By Jenn Windrow

It’s spooky season and I was given the chance to post on Halloween and what better topic to talk about than adding suspense in your writing. As a developmental editor, it is something I look for in every manuscript, not just thrillers or mysteries. Even romance needs a certain amount of suspense on the page. It might not include creaky doors or people lurking in the corners, but even a first kiss can be suspenseful. The moment before lips meet, the held breath, the fear that the other person might pull away, those are emotional jump scares, and they keep readers hooked as much as any ghost story.

Suspense is the writer’s version of creaking floorboards and flickering lights. It’s not about jump scares or gore; it’s about making your reader lean forward, clutch the book tighter, and whisper, don’t go in there.

And a haunted house is the perfect blueprint for how to build it.

1. The Front Door: Hook Them Immediately

When you step up to a haunted house, you already feel the unease. The same goes for your story’s opening. Suspense begins with atmosphere. A strange smell, an offhand comment, a door left ajar. Any detail that tells the reader something’s wrong here.

In romance, this might be the first meeting. Something is off, too electric, too intense. One glance across the room and the reader already knows: this isn’t going to be simple.

Writing tactic: Start with a detail that doesn’t fit. If everything looks normal, give it a crack in the veneer. Surprise your reader with something odd, abnormal, even a bit unsettling, and you will hook them from the start.

2. The Flickering Lights: Raise Doubt

In haunted houses, the lights never work quite right. They tease you with glimpses, then plunge you back into the dark. Suspense thrives on partial information. Show readers just enough to keep them curious but deny them certainty.

In romantic suspense, this means secrets. One character holds something back. Trust wavers. Every smile could hide betrayal, every touch could mean danger.

Writing tactic: Reveal in pieces. A noise without a source. A figure glimpsed, then gone. A hesitation in a lover’s eyes. Let the reader fill in the blanks with their own worst fears

3. The Creaking Floorboards: Layer the Tension

Every step deeper into a haunted house adds weight. The sound grows louder, the air grows colder, and the reader knows something is coming. Suspense builds in layers. Each unsettling moment stacks on the one before it.

In romance, tension layers too. Emotional stakes climb with every misunderstanding, every almost-confession. The fear of heartbreak is its own kind of haunting.

Writing tactic: Escalate gradually. Add small, unsettling beats that pile up until the reader feels trapped in the best way. Early glimpses of the unknown are scarier, and more engaging, than a sudden reveal.

4. The Locked Room: Delay the Reveal

Every haunted house has a door you shouldn’t open. Readers want to know what’s inside, but the moment you reveal it, the suspense collapses. The trick is to delay. Tease, hint, and make the anticipation unbearable before you finally turn the knob.

In a romance, this might be the secret that changes everything or the confession that risks breaking them apart. The longer you wait, the more the emotional payoff matters.

Writing tactic: Hold back the answer. Stretch the reader’s patience until they’re begging for release. When that final reveal lands, whether it’s a kiss or a ghost, it hits twice as hard.

5. The Ghost in the Mirror: Pay Off the Build-Up

The payoff must justify the dread. Suspense that fizzles out is worse than no suspense at all. Whether it’s a shocking twist, a terrifying confrontation, or an emotional confession that shatters both hearts, the reveal needs to deliver on the promise you’ve been making since page one.

Writing tactic: Don’t always explain. Sometimes the scariest, or most romantic, thing is what the reader never fully understands. Leave a trace of mystery lingering in the reflection.

Final Thought: Keep Them in the House

Suspense is about control. You build the house, lead your reader inside, and shut the door behind them. Every creak, shadow, and silence keeps them moving deeper, even when they desperately want to leave. That’s the haunted magic of a well-built story, whether it ends with a scream or a kiss.

Because in the end, love and fear live in the same dark hallway. Both make your pulse quicken, your breath catch, and your imagination race ahead to what might be waiting just around the corner. Romantic suspense isn’t just about who’s behind the door, it’s about whether your heart can survive opening it. Keep your readers chasing that thrill, and they’ll follow you into any haunted house you build.

Do you have a moment in your story that has readers holding their breath? Share it in the comments.

About Jenn Windrow

Jenn Windrow once attempted to write a “normal” book—and promptly bored herself into a coma. So now she sticks to what she does best: writing snarky, kickass heroines, broody supernatural men, and more sexual tension than a vampire in a blood bank.

She’s the award-winning author of the Alexis Black novels and the Redeeming Cupid series, where the undead never sparkle and the drama is always delicious. Jenn moonlights as a developmental editor, helping other writers wrangle their wild plots and tangle-free prose.

When not arguing with her characters or muttering about Oxford commas, she can be found binge-watching trash TV, wrangling the slew of animals that live in her house (husband and teenagers included), or telling herself she’ll only have one more cookie.

You can find her at jennwindrow.com or lurking on social media where she pretends to be an extrovert.

Header image by Ján Jakub Naništa - Unsplash

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

There’s nothing kids love more than knowing their birthday is coming up soon:

• People will sing Happy Birthday just for them!
• They’re gonna have CANDLES on their cake!!
• They’ll be the star of the whole day!!!

