Attempts to put the fires out were unsuccessful. (Centralia).
The residents of Centralia were relocated; this was possible through grants from the Federal government. Even so, some town members still live in the town, fighting in court to stay. These few people have demolished the plans to dig a 500-foot deep trench around the town to try to stop the expansion of the fire into a much larger coalmine. "Studies have shown that if the fire is not contained it will threaten the neighboring town of Ashland, less that two miles away,"(Centralia). Many people from the town of Centralia say that there is more to this story than is being told. Some believe that the rich deposits of coal under the town are why they forced the people to relocate. That is just a rumor, and the stories always vary depending what you read.
As one can see, Boylan tries to see the funny side to every situation. Take the coal mine for instance, he found some humor in it and decided to set it as the setting to his novel. "Since the mine fire, it had become a ghost town, with the elementary school torn down, the stores and homes boarded up and abandoned. Columns of smoke and carbon monoxide rose from the ground, erupting from cornfields, pouring from boreholes,"(Boylan). The description of the town is almost exactly as the real town. This shows that if Boylan finds something funny in real life and wants to use it in his next book. He will use it exactly as it comes, unlike other authors who will change the scenario so it fits their book better. What make Boylan so good is that he will take a situation where other authors would have made a drama book about it, and he will make a comedy out it. He also shows that he has a lot of commitment to his books, "I rewrote "The Planets" eleven times from start to finish!.
,"(Stanley-Sanborn).
If one were trying to describe how Boylan write they would probably say that he was a realism writer.
