A fan of true crime and mysteries of all kinds, Samantha Skal (she/her) is a book coach and author from the beautiful Paci”c Northwest of the United States. She is proud to be an Author Accelerator Certified Fiction Book Coach who specializes in coaching thriller, mystery, and suspense authors from novel planning and twist brainstorming through agent pitching, and especially loves revision (and helping writers get out of revision hell and into revision bliss.) As well as being a proud member and fan of International Thriller Writers (ITW), she is the Co-Director PitchFest at Thrillerfest, ITW’s annual conference. She is also a many-time volunteer mentor for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), and a member of both Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and Sisters in Crime (SINC.) After ten years working in HR in tech startups, she is absolutely thrilled to have her most favorite things, writing and story craft, be her full-time job. On most weekends you can find her either on a well-maintained hiking trail with lots of flowers or kayaking on calm water. She is an enthusiast of homemade sourdough, cheese of all kinds, stories that keep her up at night, and good red wine. Learn more at www.samanthaskal.com.

Suspense is just for thrillers and action adventure stories, isn’t it?

Wrong!

Every story needs suspense. It’s one of the key elements your novel needs if you want to give your reader a reason to turn the page and find out what happens next.

Conflict and suspense are at the heart of all scenes in all genres and that’s why I asked Author Accelerator certified book coach Samantha Skal to write a chapter on developing suspenseful scenes that hook readers.

The chapter is part of the upcoming book for writers, Launch Pad: The Countdown To Writing Your Book, which you don’t want to miss. It’s going to be an essential part of your writer toolbox.

To get a feel for what you’ll learn, Samantha has condensed her top ten tips for writing suspenseful scenes into a handy, free, pdf download you can access here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/w5agu5i12b