Doctor has another story to tell

One night about five years ago, Dr. Joan Lehmann had a very vivid dream.

It was about a man running for his life through the snow while carrying a young child.

The images stuck with her and became the basis for her new novel, "Heaven Below." The 371-page, self-published book came out about two months ago.

It tells the story of a Pennsylvania coal miner named Sean O'Connell (the man in the dream looked like Sean Penn, she said, so she used his first name) and his Depression-era journey to life on the water in Shady Side.

Lehmann wrote the bulk of the book in a furious spurt between Halloween and New...