Now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes from Fiery Seas Publishing is the novel Unfinished by Amy Snyder.

Mirabelle is a writer who just can't finish any of the stories she starts. When her twins leave home for college, they take with them Mirabelle’s sense of identity. As she strives to adjust to her empty nest she is visited by someone unexpected: a character from the very first novel she ever attempted to write.

Characters from all of her unfinished works begin to materialize in her home, in her car, at her job. They talk, yell, and some even throw things at her. Mirabelle can see them, smell them, touch them and though she knows they’re not real, she can’t help but engage them. She created them, after all. They become part of her daily life and she finds herself alternating between hiding them from and sharing them with her almost-always-doting husband, Alex.

Some of Mirabelle’s characters are like good friends, encouraging her to finish something she’s started. Others manipulate her for their own needs and story lines. Good and bad, these characters are part of her and Mirabelle discovers she needs to both fix and finish them before they destroy her life, her sanity, and her marriage.

The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her new novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I was in eighth grade. I wrote a story about a Boat Captain that my teacher loved and I realized how much I loved writing it. That was when I decided to be a writer.

What was your first book/story published?

This one! Unfinished is the first thing I’ve ever published. It has been an extremely long road.

What inspired you to write Unfinished?

This story grew out of fear and frustration with myself for not finishing my stories. I had been querying another work for over a year and getting nowhere. I felt like I was sitting on top of a big pile of unfinished, incomplete, unpublished work.

What character in Unfinished is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Mirabelle, the main character, is very much like me. She is a writer who doesn’t finish the stories she starts which is exactly how I was until this book.

What is your favorite part in Unfinished?

I love Mirabelle’s relationship with Cody and the changes they go through together.

Delacorte Press; 530 pages; $30.00; Amazon

Tonight marks the return of Outlander: Season Three on STARZ after having a brief one-week break, in which we'll finally see the reunion between the characters Jamie (played by Sam Heughan) and Claire (played by Caitriona Balfe) after being apart for nearly twenty years. To get everyone ready for tonight's episodes, I thought it would be the perfect time for me to post my review for the recently released Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon.

No, this isn't the sequel to Written In My Own Heart's Blood, but instead it's  "A Collection of Outlander Fiction," featuring seven short stories/novellas that are all set in the Outlander universe. Five of the stories have appeared in other anthologies over the years, while the other two are appearing for the very first-time in print. Many of the stories centers on Lord John Grey, a character that debuted in Outlander: Season Three; however, Jamie Fraser does get his very own story called "Virgins."

Bethany House; 336 pages; $15.99; Amazon

If you like reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries, then I would recommend the Drew Fathering Mystery series by Julianna Deering.

Released earlier this year from Bethany House Publishing is the fifth installment in the series, titled Murder on the Moor. Once again the main character is the dashing Drew Farthering, who, along with his American wife Madeline, heads to Bloodworth Park Lodge in the town of Bunting's Nest at the request of an old friend. Several strange occurrences have occurred in the area, such as fires, property destruction, and sheep and cattle scattered. Then a dead body is found on the steps of the church.

Being a mystery buff, Drew takes it upon himself to unravel the murder, which isn't easy, as there are no suspects. Well, except for one person - his friend's new bride.

Tommy Nelson; 20 pages; $8.99; Amazon

This is a counting picture book, where every two pages focuses on a number between 1-10. The artwork on every two pages represents one illustrated scene and each pages has one sentence.

The story is pretty simple; it involves a young Christmas bear who ventures outside to play in the snow and makes several new friends, including a puppy, two tiny mice, funny foxes, squirrels, rabbits, eagles, caribous, and owls. The kids play all day in the snow, until their parents call them home near night, when the Christmas stars are twinkling bright in the sky.

Now available from Harper Voyager Impluse is the novel Of the Divine, the second book in the Mancer Trilogy,  by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.

Buy Link: Amazon

Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna' lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples--an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol--a volatile but critical support to its creation.

Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why.

As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine.

A game no mortal can ever hope to win.

The author has taken time out of her busy schedule for a quick Q&A about her newest book.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

I have always been a storyteller, from the time of my earliest memories (and before). When I was five, I ran through a glass door and cut myself pretty badly. When we got me to the hospital, they separated me from my parents to ask what had happened. My mother describes waiting in terror, worried that THIS was when my storytelling would come out...

As I grew up, I learned more about how to tell a story well, and it was in seventh grade that I first decided I would try to publish a novel, but the desire to tell stories has always been there.

What was your first book/story published?

The first novel I published was titled In the Forests of the Night. It was a young adult urban fantasy about a vampire named Risika who needs to face an old enemy in order to finally come to terms with her own identity. Forests, which became the first of my Den of Shadows series (nine books in total), was released in May, 1999, when I was a freshman in high school.

What inspired you to write Of the Divine?

My most recent novel, Of the Divine, is the second book in the Mancer Trilogy. It was inspired by a vast collection of things, ranging from writing block and anxiety to political advocacy.

In 2006, I was under contract for the fourth book in the Kiesha’ra Series, and was struggling to put it together. It was the first book I had ever signed a contract for without having a completed rough draft. It was also the first book I had ever published with an explicitly gay protagonist, and it explored some very personal issues to me— which meant I was terrified of getting it wrong.

I needed to get away from the young adult realm of Nyeusigrube, so I decided to participate for the first time in National Novel Writing Month, and I started Mancer. The book was supposed to be a silly throw-away, but as I often joke, I got “distracted” by silly things like plot and characterization. Because it wasn’t under contract, I felt more free to explore the topics that had me so intimidated in Wolfcry, such as sexuality and the pressures to conform to societal expectations despite one’s own true needs and desires.

In the end, instead of a 50k throw-away experiment, I had a 300,000 word trilogy with a complex world, interesting characters, and a conflict I wanted to further explore— and share.

What character in Of the Divine is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

There’s a little of me in many of these characters, but there’s no one of them that I look at and say, “That’s me, right there.”

Naples includes a lot of my teenage angst and the poor relationship luck (due mostly to my own poor decisions) I had at his age. Terre Verte has some of my arrogance (yes, I know I can be at times) but also my desire to try to help people when I can. Henna has my other-ness; I spend a lot of time being the only queer and the only Jew in a room. Maddy is the mother and teacher in me, though strangely, her 2-year-old son was written eight years before my daughter (who was 2.5 when the book came out) was born. Hello has my tendency to jump ahead in a conversation.

So, they are all a little me, but none othem are me.

What is your favorite part in Of the Divine?