The post The Chronological Order of Hannah Linder’s Writing (Episode 164) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

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The post June 2024 Quick Takes in Christian Romantic Suspense (Episode 118) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

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The post Holiday Menace Collection Bonus Episode! first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

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The post September 2023 Quick Takes in Christian Romantic Suspense (Episode 99) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

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“We live in a very fallen world, and it’s nice to get away from the reality that evil doesn’t always get punished right now,” Mary said. “It’s good to have books where the hero and heroine have everything worked out in the end, the bad guy gets punished and there’s usually a happily ever after at the end of the story.”

The post Why Mary Alford and Robin Patchen Ensure Good Triumphs Over Evil in Their Books (Episode 71) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

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“My first book, Fatal Flashback, was inspired by the setting,” Kellie says. “For example, my husband and I were living in Texas, and we went on a camping trip out to Big Bend National Park and I fell in love with the setting. I had never written anything book-length before and I thought this would be an amazing place for a romance between a park ranger and somebody else, and there’s going to be action and adventure.”

The post How the Setting Got Kellie VanHorn Into Writing (Episode 56) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“It’s definitely a discipline to write,” Kimberly says. “I do teach a lot about writing … and people ask [how do I write when I get writer’s block] all the time. My answer is writer’s block is not an option. You have these big dreams [about the creative process], … but writing is hard work. It is a discipline—you have to make yourself sit down and write. You can’t wait for the muse to hit and you write something brilliant.

The post Kimberly Woodhouse’s Discipline of Writing (Episode 55) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“Our lives revolved around electronic devices, Zoom and FaceTime, during the pandemic in 2020, but I think that was one of the pluses to staying connected with people,” Natalie says. “Being able to remain on social media and be able to communicate through FaceTime and video chats to keep people updated. … That was one of the best ways for me as an author to remain connected with readers.”

The post How Natalie Walters Stays Connected (Episode 54) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I tend to write a lot of Navy SEALs, CIA type books, so basing them in DC, Virginia Beach, Virginia is often a favorite for me, but the characters being in the military or CIA are from everywhere,” Traci said. “So living in Virginia for so many years but being from the West is great. For example, if you’re talking about Virginia, one of the most common freeways is I-95, but if you’re in Utah, it’s the 15, with the in front of the number. Little things like that you wouldn’t know unless you’ve lived in different places.”

The post How Traci Hunter Abramson’s Travels Authenticates Her Books (Episode 53) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“What I wanted to do as a career as a child was archeology,” Sally Jo says. “Writing also has got that concept of digging, you have to dig into your subject and your topic and your characters and what’s going happen. Archeology fascinated me, finding the tombs and treasures… and writing fits that whole concept of discovery because as a writer I do that daily.”

The post The Archeology of Writing With Sally Jo Pitts (Episode 52) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I was inspired by author Deborah White Smith, who did some updated versions or modern-day tellings of some Jane Austen books,” Melanie says. “I loved her books and I love Jane Austen, and thought, ‘I could do this’ with one of my favorite classics, Jane Eyre. … I love the whole gothic suspense thing that goes on in Jane Eyre and that could easily be reset to today.”

The post The Gothic World Melanie Jeschke Loves (Episode 51) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I don’t write in crayon anymore but I do have a closet door with a map going up on the wall that some artist family members are building a mural of Miller’s Creek, which is where most of my books’ settings are just so I can keep track of the roads and who lives in what house,” Mindy says. “So they’re allowed to draw on the walls of my office for that.”

The post Why Mindy Allows Crayons on Her Walls (Episode 50) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“As a younger man, I was really interested in filmmaking,” Andy says. “When I’m writing a scene, I may [visualize it as a movie]. In my Shepherd suspense series, there are scenes in each of the books that play out as if I were watching a movie in advance of me writing it. … I take that and start diving into how do I turn this into a written scene.”

The post How Andrew Huff Visualizes Writing (Episode 49) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“When I started blogging over 10 years ago, I decided that divine detour sums up my writing and life in general,” Kathy says. “Sometimes God takes us on a crooked path to the right thing. … We can’t always assume how God plans to get us to our calling and [divine detour] kind of sums that up for all of us.”

The post Take a Divine Detour With Kathy Harris (Episode 48) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“It seems in these days, many people feel so hopeless and so helpless,” Liz says. “That's why I do what I do very intentionally to show that even in the most terrifying circumstances, … we're never truly alone in that. God has promised that he's going to walk through the fire with us. So no matter what happens, he's always going to be there. Then he promises that he works everything out to our good. There's that hope that I do bring to the stories and that I hope the readers will pick up on and we'll be uplifted by it. Even a romantic suspense can be an uplifting book when it's written from a Christian perspective.”

