The Story Behind Cinder Bella by Kathleen Shoop

The Story Behind Cinder Bella

By Kathleen Shoop

Cinder Bella was a really fun story to write and the concept for the novel emerged through layers of ideas and inspiration. The first iteration came when I wrote something I refer to as a Tiny Story. I share these little literary snippets online or as part of collections like the book called Holly and the Christmas Tree. They give me the chance to play with characters and plots that I don't think of as seeds for book-length works at first. These slender bits also give my readers something new to enjoy in between bigger projects. But Bella Darling and her chickens were first inspired by a TikTok friend of mine, Cinda Kukas, who refers to people as her chickens. It always tickled me when she used that term.

That was in my head when I bought an antique postcard of a young woman with an armful of chickens and the tiny tale of Bella saving a wealthy man's life (circa 19^th century) was born. When it came time for me to write my yearly holiday book I'd been researching about Christmas in the old days. I came across articles that reported that people knitted mittens and emptied eggs and slipped messages inside of them to send halfway across the country. They even received replies and sometimes gifts. What an amazing concept! Those articles, my tiny story of Bella, the man she saved, and the postcard sparked an idea. Turns out Bella Darling was book-length worthy! Bella and the odd historical facts were perfect to build a holiday book around.

One thing I love about storytelling—books and movies—is a raucous ensemble cast of characters. It gives the main characters so many opportunities to develop and be seen by "others" in various ways. This provides the reader with a robust view of who they truly are. I knew I would set Bella's story in Pittsburgh during the Gilded Age. At that time the Steel City was home to more millionaires than anywhere else in the country including New York City. Shadyside, a suburb of Pittsburgh was where many of the steel, glass, iron, and engineering magnates built their homes to enjoy fresher air than was available in the city center. 1893 brought a bank collapse, panic, and a depression that destroyed the lives of many. This was the perfect time and place to set a Christmas miracle!

I can't remember exactly what inspired Bartholomew Baines' character but it didn't take long before I was writing a debonair man who'd lost it all in the collapse, into the story. Though this is historical fiction it does have a romantic thread (it won a Next Generation Indie Book Award for romance) that somewhat draws on classic Cinderella elements. However, I didn't want Bella to be rescued, just scooped out of the ashes because she was beautiful. She's resourceful, funny, kind, and her wide-open friendliness (think golden retriever energy) compliments the magic she shares with all. That doesn't mean everything comes easy for her, but she is absolutely loveable, especially in the face of someone like Bartholomew (who she insists on calling Bart) who until he lost it all, had everything. She's got nothing compared to him, yet she's the teacher.

When the boarding house where Bartholomew is forced to stay after losing his money burns down, Bella brings all the tenants to stay at the estate where she's been living since she saved the owner's life. This found family scrapes together money and food (the wealthy owners are overseas, escaping their own financial losses) and more than that, they create a holiday season that exceeds expectations. As one reviewer said, "Enchanting and uplifting, Cinder Bella is big screen-worthy while filled with lyrical prose at the same time." –Lisa McCombs.

Christmas markets, a homemade ice skating rink, "magic" eggs, unexpected deliveries, a cameo by Henry Heinz, and a blend of softness and grit, Bella's story will put you in the Christmas spirit. It's amazing how much of the past is relevant in current times and bringing this story to life was so much fun. So far readers have felt that joy in this warm-hearted tale. Get yours now and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

Title: CINDER BELLA ('TIS THE SEASON BOOK 3)

Author: Kathleen Shoop

Publisher: Independent

Pages: 228

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle / FREE on Kindle Unlimited

She never had anything.

He lost everything.

Together they create a Christmas to remember.

