Jayne M Booth was born in, and spent her childhood in, Northeastern Pennsylvania. As a second-generation American descended from miners in an area still sprinkled with the skeletal remains of coal breakers and reclaimed culm banks, she has heard these stories echoed from family, friends, and neighbors. Everyone in her childhood knew someone who worked for the mines, lost their life in the mines or from Black Lung Disease, or even experienced a cave-in – perhaps in their backyard! Someone had to write the stories!

Determined to preserve the mining experience as seen through the eyes of the children, she interviewed those who lived through it and wrote down what they shared. She hopes to provide a glimpse back into history, into the lives of the poorest of the poor, the nobility of honest hard work, and the progression of each generation of the American experience achieving a bit more than the previous one. There are lessons there for all of us.

Jayne is the mother of four and the grandmother of three. She resides in Maryland with her husband and little dog, Pepper, her motivation for stepping away from the keyboard and getting out in the sunshine every day.