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How to write suspense.

BETRAYED

BETRAYED
COMING JANUARY 2015

Monday, February 13, 2017

Win Your Copy of ONE FELL DOWN

"One Fell Down" is being featured in the "Romance is in the Air" Blog Hop. Right now! Check it out here and enter the contest. http://www.rockinbookreviews.com/2017/02/13/romance-is-in-the-air-giveaway-hop-ends-22717/



Romance In The Air Hop

Friday, February 3, 2017

5 Free Books Available in Contest


Goodreads Book Giveaway

One Fell Down by Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen

One Fell Down

by Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen

Giveaway ends March 10, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway

Friday, November 21, 2014

Betrayed by Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen


Introducing the cover (which I absolutely love) for my next romantic suspense novel, Betrayed. It will be released on January 2, 2015, and is now available for pre-order here. Can't wait!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Page-turning Momentum

One of my favorite secrets to keeping readers turning the pages of my books is that I end each chapter with something that causes readers to want to keep reading. Authors often work for that sense of forward momentum through the use of cliff-hangers like intriguing breaks in dialogue (Remember how the chapter broke between Bella and Edward's conversation at the restaurant in Twilight?), something bad happening, or the indication that trouble looms ahead. At the end of Chapter One in my paranormal suspense novel, Trapped, Emi Warren realizes a thief had been in her room while she slept.

Another lesser-known, page-turning tool also takes place at the end of the chapter. It is to include a new, POV character goal that makes the reader want to find out if he or she can accomplish it. For instance, at the end of chapter twenty-five in my contemporary, romantic-suspense novel, Missing, the romantic lead determines he’s got to find some way to tell the main character of his feelings for her even though he sees no way to do that. Will he find a way? What will happen if he does? That's suspense.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Danger

A novel's Point of View characters must be in danger of losing something or someone important to them. The threat of physical death is always good, but other losses can be equally effective: Will Scarlett O’Hara save her home? Will Elizabeth Bennett find true love? Will Stacie Cox (from my novel, Missing) rescue the kidnapped child? 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Intriguing Characters in Desperate Situations

If readers don’t care about your character or her problem, they will stop reading your story. As I develop my characters, I search for desperate situations that both intrigue and worry me, with the emphasis on worry. For example, when my mother was a child, she woke to find a thief in her room. That intriguing and worrisome situation became my inciting incident for Trapped.

Similarly, the idea for the opening of my next novel, Betrayed (June 2014), came from an ancestral, pioneer story about two children who were forced  alone, onto the prairie, after men murdered their parents. Because situations like these upset or bother me for an extended amount of time, I believe they will bother or upset a reader--and keep them reading. 

Brainstorm question: What bothers you?