Hackettstown novelist to present new work tonight

Award-winning novelist Maryann McFadden of Hackettstown will present her new novel, “The Christmas Star,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28 at Sparta Books, 29 Center St.

The novel was inspired by a star originally erected on Buck Hill in Hackettstown to welcome the town’s soldiers home from World War II, she said. Since then, the star shines every year from Dec. 1 through New Year’s Day.

“While watching a Hallmark Christmas movie with my mother years ago, she urged me to write about our star,” McFadden said. “People in town have such an emotional connection with it and everyone has a story. When you drive down the mountain and see the star shining across the valley, it’s simply magical.”

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 lock down, the author was out walking just as it was getting dark. “When I looked up, I saw that the Christmas star was lit! It was April, not December! I got tears in my eyes and went home determined to get this story written.”

While the book is fiction, McFadden uses real locations in Hackettstown and a few “real” characters as well.

In 2007, her self-published novel, “The Richest Season,” sold to Hyperion Books and became a Target Breakout Novel and an Indie Next Pick.

Her next two novels, “Cape Cod Light” and “The Book Lover,” are also Indie Next Picks and “The Cemetery Keeper’s Wife” became a book club sensation.