The Romantic Side of Suspense Author Sarah Hamaker

“I think that there’s a spiritual aspect to nature because I see God’s creativity,” Lori says. “Nature is one of the things that really speaks to my heart. I love to observe trees, plants, the sunrise or sunset, to feel the sunshine, the wind. … We spend 90% of our lives indoors, and that’s not how we were recreated. … There’s something intentional about seeking those moments to be just outside and experiencing the world. All the senses come alive when you go outside into the natural world.”

“I’ve got so many demands currently that’s it’s hard to find time to write,” James says. “What I finally realized was that my wife is so much better at organization and schedules than I am that I needed to give her control over my schedule. Before I was trying to be the soldier and the general at the same time. I’ve had the most productive last couple of months in my entire writing career by just letting go of control and letting her take over.”

“I find inspiration everywhere I can,” Terri says. “When I’m watching TV, I think, ‘Oh, that’s kind of an interesting thing that they did, but what if I did this instead?’ I’m always looking at newsfeeds and headlines, then taking the idea of whatever that headline is and flipping it around into something feasible, that could happen in real life. But it is fiction and we get to have some license.”

“When you write romantic suspense, there are three story threads that you’ve got to weave together,” Lisa says. “There’s the romantic tension between your characters in which they’ve got to overcome certain obstacles that threaten their relationship. Then you’ve also got the thread of suspense where the characters are trying to either find a killer or escape, a killer or someone will die. And because I write from a Christian worldview, there’s also the spiritual thread that is running through my novels, where the characters are coming to grips with God’s invitation for a relationship. I’m weaving together these three story tension threads between the spiritual and the romantic and the suspense and it’s kind of a little dance to get them all, to come out together in the end.”