Interview with Romantic Suspense Author Sarah Hamaker and a Giveaway!

Welcome to Readers Write to Know! I asked you, my readers, what questions they would ask their favorite authors if given the chance, and the authors visiting my blog answered them! I’m always excited when I have a friend as my guest, and this week I am thrilled to have Sarah Hamaker visiting. Gregg and I have long been involved with the American Christian Fiction Writers Virginia Writers Conference, and we met Sarah working with that fabulous group. I always enjoy the chance to get to speak to her and have loved every class she’s taught. Today, she’s talking about her latest release, Justice Delayed, and giving away ebooks of it to TWO readers! Yay! Read on to see how you can enter to win! (And, ya’ll, this book sounds FABULOUS!)

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Sarah Hamaker loves writing books “where the hero and heroine fall in love while running for their lives.” She’s written award-winning romantic suspense novels and nonfiction books, as well as stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes. As a AWSA certified writer coach, her heart is encouraging writers. She’s a member of AWSA; Christian Authors Network; ACFW; ACFW Virginia Chapter; and Faith, Hope and. Her podcast, “The Romantic Side of Suspense,” can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. Sarah lives in Virginia with her husband, two college daughters and two high school sons, plus three cats.

Tell us about your book. After serving her time, a convicted murderer tries to clear her name with the help of a washed-up investigative reporter.

Journalist Brogan Gilmore had been a rising star when an unethical shortcut on a story leads to his fall from grace. A chance encounter with convicted murderer Melender Harman a few months after her release from prison provides Brogan with a chance for career redemption—if he can land an interview with her.

After serving her 17-year sentence, Melender has one objective: To uncover the truth about what happened to her cousin the night the toddler disappeared. When Brogan pursues her for an exclusive story, she reluctantly agrees if he’ll help her reexamine the original investigation into Jesse’s presumed kidnapping and murder.

While re-investigating the case, Brogan struggles to keep his objectivity as he begins to believe Melender is innocent of the crime—and starts to envision a possible future together. Then a shocking discovery throws their relationship—and investigation—into turmoil.

As Brogan and Melender come closer to solving what happened to Jesse, will their budding relationship survive the truth?

“Justice Delayed gripped me from the beginning, and Melender’s story haunted me for days after I finished. Sarah Hamaker did a superb job of making me fall in love with her characters and care about what happens to them.”
—Patricia Bradley, author of the Pearl River Series

If you knew ahead of time your book would benefit only one person on their spiritual journey, would you still write it? Unequivocally yes! I’ve always been a firm believer in writing the stories I believe God has placed on my heart, and that my writing journey is best for me as an author who follows Jesus. While my books don’t usually have a traditional come-to-Jesus scene or moment, I infuse at least one of my characters with a strong faith and try to portray a realistic spiritual journey for all of my characters as they tackle tough topics. For example, in Justice Delayed, my heroine has just come out of prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She could be bitter and angry, but instead, she chooses to see her prison stint as being for her good and God’s glory. That didn’t mean she wasn’t seeking the truth or justice, but it did mean she wasn’t seeking revenge on those who wronged her. A few readers have mentioned that the book has made them think what they would do and that it helped to grow their own faith through seeing this character work through her situation.

How do you push past the fear of your writing being average and be bold enough to sell it to a publisher(or agent or audience if you self publish)? We all think we’re average writers, and that no one will buy our book, and why, oh, why did we ever think we could write. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. I think it’s because we all know so many good writers out there and imposter syndrome taps us on the shoulder to say we’re not really part of that group. But the reality is, we are. If God has called you to write, then you must write. You might not have financial success. You might not sell X number of books. But if God has called you to write, then write you must. If you’ve done all you can–taken writing classes, read craft books, worked with critique partners and editors–to improve your writing, then you have to put on your big girl pants and send your book baby out into the big bad world. Yes, you’ll get rejected–it happens to all of us at one time or another. But what sets apart the serious writers from the hobby writers is that the serious writer learns from the rejection if possible and writes another book. And another one, and one after that. We keep writing and keep submitting and keep pressing forward.

Have you always wanted to write a book? Yep, ever since I was a little girl. In fact, when I was around 8, I wrote a book of poems and short stories with my best friend and my mom typed it up using carbon paper to make us two copies that we illustrated. The illustrations were terrible but I still have that first “book” that set me on the path to authorship years later.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers? Keep writing! Sounds simple, but the fact is, you can’t do anything until you have your first draft of your first book. All to often, aspiring writers get bogged down on worries about platform, followers, finding an agent or publisher, etc., before they’ve even finished their first book. Finish that book, polish it up, then you can focus your attention on the rest. But getting that first book completed is key to moving from aspiring writer to actual writer.

I assume when you start a book, you pretty much have the plot laid out. Do you ever change your mind later on in the book, and go in a different direction? As a panster, I don’t usually outline my books. However, I do have the basic plot idea and sometimes who the culprit is (since I write romantic suspense). But there are times when I’ve changed my mind because the storyline goes in a different direction and the person I thought would be the villain isn’t and someone else is. Or I add another layer to the why part of the mystery/suspense. Sometimes, I don’t even realize why I added something until later in the book when I see the connection. It’s funny how the brain works (or maybe that’s just my brain!).

How hard is it to come up with names for your characters? What are some of the sources you use? It’s hard! When I’m writing my first draft, I usually don’t name any characters other than my hero and heroine because I can get sidetracked into finding the perfect name for cop #1 who has one line in my novel, LOL. I have a book of baby names I got especially for writing, along with three old phone books (I posted in an online neighborhood community and asked for them). I use the baby names book for first names and the phone books for last names, which is something I used to struggle with. Sometimes, a name for a secondary character will pop into my head as I’m writing a scene and I’ll run with it, but most of the time, I simply use descriptive names like Best Friend, Detective Break-in, etc., so when I’m going through the completed draft and editing it, I can do an easy search-and-replace with the name I’ll select. For book 2 in the Seeking Justice series, I decided to ask my newsletter subscribers to submit names, and if I use them, I’ll enter those subscribers into a contest to win a copy of book 2 when it comes out. Figured that might be a fun way to get some names and a little less work for me.

How difficult is it for you to make sure those who are asked to review actually do review? Does this limit your thoughts on ARCs? I open up my Street Team application a couple of months before my book comes out and I ask where they will post reviews or info about my book. Then I download those into an Excel spreadsheet. I also ask them to send me links to their reviews, which most do. While I don’t doublecheck the links, I have followed up with the handful who downloaded my book but didn’t do what they said they did. I allow for life circumstances that meant they couldn’t fulfill their obligation, but if they don’t respond when I ask why they hadn’t reviewed it, then I won’t allow them to be on my Street Team for other books. It’s important to me to keep my Street Team filled with people who are passionate about my writing and not just people who wanted a free book.

Find Sarah online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorsarahhamaker
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sarah-hamaker
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1804799.Sarah_Hamaker
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002TIARBS
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.s.hamaker/

Find Sarah’s book:

Justice Delayed: A Christian Romantic Suspense Novel (The Seeking Justice Series Book 1)

Price: $7.99

1 used & new available from $7.99

Enter to win one of two ebooks of Justice Delayed!