally compressed peat. It is considered the lowest rank
of coal due to its relatively low heat content. It is used almost exclusively
as a fuel for steam-electric power generation. In China, lignite is also mined
for its germanium content.
I
learned a couple of interesting things in my research. (1) Dark black lignite, or
jet, is where the term 'jet black' originates. (2) Now the term has more scientific
and precise basis, but the actual term “horse power” began as the amount of
effort it took one horse to lift one container of coal up from the mine shaft to
the ground. (3) Another thing I learned is that I never, ever want to work in a
coal mine. I get claustrophobic in elevators.
O’NEILL’S
TEXAS BRIDE, McClintocks book two, is available at these links:
Amazon bestselling and award winning
author Caroline Clemmons writes western historical and contemporary romances.
Her latest release is O’NEILL’S TEXAS BRIDE, McClintocks book two. Other series include the Kincaids and Stone Mountain Texas. You can keep up with Caroline’s
releases by signing up for her newsletter. Her books are
listed on her website at www.carolineclemmons.com and on her Amazon Author
Page.
4 comments:
Great post. I love having a cover to inspire my characters to talk to me. It really seems to help.
Sounds like a wonderful story, Caroline!
Wow, sounds like a lot of research, but you sure did find some juicy tidbits to make your story come alive. I'm anxious to read about Finn and Stella!
Great job on the research. Every little tidbit can make a story unique. Good post!
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