Living the Writing Life

Some people are just meant to become authors. After learning about today's guest, I'm convinced that was the case for Rosetta Diane Hoessli who is joining me this week in My Writing Corner.

Rosetta  has been a freelance writer since 1985. A winner of national and state-wide writing contests, she also tells us that she has served as senior feature writer, columnist, and executive editor for three (3) regional publications – two in San Antonio and one in Houston, Texas.

She has also collaborated with New York socialite Jeanette Longoria in Longoria’s self-published book entitled Aphrodite and Me: Discovering Sensuality and Romance at Any Age, co-authored biographical novel Falling Through Ice with Carolyn Huebner Rankin, and edited a book of short stories, Working On the Wild Side, compiled and written by Florida Fish and Wildlife officer Jeff Gager.

Whispers Through Time (2021) was Rosetta’s first solo novel, and was Book One in a series by the same name. Tip the Piano Man, a mystery/suspense novel, is her second book and was released by The Wild Rose Press in May.

Today, Rosetta says, she focuses most of her attention on writing historical fiction and traveling with her husband, Kevin. They live in San Antonio, Texas with their two rescued fur-kids, near their daughter and two grandchildren. Let's learn more about Rosetta.

Tell us about your road to publication.

It’s been a roller coaster, that’s for sure. Back in the ‘80’s, after I took a year-long Writers Digest course on article writing, I began publishing human interest stories in women’s magazines. Then, one day, a fully-formed story popped into my head, and I wrote my first book – a historical novel set in 1840’s Texas. My only goal was to finish it (which was good because it wasn’t that great), but I did get my first agent with it – a wonderful elderly gentleman from NYC who’d moved his wife to San Antonio for her health. He never sold anything for me, but he gave me more good advice than anyone else ever has about writing and marketing. In fact, looking back on it, he was more my mentor than my agent. 

Over the years I’ve worked as a ghostwriter, a co-author, and an editor, as well as a columnist, freelance writer, and the managing editor of three (3) large regional publications at the same time. I wrote a mystery/suspense novel entitled Tip the Piano Man (and then shelved it), as well as a sort of paranormal/historical novel called Whispers Through Time that I saw as the first book in a series by the same name. My best friend, also a writer, recommended that I send Whispers to her agent, which I did, and she sent it to The Wild Rose Press. They gave me a contract, and I enjoyed working with them so much I decided to pull Tip The Piano Man out of the closet. I updated the thirteenth draft (literally!) after my agent read and critiqued it, and brought it into the world of computers and the 21st century. She submitted it, and they accepted it in less than ninety (90) days.

What do you find is the most challenging part of being an author?

For me, keeping my thoughts straight and organized is easily the most challenging part of being a writer, and finding big enough blocks of time in which to work. Life happens. I’ve been married for fifty years, we have a daughter and two grandkids, and we’ve survived more stuff than I could even tell you – but I kept writing through all of it. That’s not easy, but my husband is the most amazing support system in the world, and he’s the main reason I’ve been able to live the incredibly fulfilling life I’ve lived. I know that’s a politically incorrect thing to say about one’s husband – today’s woman is supposed to do it all on her own and not give anyone else any credit – but it’s the truth. Whatever I’ve accomplished, he’s given me the freedom and room to accomplish it.

How do you come up with your plots?

I have two methods for creating my plots. One is, I write what I know. The other is, What If? The story in Tip The Piano Man came entirely from what I learned through personal experience and extensive research. The story in Whispers Through Time came from personal experience, research, and using the "What If "approach: What if a famous historical novelist discovers a gift that enables her to step back in time and use what she learns to help people in her own era? I just thought that was a fascinating concept.

What is your book that you will feature today and how did you come up with the idea to write it?

The book I’m featuring today is Tip the Piano Man. I began working on it in 1986 after we discovered that a child in our family had been sexually abused by a neighbor for a number of years. I didn’t know anything about pedophiles at that time – people didn’t talk about it – so I did what writers do: I started researching pedophilia, the legal system, groups that worked with victims, etc. I volunteered with a missing children’s organization, headed up my own group, spoke all over the state and before a Texas senate committee, advocated in the courtroom for children – and as I did all this, the story of Piano Man began to percolate. While a suspenseful mystery was the natural outcome of all this experience, Tip The Piano Man isn’t sordid. It’s actually a story of redemption, atonement, and healing.

Let's get a blurb:

When little Piper Callaghan appears at Hope's Home, too traumatized to speak after discovering her murdered mother's body, Dr. Madison Wagner hopes to make the child's possible father, writer Luke Callaghan, take responsibility for the bloody chaos he's apparently created. For his part, Luke has his own story and refuses to be patronized. But when they discover Piper is the victim of prominent citizens profiting from an online international child sex ring, Madison and Luke understand they're in this fight together. And guiding them from beyond the grave is a murdered young mother seeking retribution...and atonement. Madison and Luke must prevail against overwhelming odds, or their relentless pursuit of truth will hurtle them toward a shocking reality neither ever anticipated.

How about an Excerpt?

Luke took a deep breath. “Do you think this place would make a good home for Piper?”