December, 1893–Shadyside, Pennsylvania

Bella Darling lives in a cozy barn at Maple Grove, an estate owned by industrialist Archibald Westminster. The Westminster family is stranded overseas and have sent word to relieve all employees of their duties except Margaret, the pregnant maid, James the butler, and Bella. Content with borrowed books and a toasty home festooned with pine boughs and cinnamon sticks, she coaxes the old hens to lay eggs–extraordinary eggs. Bella yearns for just one thing—someone to share her life with. Always inventive, she has a plan for that. She just needs the right egg into the hands of the right man.

Bartholomew Baines, a Harvard-educated banker, is reeling in the aftermath of his bank’s collapse. With his friends and fiancé ostracizing him for what he thought was an act of generosity, he is penniless and alone. A kind woman welcomes him into her boarding house under conditions that he reluctantly accepts. Completely undone by his current, lowly position, and by the motley crew of fellow boarders who view him as one of them, Bartholomew wrestles with how to rebuild.

With the special eggs as the impetus, the first meeting between Bella and Bartholomew gives each the wrong idea about the other. And when the boarding house burns down a week before Christmas it’s Bella who is there to lend a hand. She, Margaret, and James invite the homeless group to stay at the estate through the holidays. But as Christmas draws closer, eviction papers arrive. Maple Grove is being foreclosed upon. Can Bella work her magic and save their Christmas? Is the growing attraction between Bella and Bartholomew enough for them to see past their differences? 

Read a sample.

Cinder Bella is available at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble & Kobo. 

Bestselling author Kathleen Shoop, PhD writes historical fiction, women’s fiction, and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and more. You can find Kathleen in person at various venues. She’s on the board of the Kerr Memorial Museum, teaches at writing/reader conferences, co-coordinates Mindful Writers Retreats and writing conferences, and gives talks at various book clubs, libraries, and historical societies.

Sign up for her newsletter at www.kshoop.com. 

Visit her website at www.kshoop.com or connect with her on X, Facebook, Instagram, BookBub, TikTok and Goodreads.

Cinder Bella is available at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble & Kobo. 

 

The Story Behind Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders

 

The Story Behind Soul Matters

By Yolonda Tonette Sanders

Becoming an author was never something I planned. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling (in general) and poetry, but writing a novel wasn’t something I’d imagined for myself. The idea for Soul Matters came during a season when I sought greater meaning in my life and work. At the time, I had a long daily commute, and those quiet drives provided me with the opportunity to think, dream, and reflect. I enjoyed my job, but I felt like I wasn’t utilizing my full potential. Writing offered a creative outlet that blended reflection, imagination, and purpose.

When I started, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no publishing background, no connections, and certainly no grand plan. I just started typing. The story grew from the seed of an idea about family and faith into a full-fledged novel about Wendy Phillips, a third-grade teacher whose life looks stable on the outside but feels uncertain within. Wendy, her sister Kim, their mother, Marlene, and their grandmother, Frances, each taught me something different as their personalities unfolded. Through them, I saw how love, wisdom, humor, and stubbornness intertwine in families that are both messy and beautiful at the same time.

Once the manuscript was complete, I began exploring publishing options and submitted an inquiry directly to a publisher. I didn’t have an agent at the time, and although direct submissions are unconventional, everything worked out in ways I couldn’t have scripted. My debut novel, Soul Matters, was traditionally published, and I learned a tremendous amount through that process. For one, I learned that if I was going to continue working with traditional publishers, I indeed wanted an agent. (Lol.) However, as self-publishing gained more prominence, I began taking steps to become a hybrid author—one who is both traditionally published and self-publishes. I re-released the book independently for its 20th anniversary, and this is yet another milestone for me. I’ve helped others publish their books and have even independently published devotionals and short stories, but Soul Matters is the first novel that I published under my company, Yo Productions. It’s exciting to see how much I have grown as a writer and entrepreneur. Soul Matters is just the beginning. 

Looking back, I see that my writing journey has been a mix of courage, curiosity, and continual learning. Inspiration, for me, didn’t arrive in one dramatic moment but unfolded quietly, one idea at a time. Finally, I realized that creative writing wasn’t just something I could do; it was something I was meant to do.

