Meet Characters from Unfinished
UNFINISHED is my debut novel about a writer who doesn’t finish her books until her characters come back to haunt her. In preparing for the release of UNFINISHED, I found myself wondering about all the different characters woven throughout Mirabelle’s story and what would happen if they were to meet.
In the basement of a church, a group of people sat in a circle of folding chairs, nametags affixed to each of their chests. The late afternoon sunlight streamed in through a window at an odd angle, casting a yellow beam of light behind the group’s moderator. It was bright enough that the rest of the group almost couldn’t see his face, but not so bright that they couldn’t make out the white of his clerical collar tucked underneath his chin.
Moderator: Welcome, thank you all for coming today.
The group collectively grumbled.
Cody: What are we doing here?
Moderator: We’re here today because Mirabelle can’t finish the stories of her characters.
Cody: You mean us?
Moderator: Yes, us. I know some of us may have struggled in this perpetual state of statis. I thought it would be constructive to gather together to commiserate our shared experiences. I would like to ask you a few questions to get started.
Cody rolled his eyes.
Moderator: First, what year did Mirabelle start writing you. David, you start us off.
David: 1992
Bridget: 1995
Kip: 1995. We’re together.
Bridget: Not together, together. We’re friends. We’re in the same story.
Daniel: Um, 2005. Uh, same story for us, too. She’s my mum.
Emily nodded quietly.
Cody: 1999
Cody slid down in his folding chair stretching his feet almost to the center of the circle and his arms up over his head.
Monica and Peter: 1997
They said at the same time and smiled at each other.
Moderator: My name is Father Cummings. My story started in 1992. Mirabelle created David and I in her very first story.
David: I don’t think we’ve met.
Father Cummings: Yes, David. We’ve spoken on the phone.
David tilted his head as if he was rolling an idea from his left brain to his right brain.
Father Cummings: Now, I know it’s sometimes difficult being stuck in place the way we are. What do you think you would be doing if Mirabelle had finished you?
David: I’d be a Retired Captain by now.
Bridget: Writing something. Working somewhere.
Kip: Acting, maybe doing some producing.
Daniel: I’m not sure where I would be.
Emily shrugged again.
Emily: Me neither.
Cody: I’m pretty sure I’d be dead. I don’t really understand why I’m here. I don’t even give a crap about Mirabelle.
Bridget: Where did you get that?
Bridget pointed to the glass in Cody’s hand.
Cody: What? This? I always have a glass of whisky in my hand. It’s how I’m written.
Bridget: Nice.
Cody: What? Like you’re perfect, princess? Where’d you get the smoke?
Bridget looked down, startled, at the cigarette in her hand.
Cody: Better get rid of that, Sweetheart. Tsk. Tsk.
Cody pointed to the ‘No Smoking’ sign on the wall.
Bridget ground her cigarette out into the sole of Kip’s Doc Martens. Kip didn’t seem to care.
David: Now put the drink down, Pal.
Cody: Make me.
David: Maybe I will.
Cody and David vault to their feet ready for a fight.
Father Cummings: Gentlemen! That’s enough. This is not the time or the place. Sit down.
They sat down without breaking eye contact.
Father Cummings: Why didn’t Mirabelle finish you? Kip?
Kip: She was getting married and was preoccupied with the wedding.
Daniel: She had kids and put us aside for them.
Emily: You can’t blame her for that, Daniel.
Daniel: I don’t blame her, mum. It’s just hard sometimes.
Peter: I think she just got bored with us.
Father Cummings: David?
David: She got a job. And she couldn’t figure out who the Mercy killer was anymore than I could.
Father Cummings: Cody?
Cody shrugged.
Father Cummings: What was her reason for not finishing you?
Cody: I have no freaking idea. Why don’t you ask her?
Father Cummings: She doesn’t know.
Cody: Well then how the hell should I know? What does it matter anyway? Nothing that we do or say matters.
Kip: Dude, just chillax. We’re just here to talk about our common situation. No need to get excited.
Cody: I’m not excited, Dude. I am just talking, Don’t I get to talk?
Bridget: Oh, please, you’re the only one who is talking. It’s not all about you, you know. We’re all frustrated.
Cody: Listen, Sweetheart…
Daniel interrupted suddenly, loudly.
Daniel: Isn’t there anything we can do to...move things along?
David: (scoffs) Kid, I’ve been waiting 20 years. She is not coming back.
Emily: She might be. Maybe it’s just as hard for her as it is for us.
Cody: Please. She’s not coming back because she doesn’t give a damn.
Bridget: Maybe she just can’t bring herself to give us unhappy endings.
Cody: Yeah, right. Look, whatever the reason, she’s not coming back.
Kip: You’re wrong. She’ll come back to us. I know she will.
Daniel: I hope you’re right.
Emily: (whispers) Me too.
Monica: I think Kip’s right. I think she’ll be back.
Bridget: I think Kip’s right, too.
Cody: Oh, whatever you say, Princess.
Bridget: You know, I’m beginning to see why she didn’t finish you.
Cody glared at her and narrowed his eyes before pushing his chair backwards, throwing his jacket over one shoulder and storming out.
The group sat silent after Cody’s dramatic exit.
Kip: I really hope she comes back to finish off that jackass.
Father Cummings: (sighs) So much for constructive. I think that will be all for today.
Nine characters, five stories, one marriage.
Can one writer save them all?
Get Your Copy Today!
Unfinished
By Amy Snyder
Fiery Seas Publishing
Women's Fiction
July 25, 2017
Mirabelle is a writer who just can't finish any of the stories she starts. When her twins leave home for college, they take with them Mirabelle’s sense of identity. As she strives to adjust to her empty nest she is visited by someone unexpected: a character from the very first novel she ever attempted to write.
Characters from all of her unfinished works begin to materialize in her home, in her car, at her job. They talk, yell, and some even throw things at her. Mirabelle can see them, smell them, touch them and though she knows they’re not real, she can’t help but engage them. She created them, after all. They become part of her daily life and she finds herself alternating between hiding them from and sharing them with her almost-always-doting husband, Alex.
Some of Mirabelle’s characters are like good friends, encouraging her to finish something she’s started. Others manipulate her for their own needs and story lines. Good and bad, these characters are part of her and Mirabelle discovers she needs to both fix and finish them before they destroy her life, her sanity, and her marriage.
About the Author:
Amy Snyder began writing when she realized the strange things that happened in her imagination were far more interesting than the things that happened in her real life. After earning her degree in Radio, Television, and Film from Northwestern University, she worked at a financial brokerage house, a nationally published magazine, an advertising agency, and most recently, an elementary school as a Math Tutor, Substitute Teacher, and Library Paraprofessional.
But she’s always been a writer.
Amy lives in Glastonbury, Connecticut with her husband, two teenage children, and two cats. While she has been known to talk out loud to the characters she’s writing, she hasn’t had an actual hallucination…yet.
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