I like to get into my fiction. Reading, I want to be immersed in that other world. Writing, the words tend to blur on my screen as I watch a scene no one has imagined before. Now what if you could actually visit the place where the story takes place? For my latest novel, you can do exactly that.

Join me in the little town of Mary D, Pennsylvania, where my family has lived for over three generations. On March 29, I will be there from 11:30-3 signing Patch Town, the story of a coal mining town during the Great Depression. At 2pm I will give a brief presentation, complete with some family photos of Mary D back in the day. The residents of Mary D in 1938 were concerned about change. Interestingly enough, ninety years later, the landscape around Mary D is continuing to change, in part due to reclamation efforts fixing what the residents from 1938 were worried about. It is a historical story, but I think it is also one that will echo with the modern reader in this ever-rapid era of change. The best thing about this launch party is that the Mary D Fire Company is allowing me to join in during their Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser, so if you come hungry you are actually benefitting a great cause!

You do not need a ticket to come and visit me or buy your copy of Patch Town, but if you want to eat please contact Brynn via the info below and buy your ticket. Hope to see you there!

“Stein’s novel brings the bootleg coal era to life in vivid detail. It’s also a love letter to the little coal patch if Mary D. Its characters make you feel events in a way straight history cannot, and their unwinding story tells the secret of how a small town can pull off major events, unthinkable in other times and places, and succeed.”

-Mitch troutman, author of The Bootleg Coal Rebellion