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News Release News Release News Release
For Immediate Release“I loved the book! ... the next holiday classic.” (Steven Manchester, Author, Pressed Pennies)
“... very appealing to readers, both young and old.” ForeWord Clarion ReviewContact: Michael Dutton
E-Mail: michael@lindenparkpublishers.comChristmasville: If you were Mary Jane, would you think about leaving?
No one knows where the trains go or what lies beyond the mountains and the forests. They’ve never seen grass or walnut trees, but they do discover how tomatoes are named. And roses and violets and orchids. There aren’t any summer vacations. No spring showers. And as for leaves rusting in an autumn rain?
But ... autumn?
“What does autumn mean?” asks Sperry. “I’m not familiar with that word.”
And so begins the tale of Christmasville.
In a town nestled between magic and miracle, snuggled between dream and déja vu, Mary Jane Higgins embarks on a series of perilous journeys, determined to resolve the riddle of Christmasville. Although it’s forbidden, she crosses train tracks, approaches the bottomless abyss, travels through a wilderness that “operates according to a different set of rules”. Along the way she encounters a mysterious donkey, a shepherd boy with his lamb and three riders on ... camels?
‘... [but] camels only exist in myths and fairy tales, like unicorns and giraffes, dragons and elephants.’
On the changing checkerboard of Christmasville, buildings and homes are re-shuffled annually according to a new “plan” of things. The calendar consists of only two pages: December and January. But no one gets any older. And the worst of ailments is poison ivy, and color blindness, and signs of that most harrowing of medical conditions: partial baldness.
It’s a town perennially covered in new fallen snow, perpetually decorated in yuletide trimmings. It’s a town that in many ways is typical, or evocative – one that we might dream of – but one which operates according to three, notably different, phenomena – time, space and memory. And no one – save one – suspects that something is askew.
If you were Mary Jane, would you think about leaving?About the Author: Michael Dutton graduated from Richard Stockton College summa cum laude and participated in the graduate program in Comparative Literature at Penn State. Although he began writing when he was eleven years old, Christmasville is his premier novel. Slated for publication in late 2008 is the companion novel, Finding Christmasville (Madeleine’s Tale).
Book Statistics:
Title: Christmasville Length: 225 pages ISBN: 0-9786655-0-3 Retail Price: $18.95 Author: Michael Dutton Category: Fiction - magical realism, mystery/suspense Binding: 6" x 9" Hardcover Age Group: Young Adult through Adult
