After more than two decades of writing short stories, poems, scholarly articles and nonfiction, Andruss Library librarian Kathryn Yelinek has published her first novel. "Magic is the Mask," a fantasy retelling of Gaston Leroux's classic "The Phantom of the Opera," was released October 13 through the independent publisher Year of the Book Press.
A Manuscript Set Aside, Then Revived
Yelinek began the novel shortly before moving to Bloomsburg in 2005, but she set the manuscript aside as other responsibilities took over. She told herself that publishing shorter work was enough. The project returned to her attention over the past winter, when a writer friend urged her to pursue publication around the 40th anniversary of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of the story.
A Fantasy Twist on a Familiar Story
The novel is set in a reimagined 1880s Paris. Its protagonist, opera singer Christine Daaé, is a witch trying to recover lost power, and she forms a bargain with Erik, a dark fey seeking his lost humanity. According to Yelinek, the book is musical, magical and gothic, and its central question concerns what makes people human. The novel is available in ebook and paperback through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores, with print copies sold at the Bloomsburg University Store.
Early Reader Interest
Yelinek brought 20 copies to the Bloomsburg Fair's Local Authors Table, expecting them to be more than enough. She reports that they sold out in six days. That response offers an early signal of local demand, though it is too limited to establish how the book will perform more broadly.