NEW RELEASE: 11.01.18!
Amazon | Audible |ย Barnes & Nobleย | Kindle |ย QueerBooks.com |ย Waldorf Publishing
Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, even the guts to enroll in art school, leaving behind her childhood home and the beau she always expected to marry. Her life at the Academy seems heavenly at first, but she soon learns that societal norms in the East are as restrictive as those back home in West Texas. Rebelling against the insipid imagery woman are expected to produce, Ruby embraces bohemian life. Her burgeoning sexuality drives her into a life-long love affair with another woman and into the arms of an Italian baron. With the Panic of 1893, the nation spirals into a depression, and Rubyโs career takes a similar downward trajectory. After thinking she could have it all, Ruby, now pregnant and broke, returns to Texas rather than join the queues at the neighborhood soup kitchen. She discovers her life back home is asย challenging asย that in Philadelphia.
A Different Kind of Fire depicts one womanโs battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Rubyโs choices mold her in ways she could never have foreseen.
ย 
NEW RELEASE:ย 11.01.18!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookBub | QueerBooks.com |ย Waldorf Publishing
Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, even the guts to enroll in art school, leaving behind her childhood home and the beau she always expected to marry. Her life at the Academy seems heavenly at first, but she soon learns that societal norms in the East are as restrictive as those back home in West Texas. Rebelling against the insipid imagery woman are expected to produce, Ruby embraces bohemian life. Her burgeoning sexuality drives her into a life-long love affair with another woman and into the arms of an Italian baron. With the Panic of 1893, the nation spirals into a depression, and Rubyโs career takes a similar downward trajectory. After thinking she could have it all, Ruby, now pregnant and broke, returns to Texas rather than join the queues at the neighborhood soup kitchen. She discovers her life back home is asย challenging asย that in Philadelphia.
A Different Kind of Fire depicts one womanโs battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Rubyโs choices mold her in ways she could never have foreseen.
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-Acclaim-
“A Different Kind of Fireย by Suanne Schafer with the depth of a modernist novel and breadth of a saga, portrays Ruby Schmidt, an artist who doesn’t belong in 19th century but who finds herself in the 20th.”
“Rubyโs struggle to reconcile her passions โ for art, for those she loves โ made for an enthralling read.ย Iโm already looking forward to Schaeferโs next book,ย Hunting the Devil,ย about a biracial American physician who gets caught up in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.”
“An evocative and compelling story of a Texas-bred ranch girl-to-woman straddling the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and her conflicting and sometimes illicit desires for her art, her lovers and the freedoms some women were just beginning to glimpse.ย Ferberesque in scope,ย A Different Kind of Fireย harbors the twists and turns of a thriller and the braided threads of explosive affairs that cannot possibly coexist.ย Schafer’s marvelous book exudes undiminished spirit in the face of terrible loss.“
“With rare artistry, Schafer paints a life both creative and cursed inย A Different Kind of Fire.“
“Writer Suanne Schafer spins a unique tale of a turn of the 19th century Texas heroine and her way of artistic expression. Her paintings shock her contemporaries and the love she’s drawn to shocks herself.ย A Different Kind of Fireย depicts the journey of a determined woman to meet life on her own terms.“
Mood Board Gallery
For those of you who might want a little more background on the Rwandan Genocide either before or after reading Hunting the Devil, I have compiled a brief background and timeline of the war and posted it here.ย The take-home point is that no one cared. No one wanted...
One lucky participant will win: A hand-made cozy scarf A signed copy of A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE Bookish print swag Click here to enter, or use the widget below. No purchase necessary. The more ways you enter, the more your chances of winning. Good luck and have fun!...
One lucky winner will receive a prize bundle that contains a signed copy of A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE, a hand-knitted, super soft and cozy scarf, a handmade, beaded velvet bookmark, and a $20 Amazon gift card. Simply click here to use the widget, or enter below. Good...
ICYMI in my newsletter on Valentine's Day, I'm giving away a decadent, wanderlust-y, bookish prize package! In case you weren't aware, there is romance to be read in my latest novel, HUNTING THE DEVIL. After all that Jess has gone through in Africa, she sets her...
Happy New Year, Everyone! ๐คฉ๐๐ In case you missed the announcement in my newsletter prior to the holiday break, I've got a new giveaway going on! The grand prize is a signed copy of A Different Kind of Fire or Hunting the Devil (winner's choice), and a soft, cozy,...
