Email from Homer Hickam's wife - Linda Terry
Hi Betty,  Susan Corcoran forwarded me your email request to Homer. 
I  am Linda, Homer Hickam's wife and assistant.  Thank you for your
kind words about my husband's work.  Homer is on a very hot deadline 
for a motivational book to be written in less than a month and in
stores in January.  It is especially nice to hear from someone
who has such ties to the area, like you have.
Great website, congrats.  Of course Homer's 3 Coalwood books are
 his oral histories, but I have included a recent essay that may
 please and others are on our Other Writing button.  The Miss Riley
 one is wonderful about teachers.
Please mention our website www.homerhickam.com if you can in addition
 to any information as so many students are doing reports, it helps
 them get the info they need...hopefully without emailing us directly.
  The mail is from nice people, amount of it is a burden to me to
 answer, especially if it is from 50 students the night before they 
need a report!
We thought "Sky of Stone" would be the last Coalwood book, but
 as a result of Homer's book tour patriotic speeches about 9/11
 and our troubles now, he has been asked to write another small
 inspirational/self help book called "We Are Not Afraid: Strength
 and Courage for Our Nation from the Town of 'October Sky'".  It
will be about how the people in Coalwood had strength and courage
 in the face of peril and how we can to be more like them,
 especially now.  The publisher is the same one that does the
 Chicken Soup for the Soul books and it will be a softbound book
 like those.  We are humbled that people are writing and telling
Homer that his books bring them comfort and hope and +strength in
 these awful and uncertain times and we hope "Not Afraid" will
 help...God bless America.
It is a brave new world now... Homer wrote a friend this month
 on news of his cousin killed at the Pentagon, "I grieve with
 you for your personal loss and, of course, the devastating blow
 to our country.  But there is a pioneer tenacity that resides
 deep in the soul of America that I think will now rise once
 more to carry us on.  For a nation to be great, it has to do
 great things.  A great thing has come to us to do.  It may
 define our century.  It will certainly define our country."
So many of you  wrote and told Homer that the only thing bad 
about his Coalwood books was that they ENDED...so there is
 now "Sky of Stone" to finish the trilogy. It was a great time
 and place to grow up and now the world knows it too.  Homer
is proud to tell everyone that West Virginia, and particularly
 that part of it, is a beautiful place filled with wonderful
 hardworking people who will always hold those mountains in
 their hearts.  ...and I know you and your family are
proud to be one of them. We are humbled that people are
 writing and telling Homer that his books bring them comfort
 and hope and strength in these awful and
uncertain times...God bless America.
                                page 2 Homer Hickam's story