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HOMER HICKAM QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Summer '02 Issue,
click here for this issue's photos
Dear Friends:
First, as always, thank you for your continuing support of my work. I am right now about half way though writing my new book and I think you'll find it a crisp read. The book's working title is The Keeper's Son and it's set on an island along North Carolina's Outer Banks during World War II. For those of you who read my first book, Torpedo Junction, you know that I've spent a lot of time in the Outer Banks where I researched a nearly unknown but bloody battle against the U-boats of Nazi Germany. The Keeper's Son is a novel of that battle and the innocent people drawn into it and how they fought back against the terrorists of their day. There is romance, war, adventure, and tragedy in this novel but most of all, there are people who I think you'll like. Though they are a seafaring people and not coal miners, the people of the Outer Banks share many of the traits of the citizens of Coalwood in Rocket Boys, The Coalwood Way, Sky of Stone, and We Are Not Afraid. I anticipate a 2003 publication date of The Keeper's Son, probably in the Fall. By the way, let me know if you like this title. The "Keeper" is the lighthouse keeper and his son a Coast Guard commander of a small patrol boat.
Here is a reminder: Sky of Stone will come out in paperback in late October of this year. For those of you who haven't read it, fans who have often tell me they like it even better than Rocket Boys. It's another story of Coalwood but a completely different one from Rocket Boys and The Coalwood Way. This time, I have to go to work in Coalwood's mine while my dad struggles against an accusation that he caused the death of one of his foremen in the mine. It is a mystery story and includes some real courtroom drama, not to mention the story of "Sonny" in the mine. Remember you can always get special autographed books for gifts from Shaver's bookstore. Just look on the Web site at the bottom of the main page.
Another exciting thing happening is that communities are picking Rocket Boys for city-wide reads! Several cities have picked it, including the Orange County Library System (Orlando, Florida) which has picked Rocket Boys/October Sky for their "One Book, One Community" initiative for this fall, with a six to eight week program. Over 3 million,19% of the population of Florida, will have the chance to read and discuss the book together. Multiple events are planned with the 14 schools, 2 universities and 12 libraries participating. Linda and I will visit November 7 - 10th. And the southeastern state of Ohio is doing the same thing in April with over 20 libraries participating. So neat!
THIS WRITER'S LIFE:
After I completed the book tour for We Are Not Afraid, Linda and I again headed on down to one of our favorite places in the world, St. John of the United States Virgin Islands. St. John is always a wonderful place for us to find ourselves again. We are avid snorkelers and scuba divers and the waters off St. John are some of the best in this hemisphere for that. We had a great time but all too soon it was time to come back to reality. Of course, it is necessary for a working author to continue to support his work even after the book tour is over. So as soon as we got back, we attended book fairs and celebrations in Kentucky, Alabama, and Florida. In early May, we also attended the big event for authors, the Book Exposition of America (BEA) in New York City. We Are Not Afraid got a great reception there and I had many booksellers come up to tell me how much they loved to hand-sell my work. That's always nice to hear because like most authors, I depend on the owners and clerks in bookstores, large and small, to hand-sell my books. In other words, they think enough of my books that they tell their customers to try them. Linda and I enjoyed getting to meet all the booksellers. We also got to see The Producers on Broadway. It was a great show and we laughed throughout.
When we got home, however, we were saddened when we received news of a devastating flood in Coalwood. Over 90% of the homes were affected and many were completely destroyed. We got busy rallying support and funding to help out the folks there but we heard almost immediately about their determination to take matters into their own hands and rebuild. I continue to be inspired by the people of Coalwood. Their courage as well as their tenacity are a wonder! And yes, they intend to have the October Sky Festival, this year on October 5. More on that below.
In May, Linda and I had a long planned rafting trip scheduled down the Grand Canyon with old friends. Unfortunately, since WANA was a surprise book for me and knocked a big hole in my schedule, I found myself already behind before I'd gotten started in the writing of the next book. Reluctantly, we decided we needed to stay home and work. We gave our place on the rafts to some friends. At least they had fun!
On June 15, we had a most important engagement - my mom's 90th birthday in Myrtle Beach. For those of you who have read the Coalwood trilogy, you know my mother is always up to something! Things haven't changed. For over a year, she planned her own party and it was a great one. Besides all her friends there in South Carolina, folks came down from Coalwood and all over West Virginia to party down with Elsie. My brother Jim, wife Betty Jane, and their daughter Cheyanne and her husband were there, of course, along with a new addition to the Hickam family, Cheyanne's new baby boy James David. We were all pleased to see him. Jim, of course, plans on turning him into a football player. I shall give him books and keep my fingers crossed he might have a writing gene, instead.
