Award winning author to visit Highlands-Cashiers area
The Forest of Vanishing Stars is the third book centered around the World War II theme, which Harmel said is a way that she can connect with her grandparents.
Author Kristin Harmel said she hopes to inspire strength with her new novel The Forest of Vanishing Stars.
Harmel began writing professionally at the age of 16, as a sportswriter for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Fla. While in college, Harmel was writing articles for PEOPLE magazine.
“I was cleverly omitting my age from the query letters,” Harmel said. “So, technically they didn’t realize that they were assigning stories to a 16-year-old. By the time I was in college, I was writing for American baby, Men’s Health and did an internship with Woman’s Day. I wound up with a job at PEOPLE. By the time I was 21 I was writing for PEOPLE.”
Writing novels is something that Harmel said she has always wanted to do. She released her first novel in 2006.
“That has always been the end goal for me,” Harmel said. “As a teenager, I thought that I didn’t have the maturity yet to write a novel. So, I knew that I needed to have a practical job in the meantime. Journalism had always appealed to me for a number of reasons. It would give me the opportunity to write, which I have always felt passionate about, and it gave me the opportunity to get to know people, which people are at the heart of every novel. I loved being a journalist. It was such a wonderful experience for me.”
The Forest of Vanishing Stars released July 6, and Harmel was able to get back into the touring world after the COVID-19 pandemic, having several book signings and meet and greets in the southeast.
“The feedback for the book has been great,” Harmel said. “I had the opportunity to go on a small tour around the southeast, which was great, because with COVID, everybody has been stuck at home. It was strange to toss myself into the world again, but it was wonderful to be able to talk to so many people. This is my first time coming to the Highlands-Cashiers area, but I am excited for the opportunity to meet everyone.”
After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars is the third book centered around the World War II theme, which Harmel said is a way that she can connect with her grandparents.
“I think I have a really personal connection and fascination with the history of WWII,” Harmel said. “I’m 42, and I think a lot of people in my generation, and the generation ahead of me, feel a strong connection to that war because of our grandparents. I think reading about that specific war is a personal connection to our own past. I think it is also a war and a period of time that still feels very recent and relevant. It still has a lot of lessons for us in the modern day.”
With being a New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling and number one international bestselling author, Harmel has taken the literary world by storm with dozens of novels that have been translated into 29 languages and sold all over the world.
“This journey has been amazing and gratifying,” Harmel said. “I am so grateful. I’m not one of those authors who had instant over night success. I worked for a lot of years, building my career up and I still have a long way to go. It is tremendously rewarding to be able to find this success and broad audience of readers now. I think there is a lot to be said about not being an overnight success because it teaches you a lot of lessons about striving to become a better writer with every single book and about never taking any of it for granted.”
Harmel will hold a book signing in Cashiers at the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library on Friday, Sept. 3, at 3 p.m. The next day, she will hold a book signing at the Highlands Hudson Public Library at 12:30 p.m.
“I always like to remind people through my books and through my talks that we all have the ability to find strength within ourselves that we didn’t know was there,” Harmel said. “I think that is a lesson that a lot of people were forced to learn during WWII. I think that is why WWII novels seem to be resonating so powerfully with people today. It is also a lesson that we need to be reminded of, particularly now, during these difficult times. We all face challenges, but I think it is helpful to be reminded that we are all stronger than we think.”
Harmel’s books can be found online at kristinharmel.com.
By Christopher Smith