Book Details:
Book Title: THE THINGS THEY DIDN'T SEE by Angela Shaeffer
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 358 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction, Family Saga
Publisher: Wander Lane Press
Release date: June 2025
Content Rating: PG + M: Mild profanity with some mature themes (self harm, suicide attempt)
— Publishers Weekly BookLife(Editor’s Pick)
Raised on sunny days at Lake Koda, Jill piloted a speedboat long before driving a car. Her husband and three boys share her love for boating—until a surprise storm and tragic accident change everything.
As grief settles in, Jill and her family are drifting apart. Her relationship with teenage Jake grows strained when everything she says or does seems to be wrong. Her husband, Matt, takes Jake’s side, and even her sweet youngest child doesn’t trust her judgment.
Jake is trying to be a good kid but doesn’t know where to turn when his head and heart are constantly racing, and Matt just wants peace between his wife and son. Tensions build as they bump and bang into one another. There’s too much extra space for a family of four living in a home built for five.
Emotional and ultimately hopeful, The Things They Didn’t See is the story of a family’s love for each other clouded by misunderstandings, guilt and blame as they struggle to overcome unprecedented loss and find connection again.
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Angela Shaeffer is a mother to four grown children, two children-in-law, and Grammy to two adorable granddaughters. She lives in Utah with her husband when they’re not escaping to Colorado’s San Juan Mountains or exploring New York City. She loves to hike, road bike and travel but also cherishes solitary hours to read and write. The Things They Didn’t See is her debut novel.
Interview
What
is the first book that made you cry?
Where
The Red Fern Grows. The whole fourth
grade class, including our teacher, was crying as she read the end. I cried
again when I read it to my son. It’s like a rite of passage.
The first book
that made me cry that I read on my own was in fifth grade: A Day No Pigs
Would Die. That year, I also read To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord
of the Flies. I fell in love with books that made me think and feel.
Does
writing energize or exhaust you?
Both! Some days I
can’t wait to return to crafting my story. Those days it feels like visiting
old friends. But other times, when I’m working on difficult scenes—either
emotional or full of action, where I have to really be careful not to overwrite—I
find myself standing up and walking around every fifteen to thirty minutes to
find a snack or refill my water bottle. I need that emotional break. But when I
find the right phrase or sentence that hits the right mood,even now I get
excited reading it all over again.
What
is your writing Kryptonite?
Action scenes. I
wrote and rewrote and edited Chapters One and Two at least seven times to
workshop in classes plus loads of rewriting after that. When I was first
starting the book—mind you, I was a first-time novel writer, very much a
beginner—I overwrote, describing every movement, not sure when I could skip
details. Noticing that tendency and reading action scenes in other books helped
me learn to strike the right balance.
Did
you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
No! I was so
excited to share my book with the world and wanted my name on it. However, when
I first started working on the book, I was very timid in telling people I was
writing a novel.
What
other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better
writer?
I formed a
writing group with three other ladies who were in an early novel writing class
with me. All our stories and writing styles are so different from each other,
but we’re all excellent at giving feedback. Receiving critique from someone who
is cheering for you and loves your story is absolutely imperative in improving
your work and maintaining motivation to keep writing.
Do
you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of
work with connections between each book?
Each book will
stand on its own. My next book has a completely different mood and story with
an 80-year-old woman vacationing solo in England who meets a member of the Queen’s
guard (I guess it’s King’s guard now!) when she trips and sprains her ankle.
That being said,
I was recently at lunch with a gentleman struggling with the choices of his
adult child. I immediately thought that maybe Henry would struggle when he
became a young man. I wondered how the family would have changed and how would
they help him? But I’m not entertaining much beyond that yet. I can’t stand to
have any more heartbreak in the Miller family for now.
What
authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
Oh . . . I’m
trying to think if I give any authors a second chance . . . I can think of two
recently that I started another book after not enjoying a first, buteven in the
second books, I still gave up after two chapters. It’s only been in the last
couple of years I’ve been okay with a DNF. There are too many good books to
spend time with ones you don’t resonate with.
As
a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Well, I do have a
mascot. It’s a Pez dispenser of Vanessa from Bee Movie. She looks a lot
like me and she stood guard near the kids’ computer for years. She must have
disappeared in our move. But this question reminded me of her and now I just
ordered me a new one fromeBay. I never knew her name until right now—Vanessa. And
ironically, a Vanessa made it into my book.
How
many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Just the one that
I mentioned earlier. My next book is a completely different mood and story with
an 80-year-old woman vacationing solo in England who meets a member of the
Queen’s guard (in plain clothes on his way home from work. I guess it’s King’s
guard now!) when she trips and sprains her ankle.
What
did you edit out of this book?
Originally,
Grandpa and Gina had two young children. (My dad also had young children the
same age as mine, so I really enjoyed writing Grandpa from that perspective.)
Their children were on the boat as well as Jill’s sister and brother and his
family. Boating days for our family often had a big group of adults and
children and I was trying to replicate that. But a first chapter with so many
characters is difficult to write well and challenging for a reader to keep
track of. I tried. And I tried. And every class I took, the teachers
recommended I cut them. But I couldn’t. I loved them.And that’s why they call
it “Kill your darlings.” I finally matured enough as a writer to realize they
really didn’t have a larger part in the story.
If
you didn’t write, what would you do for work?
I was a
stay-at-home mom for twenty years and very consumed with not only raising four
children, but all the volunteer responsibilities that I said yes to.
Many friendships and enjoyment came from those experiences, until one day I was
done helping with everyone else’s projects and wanted to take time for mine.
That’s when I enrolled in writing classes.
What
is your favorite childhood book?
To
Kill a Mockingbird (But I also read
every single Hardy Boys mystery.)
connect with the author: website ~ instagram ~ goodreads
Thanks for spotlighting my novel and the chance to share some things about me and writing!
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