The post Liz Tolsma Infuses Hope in her Books (Episode 47) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“Sometimes our writing kind of tells us what to write,” says Jerusha Agen. “Writing suspense fits tendencies of my personality because I do tend to be a fearful person. … I have a hyperactive imagination. So I'm really always imagining worst-case scenarios and danger. In a way, I think writing romantic suspense gives me a healthy channel for the tendencies instead of just freaking myself out in my daily life. I can actually put it in a book, and have more control over it and have a positive lesson come out of it as well.”

The post Jerusha Agen’s Suspenseful Tendencies (Episode 46) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“You’re always sort of riding that fine line of believable, but pushing the edge of it,” Jennifer says. “You want to put people in really strange and difficult situations, and you want the stakes to escalate. You want things to get more challenging. … People have to get lost in the story world and feel like it can happen. … One of the questions we ask ourselves as writers is what's the worst thing that could happen right now?”

The post Jennifer Crosswhite’s Believability Ride (Episode 45) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I have written other genres, but romantic suspense is the one that I keep going back to,” Melissa says. “I think it really comes down to my two favorite things in writing—intrigue/mystery and any kind of really super-intense emotions. And so this is a genre that really covers all of that and marries it beautifully.”

The post A Marriage Made for Melissa Koslin (Episode 44) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“The Bible has everything in it because we're all human beings,” Michele says. “There's stories about human beings and all of the trials and tribulations we go through. There is a lot of suspense in there. There is a lot of heartache and challenges and triumphs. The Bible is a conglomeration of stories about us and all that we face. … I’ll never run out of material.”

The post The Biblical Inspiration of Michele Chynoweth (Episode 43) first appeared on 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.”

The post How Lori Altebaumer Experiences the World (Episode 42) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“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.”

The post The General James R. Hannibal Follows (Episode 41) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“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.”

The post Terri Reed Flips Reality on its Head (Episode 40) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“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.”

The post Lisa Carter’s Writing Dance (Episode 39) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I actually worked in corporate America in my twenties, and I traveled all over the country,” Elizabeth, adding that she quit to stay home with her first child. “During that time, I decided that I wanted to focus on my dream of writing. … Now it’s my full-time job, where I have word counts and marketing/promotion I have to hit every day.”

The post Elizabeth Goddard’s Writing Dream (Episode 38) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve always liked to read,” Mary said. “I started reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I loved the mystery and suspense of those. From there, I graduated to Victoria Holt, Phyliss Whitney, Mary Stuart. I was a preteen when I first decided to try my hand at writing what I loved to read. It looked so easy! I wrote my first book, which was terrible and full of cliches and sappy romance. Those stories lit a fire in me. Many years fell in-between before I started writing again.”

The post How Mary Alford’s Preteen Writing Fuels Her Today (Episode 37) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I’m a full-time author and I write all the time,” Joanna said. “My goal for 2020 was to write a million words just with my novels that hit at least 50,000 words. I had a lot of books or series that I wanted to start or complete or work on. … January 1, 2020, I started the challenge, and by July 23, I had completed the challenge. I’ve written 15 books and since then, I’ve written two more.”

The post How Joanna White Writes So Much (Episode 36) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I don’t know if I could write a book if I couldn’t kill somebody,” Debby said. “There’s a lot of elements to a suspense story that need to be woven together. I’m a plotter, so beforehand, I want to get a fairly good idea of how the story’s going to progress. We have our red herrings, and there’s a lot of foreshadowing that has to go in there. And of course our villain has to be a somewhat complex person. He has to have goals and motivations and conflict, and he has to change through the story as well.”

The post Debby Giusti’s Care & Treatment of Villains (Episode 35) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“A few years ago, we turned an attic storage area off of our bonus room into an office for me,” Lynn said. “Half of the ceiling is angled to the floor because it’s the roofline, but it’s a room of my own for writing. My kids are used to me saying, ‘This is the part where you pretend Mommy has left the house.’”

The post Lynn Blackburn’s Room of Her Own (Episode 34) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I think time is like a closet,” Dana said. “If you have a small closet, you fill it up. If you suddenly gotten yourself a big closet, you fill it up. No matter the how much space or time you have, you’re going to fill it up.”

The post How Dana Mentink Fills Her Closet (Episode 33) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I don’t know how I’ve written 80 books,” Lenora said. “I’ve always wanted to write from a young age, and when I finally had the opportunity, it took a few years. I really enjoy writing and I have a vivid imagination. When I look back, I think how I did I do that. I’ve written novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, worked for newspapers, worked for magazines—and it was all coming from this need to put words on the page.”

