FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Former Hollidaysburg Resident Wins Prestigious Award for Novel Set in Central Pennsylvania
State College, Penn., December 2, 2022—Marleen Pasch, whose newest novel is set in the fictional town of MacMillan, Penn., won this year’s Global Book Awards’ gold medal in Visionary Fiction. Stars in Their Infancy is Pasch’s second award-winning novel that takes place in the area.
Though she has moved from Blair County, she still incorporates the state’s landscape and people into her work. “Their dramatic presence and history,” she says, continue to influence her novels, short stories and novellas.
“In this book,” Pasch says, “the Allegheny Front separates MacMillan into two communities, one where residents feel they have limited prospects, and the other where possibilities are limited only by those lacking imagination. I wanted the Front’s dramatic formation, millions of years ago, to mirror how human relationships, formed in tragedy, can, like the Front, emerge strong and beautiful through forgiveness and reconciliation.”The story, which centers on an attack on an Ivy-League-bound young woman by a man from MacMillan’s west side, traces how each of those characters, with the help of an ethereal herbalist and a guilt-ridden Vietnam vet—each with their own unresolved pasts—evolve as a result of the experience.
Though she started the more-than-400-page novel over a decade ago, Pasch withheld publication until the relationships between and among its characters felt credible. “It would have been easier,” she said, “to write the book with a pat ending where every character and every issue among them were perfectly resolved. But we all know that’s not always the case in real life.” As a result, Pasch decided to make Stars in Their Infancy the first in her Earth, Sky, and Spirit Series, so her characters could continue to follow on new paths with new perspectives in future books.
According to the Global Book Awards organization, submissions for this year’s competition included hundreds of entries from over a dozen countries, published by independent presses and major houses, such as Wiley and Forbes Books. Unlike many literary award contests, whose winners are selected by a small panel of judges, the Global Book Awards uses multiple judging criteria.
“In this modern age of publishing,” the organization states, “we believe books need to be appraised not only by their content and writing style, but also by the way they present and market themselves to the prospective buyer. Whether that is in its creative book cover design, its captivating book description, its strong ratings on important bookstore like Amazon, or even the number of reviews it has collected from its readers—they all count on how a book should be judged.”
According to Pasch, “I’m particularly happy that Stars won in the competition’s Visionary Fiction category. It tells me that the Global Book Awards judges understood the book’s expansive themes and mystical influences, and were drawn to the intriguing cover design created through my publisher, Citrine Publishing of State College.”
Pasch plans to release two novellas and her next novel in the Earth, Sky, and Spirit Series in 2023, as fictional MacMillan and its residents continue to evolve.
For a review copy and to interview the author, contact:
Penelope Love
Citrine Publishing
Book Publisher in State College, PA
(814) 689-9444
Email: press [at] citrinepublishing.com
