“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?”

“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.”

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.

“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.”