The post Lenora Worth’s Lifelong Desire to Write (Episode 32) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“It was kind of difficult finding a balance to write at first,” Sara said. “I primarily get up early—and it’s hopefully before anyone else is up—between five and five-thirty, and then try to get as much writing as I can before everyone else is getting up. Whatever writing doesn’t get done, I try to fit it in between math, etc.”

The post Sara Blackard’s Early Morning Inspiration (Episode 31) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“When watching movies, I use them to draw inspiration as far as character ideas, flaws for the characters, plot engines, and how other writers have put together the steps to create the plots,” Gina said. “When I relax my mind that way, I’m also able to think of things for my own books and ideas come to mind.”

The post Movies Provide Inspiration For Gina Holder (Episode 30) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“For me, I think there are a few things hard about writing romantic suspense,” Deena said. “One is keeping up that level of suspense through the whole story. Second, balancing that with the romance. Since I write inspirational, it’s also balancing the faith element with the suspense and romance—all while not letting the story get boring.”

The post Deena Alexander on Balancing Romance, Suspense & Faith (Episode 29) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“One of my secrets is that when I decided to start writing, I gave up TV,” Cara said. “I figured out what was that thing in my life that I could cut out and make space for writing.”

The post What Cara Putman Gave Up to Write (Episode 28) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“When I decided to write a book, it was natural for me to segue into romantic suspense,” Lynette said. “I was a suspense fan and a romance fan, so combining the two was fun.”

The post Lynette Eason on Why She Writes Romantic Suspense (Episode 27) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“If somebody tells me the end of a book or a movie, it doesn’t ruin it for me,” Wendy said. “I still want to go back and read or watch it because I want to know how that ending came to pass.”

The post How Wendy Wilson Spooner Tracks Down Her Characters (Episode 26) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I’ve never seen a story where a court reporter was the main character,” Kelly said. “It fit so well into the crime genre because they’re responsible for the evidence in trials. A lot of people think they’re just transcribers, but there’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into recording the trial.”

The post How Kelly Irvin Turned a Side Job Into a Novel (Episode 25) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“My whole writing journey is this God-given thing,” Jodie said. “I was in contemporary women’s fiction, when my agent asked if I thought about writing military suspense. I walked to the coat closet, and I thought, ‘What if somebody was in my closet and it’s the good guy?’ Before I knew it, I had half a military suspense done in my head.”

The post Jodie Bailey’s Glimpse Into Military Life (Episode 24) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“It is really cool for me that my husband is a police lieutenant,” Sherri said. “It makes it a lot less awkward for me because I don’t have to hunt down someone to get answers to my questions. But sometimes, it can be hard to pull the answers from him because it’s his everyday life and he doesn’t think about the details that I need for my writing.”

The post Stephanie M. Gammon on Her Early Writing Influences (Episode 23) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“The hardest part for me in writing romantic suspense is coming up with good plots,” Robin said. “I really write small town romantic suspense, and I like my characters to all stay in the same town and know each other. But how many different ways can you put danger in a small town?”

The post Robin Patchen on Interviewing Her Characters (Episode 22) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“Mackinaw Island, Michigan, is one of my favorite places on earth,” Michele said. “I live about five hours away, so I’ve been going there about 35 years, so I feel like I really know the island.”

The post Michèle Olson on the Beauty of Mackinac Island (Episode 21) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

On this episode of “The Romantic Side of Suspense,” I’m chatting Laurie Wood, a military wife who’s lived across Canada and visited six of its 10 provinces.

The post Laurie Wood on Writing With Purpose (Episode 20) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“In my romantic suspense, I don’t like to kill people,” Susan said. “My books are more adventure-oriented, so I don’t have to have a villain come in and do terrible things to my characters. But I do have people die, so I have to research things like how someone would die if they fell.”

The post Tapping Into Susan May Warren’s Creativity (Episode 19) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“The contemporary romance that I write have a lot of drama in them, but it’s more of an interpersonal variety and those very rarely have any cliffhanger, life-and-death moments. I get to do a pretty deep dive in the psychology of the characters and focus on the relationship side of things,” Irene said. “When I move into romantic suspense, I’m dealing with more usually shorter time frame and a lot more tension and danger and some characters are pretty scary. … Those books tend to be more intense and research heavy.”

The post Irene Hannon’s Writing Journey (Episode 18) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“In romantic suspense, there’s always something happening,” Lynn said. “One of the challenges of writing romantic suspense is that you have many threads that you’re pulling at the same time—the romance, the mystery and the faith element—that you have to interweave all together.”

