Debut author Jacquie Bosma’s first book, Stage Mouse, came out yesterday! Congratulations, Jacquie! I am honored to introduce Jacquie to you, and I’ll let her introduce Stage Mouse to you.

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Stage Mouse had her beginnings when I was in undergrad at James Madison University (go Dukes!). She began as a short screenplay for a class I was taking. In the years since, I have pantsed my way into nurturing the story of Irish immigrant Belle Malone into a full-length novel. I’m a professed history nerd and a proven Theater Kid (being an actor and on staff with my local theater), and Stage Mouse blends both of those loves in a vibrant, exciting, surprising novel that tells the less-gilded stories of the diverse people of New York in the 1890s.

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Jacquie Bosma wrote her first novel in a Dollar Tree notebook at age nine. (Not to brag, but it was kind of a big deal in her cul-de-sac.) She lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her wonderful husband, two fantastic sons, two boy cats, and a boy dog. Jacquie makes up for the lack of estrogen in her home by writing distinctly feminine stories that always carry a note of hope and always, always, always, a Happily Ever After. Learn more about Jacquie at jacquiebosma.com.

In 1891, Belle Malone would rather be sketching than financially supporting her family. Emigrating from County Cork, Ireland, Belle arrives in New York City with the assurance of respectable-if predictable-work in a textile mill. In a fiery twist of fate, Belle is offered an opportunity to trade a loom for a paintbrush, working as a scenic painter in a small Bowery theater where nothing is quite as it appears to be… even beyond the vaudeville theatrics onstage.

While painting in the wings, Belle befriends vibrant performer Nora Valentine, navigates tensions with brooding carpenter Connor McDevitt, and discovers a ghost from her past—Seamus Riordan, a young man from Ireland who was long presumed dead. Will he be the key to her new life in America? Or will the mysterious Seamus bring her ruin instead?