Lynelle Woods Graham combined her interest in local history with her talent as a novelist in her newest release, “Coal Valley Silk.”
The book, set in a local mining camp that is now lost to time, is her fourth that she has authored and third novel. Her first effort, “My Neck of the Woods,” was a genealogy she wrote with her father. Her other novels are “Down Flew a Blackbird” and Cucklebur Stew.” The latter was published in 2015.
“Coal Valley Silk” is her first foray into historical fiction.
“Before I started to write it, I heard a newscast about the lack of documented facts regarding rural communities. That sparked a desire for me to contribute something to that lack,” Graham said.
She chose as her subject Coal Valley, which was once located not far from her home in Oakman. Today it is completely overgrown. Graham spoke to a group of Oakman High students several years ago who had no idea the community existed even though it is only five miles from the school.
Graham spent two years on the writing and research. “It was kind of like an archaeological dig,” she said.
Graham had little difficulty finding people who remembered living in Coal Valley.
The community had its own post office from 1891 to 1951. The closing of the mines in the 1940s set in motion a period of decline that resulted in it being erased by the late 1960s.
Graham set her novel in the 1930s. Her protagonist is based on the life of a young man who became responsible for his family’s future after his father was killed in the mines.
“It’s about his trials and his good times and how he overcame,” she said.
After the release of “Cucklebur Stew,” Graham told the Daily Mountain Eagle that while her novels are not autobiographical, they are inspired by her own memories from her childhood and by stories told to her by others over the years.
Graham also finds inspiration in places close to home, such as an antebellum home on Oak Grove Road in Townley that appeared in “Cucklebur Stew.”
“Coal Valley Silk” is available from any major bookstore.
Graham is currently at work on her fifth book, which she expects to be a historical novel based on the death of a childhood friend.
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February 21, 2021 at 10:02PM
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Oakman native releases fourth book - Daily Mountain Eagle
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