Guest Post: A Coal Miner’s Son by T.A. Chase

Hi everyone. I’m T.A. Chase and I write gay romance. I’m here to write a guest post about my new book, A Coal Miner’s Son, and I’ll do that in a few, but I have something else on my mind at the moment.

For Christmas,  a friend of mine got me a CD. It’s music from the TV show Beauty & the Beast from the 1980s. (not the remake, which actually is like what the paranormal books are…veteran experimented on and turned into a beast. A beautiful woman who doesn’t think he’s a real beast) It starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. I used to watch that show every night it was on. It was obviously a precursor to all the paranormal shape-shifter romances we love and adore today (though technically, Vincent didn’t shift).

Anyway, I have the CD in my truck and I’ve been listening to it non-stop since I got it. The music is instrumental except for one love song. Alternating with the music is Ron Perlman reading poetry. Oh my…reading love poems in the voice he used as Vincent…so incredible and soothing as well.

As I listen, it takes me back to when I first discovered the poets he read. Lord Byron and Shakespeare. Walt Whitman and the one who turned out to be one of my very favorite—if not my absolute favorite—poet of all: Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rilke is one of the greatest German poets and one of the greatest twentieth century poets. His Letters to a Younger Poet has some of the best passages/poems I’ve ever read. Heck, I even have a quote of his tattooed on my back below my dragon. “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses…” It’s part of a larger paragraph he writes to the young man he’s corresponding with. His words create a detailed image and a strong emotion when read, especially out loud.

Rilke’s poem Possibility of Being evokes innocence and believing in something, even when it can’t be seen. The belief is so fierce that the believer actually creates something out of nothing. The words Rilke uses helps paint a vivid picture of the creature, and we know immediately what it is.

But I fell in love with Byron as well. (As did a lot of people while he was alive apparently…lol) She Walks in Beauty is an amazing ode from a man in love. (Of course, there was a lot of scandal attached to Byron and the women he loved…or woman) Yet, every man can read that poem and see his love in there. Every woman can read those words and see the man she loves saying them to her. Another poet who uses his imagination and intelligence to create a poem where we can feel what the writer must have been feeling when he wrote the words. Byron had a lot of issues, but putting emotions into words wasn’t one of them. His demons haunted him all his life, and yet he created some of the most beautiful poems in the world.

And there’s nothing I can say about Shakespeare that hasn’t already been said. He was a master at words and emotions, entwining the two to get his readers to fall in love with his characters.

All of these men were the best at what they did. When we read them, we’re transported to new worlds and are swamped by emotions we might not have felt on our own. We learn from them how to put the overwhelming feelings we have in our hearts into words so we can tell the people we love how we feel about them.  Especially when our own words fail us.

That’s what I love about reading books or poetry. Their words can help us imagine places we might not have ever gone, or say things we couldn’t put into words. Books can be so much more than just words on a page.

Great writers take us away from where we are in our own world and build us a whole new one. Sometimes it’s simply a different state in the same modern world. Sometimes a different country. There are times when they pull us back into history or jump up forward in the future. We willingly give up control and let the great authors/poets drag us along for the ride.

I hope you get a chance to check out A Coal Miner’s Son. I’m not saying I’m a great author, but I would like to think my words will touch a piece of you and maybe take you out of your world for a little while.

Thanks for having me here. I enjoyed chatting with you all.

About the Book

James Callahan is the only son of Nicholas Callahan, owner of the Willow Hollow mine in West Virginia—but he’s never considered himself any better than the miners. He’s best friends with Owain Rees, one of the miners’ kids, and he’s been attracted to Cai, Owain’s older brother, for years. James gets the feeling he might not be the only one sensing the tension between them, but Cai avoids him religiously.

Cai has been working the mine since he was sixteen. He acknowledges James is cute, but he’s grown up privileged while Cai’s family has always been working class, and Cai fears that chasm is too wide to cross. When family drama pushes them together, will Cai and James see they’re more alike than they realized?

Take a leap of faith as two men from different worlds, employer and employee, rich and poor, discover that love transcends social barriers.

Buy A Coal Miner’s Son: Dreamspinner Press || Amazon

About the Author

T.A. Chase lives in the Midwest with her neurotic but still wonderful senior cat. She believes there is beauty in every kind of love, so why not live a life without boundaries? Experiencing everything the world offers fascinates T.A., and writing about the things that make each of us unique is how she shares those insights. When not writing, she’s watching movies and reading. She’s also a part of a line-dancing group that takes over a bar on Tuesday nights and entertains at assisted living homes. It’s all about living life to the fullest.

She loves hearing from fans. But don’t be too upset if she doesn’t get back to you right away. Life has a way of making her lose track of days and hours. Don’t worry, though. You will hear back at some point.

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