I find gifts of time and thoughtfulness to be romantic. My favorite snacks wrapped up with pretty paper, coupons for massages, foot rubs, etc. Dinner reservations for no special reason. Renting a "chick" flick and watching it with me. Letting me snuggle up next to him with a good book while he is watching Sunday football. Reading the Sunday paper together on the deck--doing the crossword puzzle and sneaking long, slow kisses.

I enjoy reading romantic suspense or mysteries that have romance because I am a pushover for love triangles and all the ensuing problems, as long as the right people end up together; I kissed a few frogs before I met my prince so I insist on the happy ending.

The inspiration for The Rosary Bride came from the campus I attended. Rosary College (now Dominican University) has several gothic looking buildings and an honest-to-gosh cloister walk. I actually started out trying to write a gothic romance. I had the ambience, I had underground tunnels, nuns in full habits, a stone grotto, spirit sightings, everything. However, I kept killing people! My first draft had gothic romance, scenes of erotica, and a murder investigation. An early critique at a conference I attended told me, "Settle down, Missy and pick a genre!"

The mechanics of building suspense include foreshadowing, drawing out a scene, i.e. the protagonist is walking up to a darkened building and the writer describes the night, the bushes on the path to the door, the sounds, etc. or to build tension the same scene can move quickly using staccato sentences and short intense words. The spirit of building suspense is to use a style that touches on a clue but doesn't pick it up and wave it around; that points in one direction but then moves logically in another.

I have always maintained that if you want to write in a certain genre, you need to read that genre to distraction. Read the classics in your genre and study the pacing, plotting, character development. There is a reason why they are classics. Read 'how to' books, especially on areas you feel are troublesome.

Writer's Digest had a series of short books that addressed how to write dialog, how to plot subplots, how to create tension, etc. I picked up a great book called, "How to Write Killer Fiction" by Carolyn Wheat.  Information on learning the craft of writing is readily available.  Don't try to reinvent the wheel.

I always knew I was persistent (some call it nagging), but to what extent was revealed in the time it took to write The Rosary Bride (7years) and find a publisher (5 years). Since the book has been out (May 2003), I have found the joy of a team sport. Writing is a solitary venture. I did not expect the aftermath to be any different. But it is.  I've found friends and even strangers excited about helping me to promote the book. I've found support from the least likely places. I now feel an added reality to my life--I'm already obsessing that all these dear people will like the second book as well!

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Luisa Buehler
(The Writing Craft)

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