“Well, of course! Why would you even ask that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been a dad before. I don’t know what you guys look for—”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be this nice. We’re not ogres, Luke. We’re not all out to get you.”

“Easy does it, Dr. Wagner. What’s wrong?”

She sighed and gazed pensively into the water. “Nothing. I’m sorry. I’m tired.”

“Madison, I get it. You’re wondering how I can enjoy all this when there are so many children who have nothing. Especially when I was one of them. You’re wondering, how could I have forgotten where I came from? How could I have not opened this wonderful place to every needy child I came across?”

She ran her fingers though her hair and looked up at him. “I’m sorry,” she repeated in a whisper. “I’m really so tired…”

For a moment, as the sunlight danced over her hair and turned it into a shining cap of burnished gold, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. The thought shocked him—he hadn’t felt that way about any woman since Lacy. But it didn’t matter right now. All that mattered to him was that she realized he wasn’t as self-absorbed and narcissistic as she’d first believed.

The silence stretched for a few moments before he finally spoke. “Listen, you’ve been involved with kids for years. They’re all you care about. I understand that. But until two days ago, I didn’t know I could be anyone’s father. I didn’t know I could have a child who might be living out of garbage cans, and being forced to participate in some kind of filthy movie business. It took all my energy to escape my own childhood, and I certainly wasn’t going to drag a hundred other kids into my life who’d do nothing but remind me of where I came from.”

“They’re not all I care about—”

“Let me finish. You, on the other hand, put yourself in that sewer with them. You have no ulterior motives, nothing but pure love, and I’ve never seen that before. So, if it isn’t too much trouble, give me a few minutes to get used to it, will you?”

She didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, she touched his arm. “I’m sorry, Luke. You’re right. I can be a judgmental witch.”

He took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips, pleased that his touch brought a flush of color to her cheeks. “Thank you,” he said softly, “because I only want to hear you say one thing about me, and I won’t be happy until I hear it.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to hear you say about me what you said about Julian Alvarado. I want to hear you say that I’m an extraordinary man.”

What’s your next project or what are you working on now?

I’m working on the second book in the Whispers Through Time series. The plot of each book in this series will have a contemporary conflict that links to something that happened in the past. In a nutshell, in Book Two, Journey of the Heart, our heroine, Sierra Masters, once more uses The Power, which she received in Book One, to walk in the footsteps of the Comanche Indians of 1870’s north Texas to bring peace to a canyon that’s been haunted for more than 150 years.

What advice do you have for beginning writers?

Where do I start? Read everything you can. If you don’t like it, analyze why not. If you love it, study it. In other words, study your favorite authors. Pay attention to what makes that book great…but be your own person. You’re unique. Bring what you know to the table. Remember, there are only eighty (80) plots and they’ve all been done – but not by you.

Write, write, and then write some more. Write letters – not emails, but real letters. (That’s a dying art.) Write in a journal. Keep a diary. Don’t throw away your work. (I’m incorporating some of one of my very first efforts into the book I’m working on now.) Take writing courses. If you can’t afford that, get books on writing at a thrift store and work the assignments. Learn all you can about the craft you’ve chosen.

Don’t write just for money. Write what you want to write, the way you want to write it. For example, I can’t write for a specific genre, and I certainly can’t write formulaically – but maybe you can. Do what works for you. Never turn down an opportunity, whether it pays or not. 

I would caution you about writers’ groups, unless you have a very strong sense of yourself and your work. Don’t take criticism to heart, and always consider the source. The camaraderie is fun, but one sour apple can ruin the whole batch. I’ve known writers whose work was destroyed by one person in a critique group, and they never wrote again. That’s incredibly sad.

Never give up. If you have to stop writing for some reason, it’s okay. Your time will come. When you’re rejected – and you will be – do what F. Scott Fitzgerald did: He papered his bedroom wall with rejection slips. If you believe in yourself and in your work, someone else will, too.

Finally, don’t rest on your laurels. Always have a goal.

Thank you for that advice to writers and thank you, Rosetta,  for being my guest today. Here are the buy links for Tip the Piano Man and Rosetta's contact information:

Buy link(s):

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tip-Piano-Rosetta-Diane-Hoessli/dp/1509254412/

AllAuthor: https://allauthor.com/page/rosettah21/3/

The Wild Road Press: https://wildrosepress.com/s=Tip+the+Piano+Man&post_type=product&type_aws=true

Barnes & Noble Book Store: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tip-the-piano-man-rosetta-diane-hoessli/1144905691?ean=9781509254415

BooksAMillion: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9781509254415

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/tip-the-piano-man-rosetta-diane-hoessli/21260577?ean=9781509254415&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwildrosepress.com%2F&source=IndieBound&title=

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/tip-the-piano-man/id6478547553

Social Contacts:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RonniHoessli

Facebook Author’s Page: https://www.facebook.com/RosettaDianeAuthor

AllAuthor Landing Page: https://allauthor.com/page/rosettah21/3/

Follow me on Twitter (X)! My handle is @DianeThomp3419

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/21788498.Rosetta_Diane_Hoessli

Any questions or comments for Rosetta?