The Romantic Side of Suspense Author/Coach/Encourager 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”