‘The Corleone Christ’, Troubador Publishing UK
Photographs and writing about Thurmond, West Virginia, returning to nature.
I hope you enjoy today’s post. You can find out more about my work through a new website: gjmann.org.
A couple of days ago I posted a blog about a villain character I had created I liked more than the hero. I chose Frank Denman from my Political Crime Thriller, ‘The Corleone Christ.’ This has given me the idea of showing you some images of his life in Thurmond, West Virginia at a time when he was one of only 3 people left in a Coal Ghost Town which had once bustled with people, industry and activity. Today, I see there might be 5. In my writing Thurmond is a powerful metaphor for huge National and International tension about our climate and the need to truly abandon carbon. Frank Denman is a painfully conflicted character trying to make sense of the world as he sees it in retirement.
I have included a section of writing and photographs below which are not spoilers but give you a flavour of the context of a broken industry which nature itself is devouring.
Section from my published work.
“Today, Frank was expecting a visitor at around 11.00 a.m. With his breakfast detritus cleared away, Frank took his daily walk to a derelict railway property he had ventured into some twelve months ago.
This railway property had been the Yardmaster’s office, owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad empire. Twelve months earlier, climbing up the staircase, he had found a room with a rectangular brick window space; it had been an office once, but now it was exposed to all weathers.
Overtime, Frank had taken it upon himself to renovate the room. Amidst the dust and decay there was still a robust wheelbacked, wooden chair, standing beside an open roll top desk. A top loading wood and coal burning stove, stood in the corner, still joined to its flu.
Frank had taken it upon himself to clean out the ash and clagg, then swept the flu. Afterwards when he tested it, he was pleased that the stove still functioned well. Next, he had a new sash window made and installed; he also bought a couple of comfortable cushions for the wheelback’s seat and backrest.
Now, when he visited the room on these chill fall and winter months, he lit the fire. Only then, did he sit by his window. On warmer, sunny days, Frank grasped the brass pull hooks, in his thumb and forefinger, to lift the window open; he loved the sound of the windows lead weights, strung inside its frame as they joggled and settled, holding the window open, securely in place.
Then, he’d sit in comfort watching the trains pulling through Thurmond without stopping. Frank loved the metallic sounds of the trains as the wagons slowed and shunted. Then, amidst the rail clank and deep throated whistles blowing, he would watch them disappear along their journey.
There were times now, in the warmth of his room, Frank imagined the Yardmaster himself resting on his desk; maybe he’d have been smoking a pipe, labouring over his staff schedules.
GJ Mann
Website: gjmann.org
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