Artist Defies Conventional Society in ‘A Different Kind of Fire’ [BOOK BLAST]

In a time when women seldom dared to be different, there was once a Texas girl who dreamed of something more. Her aspirations would challenge society’s ideals, lead her into love, and even give her a career. But will she be able to maintain the life she’s built, or will it all come crumbling down around her? Find out in Suanne Schafer’s dazzling new historical novel, A Different Kind of Fire. 

Waldorf Publishing

Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, and 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 women 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 Ruby’s 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 as challenging as that in Philadelphia.

A Different Kind of Fire depicts one woman’s 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, Ruby’s choices mold her in ways she could never have foreseen.

PRAISE

“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. A Different Kind of Fire depicts the journey of a determined woman to meet life on her own terms.” —Pamela Morsi, USA Today bestselling author of 26 books including The Cotton Queen and Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ

“If you love historical novels about women who throw off the shackles of feminine convention, then this book is for you. In spare but sensuous prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and E. Annie Proulx, Schafer brings Ruby Schmidt to life–a woman who doesn’t belong in the late nineteenth century but gradually finds her place in the twentieth. You can’t help but root for Ruby as she grows from Texas farm girl, to a freethinker and lover of men and women in Philadelphia, and finally into a consummate artist. This is a powerful and deeply satisfying read.” —Helena Echlin, co-author of Sparked and author of Gone

“An exceptional first novel. Schafer has woven a cohesive tale from disparate elements—a stark life in the rugged countryside of 1890s Texas vs the gentility of an arts academy in the East; a traditional marriage and motherhood vs a secret and haunting sexuality. Unequivocally recommended!” —Michael R. Hardesty, author of Amazon bestseller, The Grace of the Ginkgo

“With rare artistry, Schafer paints a life both creative and cursed in A Different Kind of Fire.—Willa Blair, award-winning Amazon and Barnes & Noble number one bestselling author of His Highland Love, Highland Troth, Highland Seer, and 10 other books

“The saga of a young woman determined to follow her dream, whatever obstacles cross her path.” —M.J. Fredrick, author of A Texas Kind of Love, Smitten in a Small Town, and 25 other books, a two-time Epic Awards winner and a four-time RWA Golden Heart finalist

Suanne Schafer’s A Different Kind of Fire is a powerful story of a Gilded Age artist who brooks convention both in her art and her love. Read this book: It has both the depth of emotion of a modernist novel and the epic scope of a historical saga.—Alicia Rasley, author of The Year She Fell, an Amazon bestseller

“I absolutely LOVED A Different Kind of Fire. Suanne Schafer is a passionate writer with a gift to transport the reader back to the 1800s. With her book in one hand and my iPad in the other, I learned so much about artists and their work. Ms. Schafer’s words are so visual, I actually watched the story play out with every riveting page I turned. Fantastic character development. There was no stone left unturned. A Different Kind of Fire gets a standing ovation and five stars from me. Five stars.” —Tracy Stopler, award-winning author of The Ropes That Bind

“I was amazed by Suanne Schafer’s poetic and laconic turns of phrase. She has the gift of being simultaneously ornate and succinct, which is no easy task.” —Joshua Mohr, author of Sirens, All This Life, Fight Song, Damascus, Termite Parade, Some Things That Meant the World to Me

“Told in a rich, sensual, style, A Different Kind of Fire is a book about reconciling the irreconcilable. It is a book about boundaries: the dilemmas they place upon those would dare rise above them. The book is also a study in contrasts rather than a polemical treatise. Is Ruby a heroine or a victim?–a free spirit or a narcissist? These questions are ultimately left to the reader to decide.” —James Hanna, author of The Siege, Call Me Pomeroy, and A Second, Less Head and Other Rogue Stories.

“Suanne Schafer’s A Different Kind of Fire tackles the sensitive subject of bisexuality in 19th century America with grace, compassion, and empathy through fully developed characters in a story readers will cherish long after the book ends.” —C.S. Fuqua, author of Walking after Midnight: Collected Stories

“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. Ferberesque in scope, A Different Kind of Fire harbors the twists and turns of a thriller and the braided threads of explosive affairs that cannot possibly coexist. Schafer’s marvelous book exudes undiminished spirit in the face of terrible loss.” —Guinotte Wise, author of Night Train, Cold Beer, winner of H. Palmer Hall Award

“Insightful, loving, and endearing, A Different Kind of Fire, will draw you in and keep you spellbound. Suanne Schafer weaves Ruby Schmidt’s journey from love in rural Texas to art school in sophisticated 1890s Philadelphia. Ruby’s struggles and triumphs over 100 years ago ring true to the challenges still faced by 21st century women.” —Kristine Mietzner, Founder, The Women Veterans Writing Workshop of California

Suanne Schafer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suanne Schafer, born in West Texas at the height of the Cold War, finds it ironic that grade school drills for tornadoes and nuclear war were the same: hide beneath your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. Now a retired family-practice physician whose only child has fledged the nest, her pioneer ancestors and world travels fuel her imagination. She originally planned to write romances, but either as a consequence of a series of failed relationships or a genetic distrust of happily ever-after, her heroines are strong women who battle tough environments and intersect with men who might—or might not—love them.

Suanne completed the Stanford University Creative Writing Certificate program. Her short works have been featured in print and on-line magazines and anthologies. Her debut women’s fiction novel, A Different Kind of Fire, explores the life of Ruby Schmidt, a nineteenth century artist who escapes—and returns—to West Texas. Suanne’s next book explores the heartbreak and healing of an American physician caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Suanne invites readers to visit her at her home on the Web at SuanneSchaferAuthor.com, to like her on Facebook, and to follow her on Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE
By Suanne Schafer
300 pgs. Waldorf Publishing. $16.95

Purchase A Different Kind of Fire at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, BookBub, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, Powell’s, and Waldorf Publishing.

Giveaway Alert! Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours is giving away a Fiery Bookish Prize Pack, which includes a literary scarf, beaded velvet bookmark, a copy of A Different Kind of Fire, and a $10 Amazon gift card! To enter, visit Gleam’s Rafflecopter form here. Please note, the giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Nov. 2, 2018. Participants must be 18 or older to enter and only one entry is permitted per household. The giveaway is open to readers in the US only. All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems. Any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by the blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize or a new winner will be chosen.

A Different Kind of Fire is brought to you in association with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.