Coalwood had a distinct role for each person who lived there. In order to live in the town, it was required that the head of the household work for the mine in some capacity. The exceptions to this were the teachers at the Coalwood School. Even the preachers were company men!

A memoir is, as its title implies, a memory of long-ago events. Homer realized early on into writing the book that to simply write down the sequential reality of rocket launches, incidents at the mine, the comings and goings of his friends, his parents, and other Coalwood citizens was not the best way to reveal the truths of the story. To bring Coalwood alive required careful crafting including, in some isolated cases, composite characters. See www.homerhickam.com and go to "The Rocket Boys" and "Coalwood" buttons for photos and biographies of the real people in the book.

Homer has always said he used the rockets as a metaphor to tell the true story of life in the coalfields of West Virginia but he also had something else in mind, a weaving of many allegorical themes that begin loosely connected but are gradually wound tighter and tighter until they become as one. Can you spot those themes? Homer gets lots of glowing fan mail from "reluctant readers" who had one of the series recommended to them, but thought they wouldn't be interested. Then they stayed up all night reading it!

Homer (Junior) changed his name from Sonny to his birth-name of Homer when he served in Vietnam. He thought the nickname didn't work for an army Lieutenant. Still, for many years, every time somebody called him "Homer," he looked over his shoulder for his dad!

Homer believes that his memoirs are in reality his father's books. They rests on the bedrock of Homer Senior's strong, deep beliefs in Coalwood and its everlasting "industrial symphony."

Many young readers write Homer that they are upset that their parents are trying to steer them towards a career or life that they don't want. It's an interesting situation as it seems to occur in every generation all across the world. Coalwood, then, is a microcosm of this tendency. Yet, the Rocket Boys knew that they and nearly all the children of Coalwood were the "designated refugees," destined to leave the town of their youth. Standing nearly alone against this tide was Homer Senior who believed in the town and knew it would die if its children left.

It was a disappointment to Homer that the movie "October Sky" portrayed the women as rather weak when he believes they were the strongest people in the story.

Homer never knows who's going to show up in his autograph lines to tell him how much they enjoyed this book. They vary from astronauts to coal miners to just about everybody, young and old.

Homer is always pleased when teachers and students write and tell him how much they enjoyed studying his book(s). But he is always astonished and a bit chagrined when an English class writes and says how much they loved "the movie!"

Homer believes the Rocket Boys are still "dangerous" when they get together. There's something about their mix of personalities that is a bit volatile! They do miss Sherman, though. He was a soothing influence to their passionate personalities! As for the women mentioned in the list above, Homer believes they were all very brave to try to be different in a town that loved to keep its people in specific categories.

This is one of those underlying themes to the book, that destiny is one of life's grandest mysteries.

Homer now gives motivational speeches citing "Passion, Planning, and Perseverance" as the secret to a successful life. He stresses that planning in a sequential, incremental way is very important in reaching your dreams.

In Sky of Stone, the third book in the "Coalwood trilogy," Sonny, home from college, promises Miss Riley he will "do his best." She sums up her philosophy to him in two words: "Do better."

Today, after a long period of decline, Coalwood lives again! Rolling up their sleeves, the people of the town have restored Cape Coalwood (the boy's old rocket range), and sponsor an annual October Sky Festival. Thousands of tourists visit Coalwood every month and the people there take great delight in showing them all the sites in the book. Please see our Gifts page for Rocket Boys shirts and other gift ideas. Proceeds go to the non-profit Cape Coalwood Restoration Association which was formed by the retired miners and their families still there.

The movie presented the boys' motivation for building their rockets as gaining scholarships for college. In fact, there were never any scholarships offered at any of the Science Fairs they entered nor did they receive any. Still, despite the differences between the book and the movie, we recommend you see the film. It is wonderfully and artfully made and is very motivational. It might also be an interesting discussion to figure out why Hollywood felt the need to change the story.

One clue as to why Homer didn't write an epilogue for The Coalwood Way is that it grew out of a section of the first book that he removed because it didn't fit into the flow. The first epilogue, then, already answered many of the questions as to what happened to the various characters in the second book.