Blog

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

When I was asked how I selected a setting for a book, I was relieved because this is a question I can answer pretty easily.

I was raised in an Air Force family, and as most of you military brats know, that means you get to see the world and travel to a new duty station every couple of years. As a part of my education, my father often gave me writing assignments in which I had to describe a new locale or incorporate the history of an area into a story. By the time I was...

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

I received an email the day after a speaking engagement from a lady who wanted to know if I'd ever written any non-fiction articles. The answer to that is a resounding YES! And I loved writing them.

During the time that I was Managing Editor of AGELESS TIMES, a lovely senior publication in San Antonio that closed its doors in the early 2000's, I was privileged to write many articles and columns. I wrote for many other places, too, but AGELESS TIMES was my favorite.

One...

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

Writing is a personal endeavor. It should come from the heart, with passion and conviction. If an author only writes for money or fame, success will be fleeting at best. I can promise you that.

Twenty-three years ago, even though I wasn't a senior citizen at that time, I managed three publications in Texas - all of them created specifically for active seniors - and I loved every minute of it. The experience was fun and brought me lots of opportunities, but more...

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

A reader asked about my research for WHISPERS THROUGH TIME, the first novel in my series by the same name released in 2021. I had to think about that because, in my memory, the research was all accidental.

It all began when we saw DANCES WITH WOLVES, Kevin Costner's amazing movie about the Lakota Sioux Indians - but it wasn't the Indians' story that tugged at my heartstrings. And even though we owned a wolfdog, it wasn't Two Socks that pulled me in. It was the buffalo...

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

Someone asked how I came up with names for my characters, and that's a great question!

When I'm first beginning a story, I pick the names out of a hat - actually, two hats (one for first names and one for last names) - but the names usually change before the end of the first draft because by then the characters have become real people to me and their original names no longer fit. (For example, a woman who lives in a small town in 2045 and drops F-Bombs like a sailor...

By Rosetta Diane Hoessli

A reader wanted to know how I start a novel. Do I write a line on a napkin, throw together an idea board, maybe begin an outline? That's a good question I haven't thought too much about. I've written several different kinds of books, and each one put me through a different process.

For example, the first novel in my WHISPERS THROUGH TIME series (the book itself is also entitled WHISPERS THROUGH TIME) has two plots running parallel to each other - one historical, the...