El Cerrito, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/21/2012 -- With modern technology hogging the attention of most people, nobody can deny that the upcoming festive season presents the perfect opportunity to re-kindle the values that keep friends and families together. Thanks to author Michael Welch and his two creative Daughters, their new book could offer the heart-warming literary adventure every family is seeking this holiday season.

Synopsis:

“Next Christmas in Girouette… is a full-length novel for people of all ages—nine to ninety-nine—who want to share a classic, heart-warming literary adventure at Christmastime.

Set on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, this is the story of a brother and sister—Autry and Oxana Quinn—who find themselves stranded in a Girouette, a virtual ghost town, from Thanksgiving through Christmas when their father is taken seriously ill. Their grandfather, a Marine Captain long retired, plus an eccentric old café proprietress, a Blackfeet Indian horse trader who once served as the town’s mayor, a couple who published the local newspaper and an ancient deaf-mute trapper are the only remaining inhabitants of Girouette. These self-styled, “diehards” all seem to have one thing in common. Thanks to a mysterious event 60 years earlier, they still believe in Santa Claus.

Girouette features something for everyone: carefree cowboys who race their horses over snow covered country road, a team of wolves trained to pull a dogsled, a stroll that nearly turns tragic on a buffalo jump, a serialized newspaper story titled “The Adventures of Rocky Mountain Santa,” a desperate attempt to escape from an abandoned copper mine, a night-time journey through the mountains on a frozen river and the miracle that delivers wayfaring strangers to Girouette during a storm on Christmas Eve.

The book revels in the solitary beauty of winter in Big Sky Country, the enduring wisdom of the elderly citizens of Girouette, the excitement of frontier history coming to life, the inspiration of a family healing itself and the magic of an old-fashioned western Christmas. Read Next Christmas in Girouette with your family this year, and you’ll want to revisit it for years to come at holiday time.”

As the author explains, his new book re-kindles the spark that makes Christmas such an important time of year.

"Next Christmas in Girouette" provides a fun, seasonal activity for you and your loved ones, but it also does more. In an age of high speeds and busy times, NCIG offers an opportunity to spend some quiet time with the people you love, and a way to form the kind of tradition that keeps people together,” says Welch.

He continues, “But the family values of this novel don't stop at the writing; I collaborated with my younger daughter Dylan on all the illustrations, while my older daughter Katrin heads up the promotional efforts. I hope that this novel and my others will be the legacy I leave to them.”

Since its release, praise has been flooding in from across the country. For example, best-selling author Perry Garfinke said that he "Clearly I loved this book, as much for the questions it encourages young people to ask as for the answers is doesn't provide, leaving imaginative minds to make up their own minds on how to answer them. I could not put this book down. Luckily, it's a short read and flies along.”

‘Next Christmas in Girouette’, published by the author, is available from the following outlets:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Next-Christmas-in-Girouette-ebook/dp/B0060YW9DQ
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/next-christmas-in-girouette-dylan-welch/1107001776
SmashWords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/100114

For more information, please visit the author’s official blog: http://girouettechristmas.tumblr.com/

About Michael Welch
Michael Welch lives and works in California.