We all know that feeling of looking forward to a Big Day. Even after we’ve outgrown the thrill of counting candles on our cake, we still feel it before some special event... like, say, a writing conference:

• I’ll be able to chat with fellow writers!
• I’ll meet other creative people and discuss what we do!!
• I’ll get all kinds of free stuff!!!

Regardless of our age or event, anticipation is something EVERYONE loves. It makes our blood sparkle. We actively enjoy picturing some experience we know will be a treat, contemplating the pleasure ahead while sitting at a stoplight, doing a mundane chore, or anything else that can be brightened with a bit of excitement.

What gives YOU that feeling of anticipation?

You might have quite a few things, but it’s likely that one you especially enjoy is (drum roll) opening the cover of a long-awaited new book.

How will it start? Who’ll appear on the first page? What will they be doing, or thinking about, or talking about?

Will the story surprise you? Will it be what you’ve come to expect from this author? Will it make you feel challenged? Dreamy? Thrilled? Thoughtful? Scared? Entertained?

You’re probably going there in with some idea of what to expect, just from the book cover or title or author. But even so, no matter whose story you’re picking up, two crucial things determine how your expectations will be rewarded:

1. Boffo Beginnings

Ideally, the first 25 words will show whether your feeling of anticipation was justified. Maybe you’re instantly grabbed and engaged.

Maybe you’re not 100% consumed by those words, but you’re interested enough to keep reading the next 25. The next 100. The next 500. That’s a slower payoff, but it still leaves you aware that “yep, I want to know more!”

What openings have left you feeling that way?

For me, one that jumped out was from Ken Follett’s The Key to Rebecca: “The last camel collapsed at noon.” Huh? What? What’s this ABOUT?!

A friend’s recommendation of how Martha Wells opened All Systems Red turned me into a Murderbot series fan:

“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” Okay, I’m hooked—I’ve gotta read more!

(And you’re already thinking of openings that have done that for YOU, right?)

But you also know that the closing is every bit as important as the opening. Which takes us into the next crucial element:

2. Fab Finales

The thing about great beginnings and/or great closings: neither one is especially useful without the other. As it happens, both those books whose openings I loved ALSO delivered highly satisfying conclusions.

But sometimes, readers can get so moved or exhilarated or heartbroken or renewed by the closing of a book that—even if they couldn’t quote you the opening line—they’re definitely gonna order this author’s next title as soon as it comes out.

Remember these exceptional closings?

• “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
• Reader, I married him.
• “And, oh, Aunt Em! I’m so glad to be at home again!”
• So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
• He loved Big Brother.
• “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

I probably don’t even have to identify those books (although I should give the authors credit, so thanks to Ernest Hemingway for The Sun Also Rises, Charlotte Bronte for Jane Eyre, L. Frank Baum for The Wizard of Oz, F. Scott Fitzgerald for The Great Gatsby, George Orwell for 1984 and Margaret Mitchell for Gone With the Wind).

But did you notice how all these stories could be considered classics? Endings that resonate like the ones above tend to keep a book front-of-mind when recommending Great Reads, and everyone loves telling friends about their fabulous discovery.

So for writers, the trick is to have both a boffo beginning AND a fab finale, which involves quite a few techniques. Just as no two expert painters would give the exact same advice on how they create their best art, the same is true for book openings and closings...but feedback on options is always useful!

And speaking of options, you can choose whether to send in a comment for this:

Prize-Drawing Question
What’s a book you’ve loved because of (at least in part) its opening, closing or both?

Someone who answers will win free registration to Boffo Beginnings & Fab Finales, my November 3-14 email class on that very thing. This weekend I’ll have random-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments, so check back Sunday when you'll still have a week to alert me "yes, I'll take it" at the email on my website below.

About Laurie:

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing... if not more. Since then she’s taught in-person and online workshops including the upcoming Boffo Beginnings & Fab Finales, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 50+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

How to find balance as a writer in the real world. 

Hello there! My name is Kristin Helling.

I am an author. I’m also a mom, and I own two small businesses: an indie publishing imprint called Wordwraith Books, and a coffeehouse in the KC metro called Parkville Coffee. 

I get asked often how I am able to balance all the things. Whenever I am faced with this question, my reaction is always the same: Flattery that others think I look put together and “on it” (haha).

I am a full-time author who also has a full-time day job. By choice. For me, it was ideal to find a day job that would allow me the opportunity, time, mindspace, and creativity to publish novels. This is not everyone’s dream, and that’s okay!

I knew that I never wanted to depend on my art to put food on the table for my family. But I needed to find a career that would balance well with my publishing side. Plans and dreams are also fluid, so I know that this may not always be my goal (honestly sometimes the idea of being ‘girl moss’ in a forest far away from everyone is more appealing than the ‘girl boss’ lifestyle I live and breathe, ha!).

Some say, “You can’t have it all” and to that, I say “I’m going to try anyway”. Finding balance means some things take a backseat while I focus on what is in front of me. And sometimes that also means parts of my life aren’t even in the backseat, but all the way in the trunk! 

Combining Worlds and Interests

I also think, what balances better with books… than coffee? 