The dinosaur hunting season was amazing. I met up with friends Frank and Bill in Bozeman and we headed out to Hell Creek, the site of paleontologist Jack Horner's base camp. Our plan was to get out of the base camp and head across Lake Fort Peck to where we thought perhaps we'd find the promised land of dinosaurs. We went out in Frank's duck boat and set up camp on a beach below a mountain we needed to climb to get up to the Promised Land. It was hot, around a hundred and ten degrees in the shade around noon, but we were determined (Photo 1). We got up in the morning, climbed the mountain and almost immediately had great success, finding bones of triceratops and hadrosaurs. After two days of looking, we had a nice collection of bones, all properly tagged and locations marked using our GPS. Then, just as we retired to our tents around 10 PM, we were struck suddenly by winds that were clocked at nearly 80 miles per hour. With the extreme heat rising in the evening, cool air out of Canada had rushed in and flashed across the lake. We grabbed the tent poles and hung on! Then the friction of the air blowing across our nylon tents began to create St. Elmo's fire and sparks were flying everywhere. Any time we took out hands off the tent poles, blue flames flew from our fingers. Three hours later, things finally calmed down. Exhausted, we fell into sleep. But the next morning, we had another surprise. Our boat was sunk, our coolers blown into the lake, and all of our supplies had disappeared underwater. We spent the morning raising the boat and gathering what supplies we could. Then, showing what true and dedicated dino-hunters we were, we scaled that mountain again and spent another day hunting. Our efforts proved worth all the effort when we found the phalanges (fingers and toes) of an ornithomimosaur, a very rare creature and one of the last dinosaurs which ever lived (Photo 2). This is a dinosaur that had a large brain and looked a bit like an ostrich with arms and claws. It was a raptor, a carnivore which may have been transitioning into a omnivore (like us). An interesting animal and Jack Horner was excited to get those bones and all that we found.
Summing up Montana, as I said to friends: Our boat was sunk, our supplies were lost, we ran out of water, almost fell off a cliff, got lost, nearly bitten by a rattlesnake, found some bones, had a great time! I also got to launch some rockets while I was there, but no Barbies this time! See photo 3.
With a wonderful week of paleontology under my belt, I kept working on the new book until August when we felt St. John calling to us again. Back we went for some hiking, snorkeling, and scuba diving, but I wrote at least six hours daily, too. It's a great little island. If any of my fans would like to stay where we do, go to href="http://www.bookitvi.com/skyridge.htm. A great house with a magnificent view of 14 islands!
I was also busy during the rescue operation of the nine trapped miners in Pennsylvania doing five national TV interviews and lots of lesser media. It was nice to be considered an expert in coal mining, not rocketry for a change. My dad would have liked that. Fox News said they had me on three times because I was the only one interviewed who throughout the ordeal had 100% optimism for the miners survival. Well, I know miners.
By the way, the rescue cage and system used to bring up the nine trapped miners was designed and tested by my dad, Homer Hickam Sr. way back in 1951! I recount the story on pp. 139-142 of We Are Not Afraid. A photo of it is here (Photo 4) and on the Coalwood page, is a link where you can see another photo and read that chapter in We Are NOT Afraid.
So now here it is already September and soon to be Autumn. Besides finishing the new book, I'm looking forward to a fall of scheduled appearances and speeches. One of those places I need to mention again is the annual October Sky Festival in Coalwood on October 5. See the Coalwood button on our website for all the news on the festival. Most of the Rocket Boys will be there and Linda and I will, too. Coalwood is still recovering from the terrible flood in May but that hasn't stopped its people from having their festival. They are NOT afraid! We hope to see you there!
Here's a little extra. Perhaps you have seem the photos of our "children" on the website. We are owned by four sweet cats, Paco, Maxx, Flopsy and Batman. Shy Batman's photo hasn't been up there but here he is in all his plump glory (Photo 5). He disappeared for a week in July and we were heartbroken but he showed up again at the very same time we heard all nine trapped miners were alive. We donšt know where he'd been but we were sure glad he was back.
That's it from here. Keep aiming high!
