BIG NEWS: All Systems Go

My friends, my readers, and my supporters,

It is with the deepest joy and wildest excitement that I announce that my debut novel is complete with a title and ready to begin the countdown to its launch! (Eek!)

Read on to learn about my book, grab a sneak peek of the story behind it, and find out when you can buy your copy.

About the book

Angels Strange and Beautiful is a historical novel set in New England between the 1600s and 1700s. In the first half, a more or less innocent stalker follows the love story of Faith and Theophilus in a once-sleepy little village that is suddenly plagued by a mysterious killer. To make matters worse, Theophilus’s interest in and studies of natural science are making people nervous. Little by little, suspicions turn vicious and Faith is forced to make a choice she’ll never be able to take back.

The second half is told by a young girl named Emmanuella as she starts life over in the city of Riversedge after four years as an orphan in London. She learns first and foremost that none of the grownups in this New England community are exactly as they seem, for better or for worse. But she also receives her first taste of genuine love and realizes it is worth any price. When an arsonist’s path of destruction teaches the community to fear one another, everyone must learn whom they love the most and whom they can trust, and that sometimes those lists are not the same.

The story and inspiration

This book is divided into two parts, The Faith of a Few and Hope in a Rain of Ashes. I wrote the first half as part of a short-story-per-month challenge in October and early November of 2017. It was my favorite story that I produced that year (I used to think choosing a favorite book was like picking between your children, and yet here we are) and I knew I would have to return to Faith and Theophilus’s world. So after I graduated college the following year, I wrote the second installment, Hope in a Rain of Ashes.

Though I’m not one for horror, I do enjoy my Gothic romances and especially some Hawthorne-style eeriness in time for Halloween, so that was the vibe I was going for in the first half. If you don’t like creepy things, though, don’t worry; my stories always have a redemptive bent to them, so I think most people can definitely read this.

As far as the story itself goes, I actually found a photograph on Pinterest of a stone archway on a twilit background, surrounded by what I initially thought were rose petals but turned out to be bright red leaves. Immediately, the story started to weave itself together in my brain. The two principal characters came first, and with some cultivation, the plot followed.

The second half came to me during my senior year of college. I was thinking about my favorite book, Jane Eyre, and actually having an imaginary conversation with St. John Rivers when the rest of the story came to me. I’ve grown up having deep theological conversations with my family, with one half of us Catholic and the other half Protestant united on the essentials, and I explored a lot of the themes of our conversations in Hope in a Rain of Ashes. Also in the vein of Jane Eyre is the perspective from which Hope is written, a girl looking back and richly articulating experiences she had as a very young child.

What I like about the book

As I’ve said, I’m a sucker for Gothic fiction, especially romances. But I think my favorite thing about Angels Strange and Beautiful is that while a romance is the unifying element, it’s about so much more than that. I’ll rant in more depth on the shortcomings of most romances some other time, but for today, I’ll just say that I hate it when a story is ONLY a romance, mostly because nobody’s life is ever like that. It’s never the only relationship you have (or it SHOULDN’T be) and real romances encounter real life and it makes the best ones stronger. That’s what this book is about. It’s a romance, yes, but with elements of thriller and rounded off with poignant thoughts about God. It’s a slice of this couple’s very exciting life.

I’m also a big fan of the perspectives from which the story is narrated. Remember that “more or less innocent stalker” I mentioned earlier? Yeah, he’s narrating The Faith of a Few. Hope in a Rain of Ashes is narrated, as I said, by a little girl, or rather her older self looking back. Both give intensely personal accounts of Faith and Theophilus that are colored by their own experiences, but they leave enough mystery for us to fall in love with Faith and Theophilus without ever feeling that we know them completely. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to walk away feeling as if you’ve become friends.

The BIG News: What you can expect going forward

Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: I’m going to tell you when you can actually READ my book!

My planned launch date is September 30, 2020. I’ve got a lot to do before then, but we should be on track and I’ll let you know if anything changes.
I’m going to keep the content coming, so be sure to monitor your Facebook, OR you can subscribe to my newsletter and get updates emailed to you every time I post a new blog! The coming attractions will include more behind-the-scenes tidbits from the book and my life as a writer and the cover reveal!

I can’t wait and I hope to see you again at every step.

But wait! I need YOU!

That’s right, I need your help! I’m going to need a street team, of course!
What does that mean? It means I’m going to need a group of people to commit to helping me spread the word before my official book launch. That can be by sharing my posts, subscribing to my newsletter, and the golden standard, word-of-mouth advertising. Anyone can help, but if you’re on my team, you’ll get a free launch T-shirt and join a more specific battle plan. I’m really excited and nervous and I hope you’ll consider joining!

If you do want to commit to being part of the street team, please email ginafiamettabooks@gmail.com with your name, your T-shirt size, and why you’re excited about this book launch. Thank you in advance to anyone who considers signing up!

A few final words

Let me tell you, it has been a long road to get to this point, and to be honest, I am still scared to death. But it’s time to move forward with my dream. Ironically, it’s a little scary to suddenly become visible to people in this very vulnerable way; soon enough, I’ll be selling pieces of my heart in the form of stacks of paper with bits of my soul scrawled on the pages.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love my characters. It’s just that I’m afraid of how they may be received by OTHERS. I feel like a parent sending their child onstage at the school play, hoping I got every piece of her costume right and that she doesn’t pull up her skirt in front of everyone, and please GOD keep his finger out of his nose!

So to my characters, everybody stand up straight and please behave! To the rest of you, I can’t wait to introduce you to these dear friends of mine. I hope they change your life, or at the very least, your perspective, and that their companionship will bring you joy.

Happy reading and thanks for joining me!