 

 

 

Title: Soul Matters

Author: Yolonda Tonette Sanders

Publisher: Yo Productions LLC

Publication Date: September 30, 2025

Pages: 360

Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle

With a successful husband, a fulfilling teaching career, and a baby on the way, Wendy Phillips seems to have it all. She’s certain God is on her side. After all, the woman she’s become wouldn’t exist without the strength of her close-knit family or her own determination to be a model daughter, sister, and wife.

But one phone call shatters Wendy’s illusion of perfection, turning her carefully crafted life upside down. Suddenly, everything she believed about herself, her family, and her faith is called into question.

As her marriage crumbles and her faith wavers, Wendy finds herself needing more support than she ever imagined. Her journey to healing will require a sister’s unexpected strength, a mother’s surprising honesty, and a truth Wendy never saw coming.

Now only God’s grace can help her confront the pain she didn’t expect and discover the soul-deep freedom she never dreamed possible.

Soul Matters is available at Amazon and Walmart.

  

Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Ph.D., is a storyteller at heart with a passion for both words and people. She is the co-founder of the Faith and Fellowship Book Festival and the author of numerous works, including novels, poetry, short stories, and academic publications. Her writing blends authenticity, emotional depth, and spiritual insight, often drawing from her own journey of faith and resilience.

Yolonda earned her doctorate in organizational leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University and is certified in emotional intelligence. She enjoys teaching, mentoring, consulting, and helping others discover their own voices through writing. When she’s not creating or consulting, you’ll likely find her spending time with her husband or enjoying heartfelt moments with loved ones.

Her latest book is the contemporary Christian fiction, Soul Matters.

You can visit her website at www.yoproductions.net .

Watch her YouTube channel!

Connect with her at  X, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.

The Story Behind The Essence of Bliss by Emily Astillberry

The Story Behind The Essence of Bliss

By Emily Astillberry

The Essence of Bliss is an emotional rollercoaster, an exploration of human emotion wrapped up in a story that will make you examine those big questions, such as chance, choice and destiny. It began with a concept, a something that would give me magic to work with, whilst allowing me to establish the rest of the narrative in the real world. That’s what I wanted, a story set in a town of real people living ordinary lives, characters, themes and development that would be relatable to my readers, with a twist, a frisson of otherworldliness that is enchanting enough to transport them towards a hint of fantasy.

I always knew that I wanted to write something emotional. I believe that our potential to feel - to love, to hate, to fear, to desire, is one of the things that sets us apart and gives us humanity. Whenever I fall in love with a book, and when I think back to all of the books that have moved me the most, it is the characters and the relationships between those characters that makes a good story, great. I read and love books from all sorts of genres but it is human emotion that I find most compelling.

My leading lady, Isabel Bliss, became the focus of my concept. She is, for the most part, a normal person, leading a normal life. She has a family, a boyfriend, a best friend and a job that she loves and is great at. However, Isabel also has something that sets her apart from anyone she has ever met, she has an extraordinary relationship with human emotions. She can feel emotional energy, be impacted by it, experience and influence the emotions of the people around her. Due to her gift, and her inability to control it satisfactorily, Isabel has learned that being around children can be easier for her. She has found that children’s emotions tend to be more simple, purer and easier to understand and manage than those of many adults, hence her career as a primary school teacher. 

Once I had my concept and my protagonist, I needed a story. I wanted my readers to explore the potential of Isabel’s gift alongside her, which is why The Essence of Bliss became a first person narrative, a journey of discovery for Isabel, peppered with twists and turns that I hope will surprise, upset and delight. I started to craft the story around her, following her as she deals with a pretty horrific situation involving a little boy in her class, and then discovers a huge betrayal in her life and a whole world of possibility that will change her forever.

