Some Nice Words from People Who Know!

I've written before about how much I enjoy a Facebook page about my home town of St. Marys, Pennsylvania. The tradition of Belsnickel that was the background for my holiday novelette, The Reluctant Belsnickel of Oplet's Wood has been much discussed on a thread there and some of the comments influenced me as I was writing it. Today, another thread began about my story and there have been some awfully ice comments. I value these because they come from people who really know about Belsnickel so they are that much more treasured. I am posting some of them here:


 Wendy Wickett

I just read Kathleen Valentine's short story that will bring back lots of fond memories for those of us who grew up in St. Marys. Its a beautiful story!!
http://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Belsnickel-Opelts-Wood-ebook/dp/B0069A25CG/

The Reluctant Belsnickel of Opelt's Wood

www.amazon.com

Novelette (23k words) – YA / General Adult / Romance – When Father Nicholas Bauer becomes the pastor of St. Walburga's in a rural Pennsylvania Dutch community he make it his mission to revive some of the Old World Traditions including Belsnickel. According to the local legend, Belsn..

Jim Arnold Kathleen the book was great! It brought back many memories. It was a interesting and fulfilling read. Finished it one sitting! Thank you!

Kathy Werneth Clausen Loved the book the foods of the area the family names made it all the more interesting and of course the love story too.

Karen Rigard Larsen Love, love the story. Just finished reading it, recognized quite a few people and landmarks. Thanks Kathleen, keep it coming.


Rose Anne Ehrensberger I couldn't put it down until I finished. It really brought back some memories. Thank You.

What makes me especially happy is that these are people who know about the Belsnickel tradition from rowing up with it. However, I may have to add a stronger disclaimer pointing out that it IS a work of fiction.


The ebook business is going well for me right now which thrills me. I read that Amazon has orders for 4 million of their newest ereader so with 4 million new readers flooding the market between now and Christmas I'm hoping they keep selling. October was a very good month -- over 3,000 books sold -- and November has passed that figure already.


Kathleen Valentine's Books now has its own Facebook page, too, so come by and "like" it to keep up with the latest news, releases, giveaways, etc.

        

I had such a wonderful time writing that story that I'm thinking about doing a few more "Marienstadt" stories -- each would be a stand alone story but they would share a common setting and atmosphere with reappearing characters. Frankly, Oliver is just too dishy to just have one small story about him. Father Nick is also a good strong character and every town like Marienstadt needs a quilting store like the Calico Cuckoo.


So I have my work cut out for me and, at the moment, I'm pretty thrilled by my readers' reactions, too.


Thanks for reading.