She got started writing about wildfires because of a personal encounter with one. “A wildfire came [close to our cabin in Arizona] and we were watching it from our front porch,” Cathy said. “That gave me the original idea for the first book I did … about hotshots. … That was a subject that was personal for me.”

The post Cathy McDavid’s Fiery Writing (Episode 74) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I wrote [my hero in Critical Alliance] into the first two books, but I didn’t really know who he was or what he was doing exactly,” Elizabeth said. “I really left him as an enigma—and even the other characters in the book were like, what is he doing and where is he going. I answered those questions in book three.”

The post Character Evolution with Elizabeth Goddard and Virginia Vaughn (Episode 73) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I’ve seen time slip done a couple of different ways, like when the characters are tied together by an event or an article in history,” Jaime said. “With my characters—whether they know it or not—the past is directly influencing the life of the current heroine. So you can’t separate the past heroine from the current heroine because the current day heroine wouldn’t be who they are.”

The post How Jamie Jo Wright Weaves the Past Into the Present (Episode 72) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“We see enough of the other kind of stories where the bad guy doesn’t get his in the end,” Robin said. “I like what they call whole stories, where good is good and bad is bad and good wins. I like to write whole stories.”

“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.

Under Susie May Warren’s Sunrise Publishing, Sami worked with Lynette Eason in the Elite Guardians story world developed by Lynette in a previous series. “Lynette is my mentor for this book,” Sami said. “We collaborate as far as brainstorming, but she does help me if I run into a problem. … And she’s also the one editing it, so it’s a Lynette-style book.”

The post How Sami Abrams Writes Well With Others (Episode 70) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“You can’t really hand over your brain to any electronic,” Dana said. “I say that as somebody who’s lost all the time—I’m perpetually lost everywhere.”

The post How Dana Mentink and Terri Reed Keep Readers on the Right Path (Episode 69) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I have been writing for a really long time,” Shannon said. “When I was a kid, I used to write poems and songs. I would [also] write breakup letters for my friends’ boyfriends. They would ask me … how to say this without hurting his feelings. [My writing] grew from that.”

The post Shannon Redmon’s Segue From Breakup Letters to Romantic Suspense (Episode 68) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I write edgy Christian fiction, and The Wise Man is about a Supreme Court justice who is hearing a case … between two women who are fighting over custody of a baby born live out of a failed abortion,” said Michele C.

The post How Michele Chynoweth and Michele Olson Mix Faith and Suspense (Episode 67) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“I think I’m kind of incapable of writing anything that’s not connected to everything else in some way,” Lisa said. “But I think it’s fun as a reader to get a glimpse of somebody who’s a side character who makes a phone call or sees somebody on the street and it’s somebody you know [from a previous book] … It’s so fun to see snippets of these characters you love years later.”

The post How Lisa Phillips Weaves an Interconnected World (Episode 66) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.

“You want the name to match the personality a little bit,” Laurie said. The first name she selected for a character was “too soft. I wanted it to be a little bit more … punchy than that. So I renamed her with a stronger name.”

The post The Character Development of Jodie Bailey and Laurie Wood (Episode 65) first appeared on Author Sarah Hamaker.