One thing that has helped me greatly, is melding my two worlds together. Back in 2018, I had my books in two different local bookstores that closed down. It was becoming harder and harder to find physical locations to house my books (Not such the case anymore! So many amazing local bookstores have opened in the last two years!). So I decided to open a small local author book nook inside my coffeehouse where local authors could sell their books on consignment.

Being an author myself, my goal was to achieve this at a low consignment rate of 20%, since I understand both sides of the wall. Now, many years later, this concept has blown up! I have more than 220 titles on the shelves. We host book launch parties, readings, signings, and a “Summer Reading Series” on the 3rd Saturday of each month running from April-August, with some sort of Book Festival in the Fall. This year, in lieu of putting together a book festival, I chose to build and open to the public a Little Free Library in the front of the shop. It’s designed to look like a mini Parkville Coffee. It houses both adult and children’s books. 

Seeing the community use the Little Free Library as well as support local authors by purchasing their books inside and coming to events, brings me so much joy. It also keeps me networking and connecting with the local author community, which is more vibrant and buzzing with opportunity than ever in the Kansas City metro. Just to be even a teeny tiny part of that feels like such an honor. 

Adding Another Connection

And then I had to go ahead and take the ‘melding of my two worlds’ just a bit further this past year, by switching lanes in the genre I write (thrillers), over to the cozy mystery genre (coffee themed, of course). I fought the urge for years, because writing a cozy mystery had seemed a bit too close to home for me. However, the stories were piling up in my mind, and yearning to get out.

So here we are, three books into the series, and I am loving it. The coffee puns just came naturally, and the job itself is truly never boring. Of course everything in this series is fictional and not a secret diary of the life of a coffeeshop owner in a small town (I promise, wink wink), but there is no shortage of inspiration in my daily life. If someone reading these books thinks something sounds oddly familiar… well once we’ve created the art and published the book, the work is no longer our own. It now belongs to the readers to interpret it however they’d like, right?  

Words of Advice and Encouragement

I have been publishing since 2014, and have owned my coffeehouse since 2017. Both of my careers are labors of love, meaning that I have to really love what I’m doing to continue making it work for me. I do like making money. But if I was in it for the financial gain alone, there are much easier ways to make money, ha! Over the years, I have learned so many things owning my own businesses. Apart from finding balance, if I had to choose two more words of advice to give someone who’s considering opening their own business (and I’ll always encourage it), it would be these:

Prioritize and Pivot.  

Apart from my love for alliteration, these two words have played a very important role in my daily life.

1. Prioritize: The to-do list has a to-do list. The tasks lead to a revolving door of more tasks needing to get done. Prioritize the most important things to you, and get those crossed off first. The rest can wait. It’s that ‘taking the back seat’ car analogy again. 

2. Pivot: Challenges will be inevitable. If something is not working, change course. Try something else. When a global pandemic ravaged the world, I had to close my cafe and send all of my employees home. But during that time, I did not stop the hustle. I loaded up my van with coffee and porch dropped beans to the surrounding neighborhoods. I built a door insert into a traditional Italian coffee pick-up window for customers to walk up to and order. I applied for government assistance to bring my employees back. The community surrounded us and lifted us up. And we supported them. 

Productivity Challenge

If you are reading this and thinking, “Well I don’t have time for any of that!” I believe that productivity is different for everyone. I have a really cool time management trick that I even have to re-do from time to time. Make a chart and label it for each hour of the day:

• Noon
• 1pm
• 2pm
• 3pm

And so on. Then, fill out what you did during each of those hours for 24 hours (A lot of those hours will hopefully say catching zzz’s). Keep tracking on this journal/productivity chart every day for one week. After doing this, you will be amazed. You will learn patterns, like what hours of the day you are most productive. But more importantly, you will also visually see pockets of time open up, and how much more time you actually have in a day than you thought you had. 

Final Thoughts

All of these are just small examples. Everyone’s definition and experience with success is different. Mine is forever changing and developing. Knowing your ‘why’ should be at the root of every decision made in both writing and business. I like to be able to keep two businesses afloat, while also making decisions for them that allow me to feel good when I lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day.

And if you’re wondering if I have any free time to do anything that’s not work, the answer is yes! I will always have time for bowls of ice cream and watching the Great British Baking Show while cuddling with my toddler. Hands down. 

Have you extended your writing world into other areas of your life?

About Kristin:

A lifelong booklover, Kristin grew up with a passion for storytelling and the idea that even the coziest places can hold the deepest mysteries. When she’s not killing people (fictionally, of course!), she owns a coffeehouse/roastery/bakery, co-owns her publishing company Wordwraith Books, is married to a photographer, and is Mama of two.

Her writing reflects her love of community, mystery, and the delicate balance of warmth and danger. Whether you prefer a comforting whodunit by the fire or a thriller that keeps you up all night, Kristin has a story to share.

You can check out her books and reach her here: www.kristinhelling.com or on facebook or instagram (@kristinhellingauthor).If you’re a fellow local KC author interested in the going-ons of the book nook at the coffeeshop, check us out here: www.parkvillecoffee.com

Images courtesy of Parkville Coffee.