Homer Hickam
Note from Linda:
A few FAVORITE LETTERS from this summer are shown below. I have the authors' permission to share them with our readers. Please also see the Letters button on our website for other messages from people who have been inspired by Homer's books and the movie October Sky.
Dear Homer, My seven year old grandson needed to go upstairs to his bedroom to find something he wanted. He was afraid to go up by himself but he did. He remembered seeing a copy of WE ARE NOT AFRAID here at my house and kept telling himself, "We are not afraid" "We are not afraid" and went upstairs to get whatever it was he needed. One never knows what kind of influence on a child or adult, for that matter, that we may have. I have enjoyed reading Homer's books and thoroughly enjoyed them all.
Hi Linda, My husband and I saw Homer on Greta Van Sustern's show last night. It was an excellent interview. We had been thinking of you and Homer especially during the days we were watching the rescue. Our thoughts had turned also to Homer and his father and all the memories he must have of such events. Last night, we appreciated particularly Homer's comments to Greta about the values of coal miners and their families (from his new book) and especially the message that the miners believed they were contributing something important to the pulse of our country and its economy. I think that is often overlooked by people who have jobs in offices and can't fathom someone going underground to work. They usually dismiss miners as desperate, simple-minded men just grinding along in life.
My own father shared thoughts with me similar to Homer's perspective about the kind of men in the chemical companies where he worked who chose the most dangerous jobs because they had a determination and they were up to the challenge and could get the job done. My father also told me that these men took a special pride in doing a job well that others did not have the fortitude to deliver. He said they always had plenty of men volunteer for these dangerous jobs.
It was also a startling revelation to many of Greta's viewers I am sure when Homer stated that his generation realized the mines were playing out and 80% of them not only went to college but actually graduated from college. Again, thanks for being a great spokesman on behalf of the miners and a great representative for WV and for the values, determination and education of our state's people -- from a couple of mountaineers! B&V
Dear Mr. Hickam
I am a high school science teacher, teaching 10th grade Integrated Science (a mish-mash of physical and biological sciences) to children from very diverse backgrounds. Our high school has more than 45 languages spoken in the hallways! I absolutely loved the movie, "October Sky" when I first saw it and ran out to get the book. Of course, the book was even better! I would have loved to assign the book to my students, but many of them lack the skills necessary to enjoy reading, and I didn't want the inspirational story to be lost in their struggle. We watched the movie as an end-of-the-term treat, right before April vacation. Some of my hardest-to-reach students were the most enthusiastic viewers. I was particularly struck by an 18 year old sophomore in a remedial class enjoying the movie's humorous scenes and feeling the emotional scenes very deeply. The abuse struck many of the kids as familiar, maybe not personally experienced but seen in friends or relatives relationships. The family tension was very familiar to my students, many of whom live with relatives or in single family homes. I knew that this was special to many of the kids by the way they would come up to me and want to know, "What's going to happen next? Is his father going to die? Why is football so important to them?" The thought that academic achievement being unrelated to future scholastic opportunities was absolutely appalling to these kids, many of them underachievers themselves.
I think that in the future, I will start the year off with the movie and offer extra credit to those who read the book. I am hoping that the movie will help to answer the age-old question, "Why do we have to learn this stuff anyway?!" Thank you again for your wonderful memoir. DC
And from all over the world:
Dear Homer, I am Luis, I venezuelan citicen, i study four year ingenering mechanical, i am your number one fan in venezuela. i loved the movie, i love the physics, i interisting into rocketry. i only wish that more people had such a great friendship as the rochet boys and homer hickam.
Dear Homer, I'm writting to you because my dream is to work at the NASA, I live in a small city called Tucumˇn and here, in my country i there's no way to do that coz there isn't place,so, I would like to know what can I do,everyone laught at me but I keep on thinking of what I want to do with my life. Well, thank you for read this and sorry if my english is bad but I just hope you understod it, thanks a lot.
Hi sir. My name is amit rathore . I am from India and I want your guidance. I was inspired by the movie "october sky". I have just given the 10th class final exam. I want to be an aeronautical engineer. I have great interest in rocket science. so please give me guidence how can I become an aeronautical engineer. Sir, please give me guidance so that I would become aeronautical engineer. I am greatly inspired by your deep desire for rocket designing in the film "october sky". I am sure that I can do engineering. But there is no proper guidance. so please sent your message.
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