News, Reviews & Views
An author blog from a Texas girl who’s seen the world…
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BOOK REVIEW: First Course by Jenn Bouchard

Janie Whitman, the protagonist in First Course, undergoes a life-changing twenty-four hours. First, she loses her job in Chicago and the boyfriend/boss there breaks up with her. Then, hard on those happenings, her parents die in a plane crash, and her sister, Alyssa,...

Enter My Holiday Giveaway!

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!...

A Halloween story: Morrigan

  Morrigan © Suanne Schafer A whistled song disturbs my sleep. Just outside the churchyard, I lie, warm and drowsy, buried within the earth, roofed by a grove of dark pines whose fallen needles and verdant mosses quilt my bed. Loath to leave a lovely pleasure, I...

New Book Trailer! Hunting the Devil

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! 😈📚🎬

Enter My Summer-Into-Fall Book Lovers Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive a signed paperback copy of A Different Kind of Fire, a handmade beaded velvet bookmark, and a Hunting the Devil book bag. Ends at Midnight/CT on September 5th Good luck and have fun! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter My First Springtime Giveaway

More daylight = more time to read, so it felt like the perfect occasion for a new bookish giveaway! 🌞📚One 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...
-Blog Updates-
Book Review: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Book Review: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Angie Kim’s debut novel is a genre-breaking combination of courtroom drama, thriller, mystery, and family drama. Kim deftly blends these myriad elements, a cast of complex characters, and a fascinating plot.  Miracle Creek starts—literally—with a bang as a...

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Philadelphia as It Appears in A Different Kind of Fire

Philadelphia as It Appears in A Different Kind of Fire

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...

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Book Review: De-Extinction: A Quick Immersion

Book Review: De-Extinction: A Quick Immersion

De-Extinction: A Quick Immersion by Carles Lalueza-Fox is a short book but packed with fascinating facts and tidbits. There are few better placed to discuss de-extinction than Lalueza-Fox as he is one of the pioneers of the field of ancient DNA and has seen the field...

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Enter My Summer is Art Giveaway!

Enter My Summer is Art Giveaway!

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!...

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Introducing Truly, Texas from A Different Kind of Fire

Introducing Truly, Texas from A Different Kind of Fire

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...

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Interview: Daniela Petrova, author of Her Daughter’s Mother

Interview: Daniela Petrova, author of Her Daughter’s Mother

Today I'm excited to talk with Daniela Petrova, author of the new thriller, Her Mother's Daughter. Daniela grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Sofia, Bulgaria. After the fall of Communism, she moved to New York where she cleaned apartments while taking English classes...

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Book Review: Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova

Book Review: Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova

As a woman and a physician who’s undergone a fertility work-up, I was very interested in reading Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova. Little did I know I was getting myself into a psychological thriller. Entranced, I stayed up until four a.m. to finish the book...

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Minor Characters in A Different Kind of Fire

Minor Characters in A Different Kind of Fire

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...

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Interview: Deborah L. King, author of Glory Bishop

Interview: Deborah L. King, author of Glory Bishop

Joining me today is author Deborah L. King, whose debut novel, Glory Bishop, was released June 4th, 2019 by Red Adept Publishing. By day, she is a graphic specialist on a medical journal. She spends her days working with radiological images. Growing up, she...

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Book Review: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Book Review: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Released by June 4, 2019 by Harper, Ayesha at Last is a Muslim own-voices retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and begins with a clever restatement of Austen’s famous opening line: "Because while it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in...

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Real People of Play Minor Roles in A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE

Real People of Play Minor Roles in A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE

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....

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Interview: Toni Mount, author of The Colour of Lies

Interview: Toni Mount, author of The Colour of Lies

Joining me today is author Toni Mount. Her first book, about the lives of ordinary people in the middle-ages, Everyday Life in Medieval London was published in 2014 by Amberley Publishing. The first print run sold out quickly, and it was voted ‘Best history book of...

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Characters in A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE

Characters in A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE

I’ve 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...

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Interview: Samantha Heuwagen, author of The Starless Series

Interview: Samantha Heuwagen, author of The Starless Series

Joining me today is Samantha Heuwagen, a Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in Sex Therapy in Atlanta, GA. She’s a graduate of Mercer University School of Medicine where she earned her second Master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Her first Master's...

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Book Review: Unbroken Threads by Jennifer Klepper

Book Review: Unbroken Threads by Jennifer Klepper

Jennifer Klepper's debut Unbroken Threads is a lovely, thoughtful book about the intersection between two women’s lives. The protagonist is a former securities lawyer who’s been a stay-at-home-mother, Jessica. She’s trying to re-enter the work force by doing pro bono...

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Book Review: The Risk of Us by Rachel Howard

Book Review: The Risk of Us by Rachel Howard

Author Rachel Howard writes of a couple’s struggle to adopt a foster child. It comes as no surprise that the child the narrator and her husband Sebastian choose to foster is a troubled child, Marisa. Having worked with such damaged children, I fully understand the...

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Interview: Maida Malby, author of multi-cultural romances

Interview: Maida Malby, author of multi-cultural romances

 Maida Malby, a fellow member of San Antonio Romance Authors, joins me today to talk about writing and her latest books. SS: Maida, tell us how you came to be a writer.  MM: My co-members of the Old School Romance Book Club encouraged me to try. We formed a...

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Book Review: Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler

Book Review: Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler

Having recently finished Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then, I undertook another sci-fi novel—and was blown away by Light from Other Stars. Wow!!!—exquisite prose in an ambitious novel told in two timelines, the present (with the protagonist, Nedda Pappas, on a space...

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