The post Lynn Shannon on Tying the Threads of Romantic Suspense Together (Episode 17) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“It’s easy and it’s not easy to write,” Jessica said. “If you’re a seat-of-the-pants writer—if you just make it up as you go, and that’s how I was originally—having a manuscript is fantastic because once it’s done, you write your proposal and send it in. But when you start selling on proposal, they want a full synopsis, which can be about seven to 10 pages.”

The post How Jessica R. Patch Makes Her Stories Realistic (Episode 16) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“One thing I love about writing inspirational romantic suspense is that I love romantic suspense,” Virginia said. “I’ve been a fan of romantic suspense forever.”

The post Virginia Vaughn’s Tailor-Made Background for Writing first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I’ve always looked at writing as a kind of therapy,” Lisa said. “But I also learned that you can’t wait to write until you feel creative. I think that’s been my biggest struggle [during the pandemic], if I wait to feel creative, I’m really just not feeling creative. … I’ve had to learn I have to sit down and write.”

The post How Lisa Harris Works Through Stress (Episode 14) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I like to take what’s happening in and around me in our country and use those as ways to make people aware of them,” Margaret said. “In my books, the criminals always get caught, so I see them as a way to help us handle these issues.”

The post Why Margaret Daley Writes Happy Endings (Episode 13) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“When I first started, I started writing regular romantic suspense,” Dana said. “In my third book, I started to veer off into Amish adjacent, and what that is some of your characters can be Amish or not, but it’s usually set in Amish settings or there’s some connection with Amish side characters. I’ve had heroes and heroines who were Amish, but I’ve also had cops and paramedics. It doesn’t have to be strictly Amish, but there’s an Amish element.”

The post Dana R. Lynn on Writing Amish Adjacent (Episode 12) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“Every since I was a little girl, I loved mysteries—whether it was a Nancy Drew book, a game of Clue or Charlie’s Angels TV show,” Darlene said. “This is what started my love of trying to figure out the mystery, and this is why I love writing romantic suspense.”

The post Where Darlene Turner Searches for Plot Inspiration (Episode 11) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“For motivation for writing in general, the biggest thing is writing first thing in the morning,” Dani said. “If I do that, it’s really helpful because nothing else is weighing on my mind. … the afternoons, I do the other stuff like check email, marketing, etc. My advice is to find the most productive writing time of day is for you.”

The post How Dani Pettrey Avoids Writing Distractions (Episode 10) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I’ve always loved suspense. My babysitter when I was probably five years old started me out on Edgar Allen Poe,” David said. “I’ve always thought it really a talent to tell a story that not only keeps the reader engaged but eager to find out what’s happening next.”

The post Why David L. Winters Writes About Cars (Episode 9) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I connect with my readers mostly on social media,” Sharon said. “I’m on Facebook a lot on a group forum and author and book page, and also on Twitter to connect with readers there too.”

The post How Sharon K Connell Stays in Touch With Readers (Episode 8) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I like to explore the unusual,” Tanya said. “And that tends to come out in my books. … We’ve visited some fascinating places, and … I’ve incorporated that into my books.”

The post Tanya Stowe On Killing Characters (Episode 7) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“When I started out, I had an outline for writing my books,” Patricia said. “But about three books ago, I couldn’t figure out the outline and had to start writing to figure the book out. I find out as much about my character as I can before I start writing.”

The post Patricia Bradley on Cats, Life Happens and BIC (Episode 6) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“The more I write, the more I get to know my characters,” Kimberly said. “As I get to know my characters more, I often will go back and write more things into my story. I also make notes in the margins … to make sure I put everything in.”

The post Where Kimberly Rose Johnson Finds Inspiration (Episode 5) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“For me, I’m very much a character-drive plotter,” Sherri said. “If I know my character’s conflict at the beginning, that helps keep the romantic and personal plots in place. Because if I’m ever tempted to stray, I go back to what is their false belief.”

The post How Sherri Shackleford Gets to Know Her Characters (Episode 4) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“My favorite thing is to name a book based on a theme, an underlying inspirational theme or character development theme in my books,” Denise said. “I also sometimes choose a name based on a big event that happens in the book.”

The post How Denise Weimer Stumbled Into Romantic Suspense (Episode 3) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“We recently downsized and relocated to a tiny house that backs up to woods and forest,” Linda said. “There’s a chair that looks out over the woods. In the summer, I sit on our deck in a chaise lounge overlooking the woods. I find it restive and rejuvenating while I’m working.”

The post Linda Shenton Matchett’s Strategy for Writing (Episode 2) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I would advise someone who wanted to write a book to do it—just sit down and write and get it out,” Julie said. “Don’t worry about grammar, don’t worry about spelling or any punctuation—get the English teacher out of your head!—just get it down on paper. … Get into in person or online with a good, supportive critique group."

The post The World of Julie B Cosgrove (Episode 1) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.