UNFINISHED – Behind the Story

I am so excited that my debut novel, Unfinished, is being published this month by Fiery Seas Publishing. Unfinished is the story of Mirabelle, a writer who can’t seem to finish the novels she starts until her incomplete characters appear to her and encourage her or threaten her in various ways to motivate her to complete their stories.

The story of Unfinished is a personal one for me.  While Mirabelle and I are different in many ways, we have shared the struggle to end a story. Both she and I could never quite seem to find the ending of a book. I’ve been writing most of my life and up until recently, most of my projects were in various stages of incompletion.

Many of the characters that appear to Mirabelle in the book came from my own shelf of incomplete manuscripts. Some were recent. Some went back as far as my college days.  And while none of my characters ever physically appeared to me like they did Mirabelle, they definitely hounded me. I always felt that nagging feeling of not finishing something, like when you know you have laundry that needs folding.

Unfinished is a story about a writer. But it’s also a story of a mother whose children have left for college and left her a little directionless. Her world revolved around her children and once they were gone, she didn’t know her orbit.

I started writing Unfinished years ago, but its publication comes right as I’m stepping onto the same doorstep as Mirabelle: getting ready to send my children off to college. I’m preparing to have my own orbit substantially altered and wondering what my life will revolve around when they’re gone. Just thinking about it makes me a little panicky.  It gets me thinking about everything I haven’t finished. Everything I haven’t achieved.

Unfinished is a story for anyone who has something they regret or who feels like they left something undone. It’s for anyone who could see themselves getting a little bit lost sometime and then finding themselves on the way back. Or for anyone who still has a lot to learn about themselves because in one way or another, we are all unfinished.

Unfinished will be available this month on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Koko. Stay tuned for the cover reveal this week!