As this is my debut novel, I had no idea what my writing process would be like. I didn’t know if I should make a plan or just start writing and see what happened, whether I should draft out the plot or just wing it, and how much research I would need to do. What I did know was that I had a story in me and I needed to get on and get it out. I had been waiting for the right time to start writing and in the meantime I had grown up, settled into a wonderful career, fallen in love, got married, had 5 children, a menagerie of rescued animals and a dilapidated 250 year old cottage that needs regular propping up. I realised that the right time would never come. The RIght Time, is a concept that doesn’t exist, not in my world anyway, and I needed to stop making excuses and start writing.

I did, and I loved every moment of the writing process. Due to my hectic life, finding the time to produce a six hundred and something page long novel took over three years, snatching moments, committing to periods of time and neglecting my poor family but I got there in the end. I have a double camping chair and I did most of my writing, sitting on it in the garden, me at one end and my dog, Bobby, on the other. I had an idea of where I wanted the story to go and I made copious notes, timelines, pages of character statistics and information, chapter lists etc but I was amazed at how organic the actual writing ended up being. Characters started to write themselves and things started happening that I had never planned. I would picture a scene in my head, when I was out on a dog walk or driving between jobs at work, and I would let it play out, watch and listen to what my characters did and said and then quickly jot it down on one of my many notes pages.

One of my favourite discoveries was Isabel’s mum, Bethany Bliss. She started out as a supporting character, but as I wrote, she became much more. Her eccentricities and complexities had to come from somewhere and so she ended up, not only with a much bigger role in the novel than I had anticipated, but also with a full back story that I hope to be able to tell in a prequel novel one day. I have so many ideas for more stories set in Isabel’s world, I hope I have the opportunity to make them a reality. I am currently well on the way to producing the sequel, The Essence of Insanity and am excited to be able to share it with the world next year.

 

 

 

Title: The Essence of Bliss

Author: Emily Astillberry

Publication Date: December 16, 2024

Pages: 615

Genre: Speculative Fiction/Romance

Formats: Paperback, Kindle

Isabel Bliss is a reception class teacher. She experiences other people’s emotions and can influence how they feel but she doesn’t truly understand her gift and has been encouraged, by her mum, to hide it from others. She often feels lost and alone. 

When a child in her class experiences chronic distress that only she can perceive, Isabel uses her ability to relieve his suffering, but his situation continues to worsen. Eventually she is forced to take matters into her own hands, escorting him home where she finds horrific signs of abuse. She saves his mum’s life and his father is arrested for the brutal torture he has inflicted upon his family. 

A wealthy family moves to town and Isabel meets the two sons. She recoils from Daniel, who is hateful, rude and emotionally deficient but is inexorably drawn to Scott, who awakens something magical, deep inside her. They are like her. They are fluencers and have the ability to sense, read and willfully manipulate emotional energies. Isabel confronts her mum and uncovers hurtful lies and deceit within her own family. 

She falls deeply in love and ultimately discovers the untold potential of her gift and the passion and power that dwells within.

Read a sample here.

The Essence of Bliss is available at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

  

Emily Astillberry is an author and RSPCA Inspector from Norfolk, England. She has a degree in English Literature and Linguistics from York University and has been investigating animal cruelty and neglect and rescuing sick and injured animals for 20 years. In her day job, Emily deals with very difficult and often emotional situations and meets all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. Her career provides some of the inspiration for themes and characters that can be found in her fictional work.

At home, in a very old cottage in the country, Emily has a husband, 5 children, a dog, a cat, an axolotl, 2 giant African land snails and a varying number of rescue hens, so finding time to write can be a challenge. She is happiest outdoors, growing fruit and vegetables in the garden, walking the dog and family holidays usually involve walking up mountains in summer, skiing down them in winter and sleeping in a tent whenever possible.

Emily loves spending time with her large, noisy, chaotic family, cooking meals for friends and playing board games. She always has at least one book on the go and has always dreamed of writing her own novel. She now dreams of writing more. 

Visit her website at https://emilyastillberry.com. 

You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

The Essence of Bliss is her latest book.