Today I’m delighted to welcome back to the blog Suanne Schafer, author of epic, genre-spanning fiction. I greatly enjoyed her first novel A Different Kind of Fire, the tale of a female artist whose career takes her from rural Texas to the East Coast art world and back, and spans the Gilded age through the 1920s. You’ll love her soaring prose, rich knowledge of the time period and the art world, and complex characters. I can honestly say I’ve never read the experience of creating art described with such passion and eloquence. Read my full review here.
Today, Suanne is here to talk about her second novel, Hunting the Devil.
Hunting the Devil explores the heartbreak and healing of an American physician caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Part medical procedural, part global political thriller, part justice / revenge-seeking novel, and part fractured romance, Hunting the Devil is a gut-wrenching novel of a doctor pushed to her limits during one of the most grotesque moments in modern world history. Dr. Jessica Hemings, a biracial American physician, becomes embroiled in the tragic events of the Rwandan genocide. When her children are murdered, she doggedly tracks their killer. Hunting the Devil explores how war changes Jessica’s definition of humanity and, ultimately, what it means to be human.
Excerpt:
Powered by a potent mixture of hatred and fear, Jess raced up one hill, down the next in the pitch-black night. She couldn’t stop. Branches sliced her arms and legs. Stones bruised her soles. With every gasp, a side stitch lanced through her right ribs.
Jess glanced back. With that distraction, her feet tangled. She stumbled down an embankment. Her feet fought for purchase on the water-slicked slope. Rocks rolled beneath her, their rumble audible above the rain. While sliding down the gully on her belly, she grabbed a tree trunk to break her fall. She pulled herself semi-upright and clutched her aching sides. As she caught her breath, she glanced around. The thick brush surrounding her provided good cover. She could rest a moment.
After making so much racket, she held her breath and listened. No sounds of pursuit. She wasn’t sure when she’d last heard the baying of the dogs tracking her. Maybe her pursuers had given up. For the moment, she was safe.
She let her racing heart slow. Only then did she realize her right hand was empty. She’d lost the photograph of her children during her plunge. Darkness masked the surrounding landscape. She’d never find it now. Her search would have to wait ’til first light. She closed her hand, now as empty as her heart.
Two years ago, when Dr. Jessica Hemings had volunteered for a medical mission, she never dreamed she’d be fleeing for her life among the mille collines, the thousand hills of Rwanda. Now, to survive, she had to get as far as possible from her clinic in Kirehe. The Interahamwe, the Rwandan paramilitary group, lay behind her. To the east, the Rusumo Falls Bridge that spanned the Kagera River led to Tanzania—and safety.
Get your copy of Hunting the Devil here:
Amazon US Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZDK985K/
Amazon US Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Devil-Suanne-Schafer-ebook/dp/B07ZDK985K/
Suanne Schafer’s short works have been featured in multiple magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. Her debut women’s fiction novel, A Different Kind of Fire, explores the life of a nineteenth century bisexual artist living in West Texas and was released in 2018. Hunting the Devil explores the heartbreak and healing of a biracial American physician caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Suanne is a member of Women’s Fiction Writers Association, the Historical Novel Society, and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.Since retiring from her medical practice, she has served as an editor for a mainstream/romance publishing house and as fiction editor for an on-line literary magazine.
A few questions for Suanne:
Tell us about your journey from aspiring writer to published author.
I was facing retirement from my medical practice as well as an empty nest (divorced husband, son moved out), and wanted something to fill my time. I decided to take up writing. After cranking out one long, dreadful novel in which I learned how much I didn’t know, I decided to take some classes. I was still a full-time physician with an erratic schedule and couldn’t rely on attending a class with a set schedule, so when I stumbled on Stanford’s novel writing program, I jumped at the chance. The novel I wrote for that program was published as A Different Kind of Fire. My second novel, Hunting the Devil, came out 9/15/19.
What’s your favorite part of the writing life?
Staying home and writing in my jammies. Covid-19 quarantine hasn’t affected me much. J
What do you do for fun when you’re not writing?
I quilt and knit. And read I loved reading as a child, and it has carried forward into adulthood. I generally read at least 150 books a year. That figure doesn’t include those I read as a beta reader, mentor, or editor. One year, I maxed out at 276 books.
Do you have any particular writing quirks? A special object, snack, music, etc. that helps you with your writing process?
After years of being tied to a phone/beeper and working in noisy environments with canned music in the background, I prefer absolute silence. And coffee.
Authors always seem to have a teetering To Be Read pile. What’s in yours?
What isn’t in mine? I read every genre except horror. My TBR pile has Road out of Winter by Stine, Scorpionfish by Bakopoulis, Fire and Vengance by McCaw, Stardust Emerging by Heuwagen, Guns Under the Bed by Forrester, Saint X by Schaitkin to name a few.
What makes you put down a book without finishing?
I rarely don’t finish a book but am turned off by grammatical errors, poor editing, and romances full of TSTL (too stupid to live) women.
Amen on the TSTL! Which authors have inspired you?
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini—I was in Afghanistan during the time described in the beginning of the book. It is so evocative of that time for me, plus has such a gut-wrenching story.
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund—exquisite prose and a feminist heroine
The Gabriel Allon spy series by Daniel Silva—a great spy series with a hero with morals
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx—spare terse prose and a wonderful story. I’m watching the series on National Geographic channel based on her book, Barkskins, about the French and the Hudson Bay Colonies trying to take away land from Native Americans. It has a feel similar to Outlander but much darker.
The Wild Birds by Emily Strelow—a new author to watch, exquisite prose
Winter Loon by Susan Bernhard—another new author to watch with exquisite prose
Connect with Suanne Schafer
Author website: suanneschaferauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuanneSchaferAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuanneSchafer
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7703847.Suanne_Schafer
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/suanneschaferauthor/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suanneschafer/
Tumblr: https://its-suanneschafer-author.tumblr.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_aXDsvlIOaW2NSWu_P2EMA/featured?view_as=subscriber