Kirkus Reviews has some great things to say aboutย Hunting the Devil: KIRKUS REVIEW A humanitarian doctor becomes embroiled in the Rwandan genocide. Schafer (A Different Kind of Fire, 2018), โa retired family-practice physician,โ plumbs the depths of the genocide in...
Who's up for books and chocolate? (I mean... who ISN'T, right)? ๐ Last year's Icelandic-themed giveaway went over so famously, I absolutely had to do another. Many of you are new here - welcome! - so in case you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about,...
In case you missed it in my newsletter and here on the front and book pages of my website, here's the new goosebump-inducing book trailer for Hunting the Devil. I hope you love it as much as I do! ๐๐๐ฌ
Hunting the Devil is available NOW, and the virtual book release party has begun! ๐๐ฅณ๐๐ Today I've got two giveaways, a blog tour, and an author appearances schedule. I sure would love to see you online and in-person as I share my new novel, my writing process, and my...
To mark the September 15th publication of my new novel, Hunting the Devil, I've updatedย a personal essay I wrote several years ago. It was originally published inย Brain, Child Magazine under the titleย "Raising My Black Son."ย My efforts to raise a Black child, combined...
One grand prize winner will receive a signed paperback copy ofย A Different Kind of Fire, a handmade beaded velvet bookmark, and aย Hunting the Devilย book bag. Ends at Midnight/CT on September 5th Good luck and have fun! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Map of Philadelphia When eighteen-year-old Ruby Schmidt defies her parents and her childhood beau and leaves Texas so she can attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, she has no idea what she's getting into. From the moment she disembarks from...
One grand prize winner will receive a signed paperback copy of A Different Kind of Fire, a handmade beaded velvet bookmark, and a fiery book bag. Enter via the widget below or click here.Ends at Midnight/CT on July 25th. No purchase necessary. Good luck, and have fun!...
I was born and raised in Big Spring, Texas with time off for moving throughout the western United States as my father, an itinerant well-logging engineer, followed oil wells from state to state. Most of my family stayed in West Texas and ranched near Big Spring or...
In the past few weeks, I've been introducing readers to the various characters in my novel, A Different Kind of Fire. The first week I told you about the main characters, Ruby Schmidt, a late 19th century artist; Bismarck Behrens, her childhood beau; Willow Wycke, her...
Last week I introduced the four major fictional characters of A Different Kind of Fire. This week I want to talk about some minor characters that really existed back in the 1890s, though their interactions with Ruby Schmidt are purely products of my imagination....
Iโve been introducing the characters from A Different Kind of Fire on Twitter and Facebook and realized I should do the same here. Ruby Schmidt, a stubborn Texas gal of eighteen. Though it means abandoning her childhood beau, Bismarck Behrens, she goes to Philadelphia...
I'm really excited to be participating in a BookBub giveaway with a group of incredibly talented authors. The prize is a $100 Amazon gift card, and there are twenty one possible ways to win! All you need to do is follow as many authors on BookBub via the giveaway...
It wouldn't be a new month without a #FireStarter giveaway! This time, the prize is one signed paperback of A Different Kind of Fire,ย and a handmade, beaded velvet bookmark, which I love to see have been making readers happy on #bookstagram! ๐คฉ๐ฅ Ends at midnight/CT on...
A Different Kind of Fire has been selected as a finalist in the Women Fiction Writers' Association's STAR award in the debut novel category. The winners will be announced on September 27, 2019 at the Annual WFWA Retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I join the following...
More daylight = more time to read, so it felt like the perfect occasion for a new bookish giveaway! ๐๐One lucky winner will receive an eBook copy of A Different Kind of Fire, and a $10 Amazon gift card. This one ends a week from today, so get in while you can. Click...
At last, the days are getting longer, but there's still just enough winter "meh" left to slog through, and I've got the cure: let's FIESTA! See below for more, and to get in on this vibrant and sizzling new giveaway. One grand prize winner will receive a signed copy...
Because books + food = passion! In case you haven't noticed here on my blog, I love to bake and cook just about as much as I love to write. So I thought it would be fun to give away a Penzey's Spices gift set, a signed copy of my book, A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE, and a...
Click to Enter Just a quick update to let you know I'm doing a brand-new giveaway for 2019! One lucky winner will receive the following prize package: $20 Amazon gift cardA Freehand brand paint setOne signed copy of A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIREOne handmade, beaded velvet...
If you love literature, art, photography, exclusive sneek peaks, author giveaways, and things that light up the soul, you will want to sign up for Suanne's low-volume newsletter...