Home

Monday, March 31, 2025

What Comes Next? Building Suspense and Avoiding Predictability

Image of a girl reading

 Image by TyliJura from Pixabay

Lisabet Sarai

We all love stories. It's in our genes. Humans have been spinning tales for thousands of years. From the sagas our ancestors told as they huddled around their campfires to the ebooks flying off today's virtual shelves, stories satisfy some deep psychological need.

Sometimes we want a familiar story, even though we've heard it a million times before. We anticipate and then enjoy the expected conclusion, which reassures us that all is right in the world. Often, though, we follow a story because we want to know what comes next. Suspense and uncertainty produce a particular kind of excitement., a tension that is pleasurably released when the uncertainty is resolved. Suspense is what keeps readers turning pages long after their normal bedtimes. They don't want to stop reading until they see how it all turns out.

In genre fiction such as romance or mystery, readers know the final shape the story will assume. The lovers will overcome the obstacles that confront them in order to be together. The guilty parties will be identified, the mechanisms of the crime will be explained and usually the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Part of the reason readers enjoy these genres is that they provide the same satisfying reassurance as a well-known fairy tale or myth. A book that labels itself as romance or mystery then fails to provide the expected pattern of resolution will likely arouse readers' ire.

This does not mean that stories in these genres should be predictable. As the story progresses, a skillful writer will make the reader question how the expected ending could possibly come about. You'll lose your reader's attention if he or she stops wondering what happens next.

Unfortunately, I find that a significant percentage of the romance I read is far too predictable, at least for my tastes. By the time I've finished the first chapter or two, I know the general path the story will take. I can't presume to speak for other readers, but this definitely diminishes my own enjoyment.

As an author of erotic romance, I struggle to add suspense to my own stories. It's not always a conscious process, but when I sat down to write this post, I tried to analyze the strategies that I use, or have seen others use, to avoid predictability. I identified four techniques that can be helpful in this regard.

1. Withhold critical facts

Even if you're a pantster rather than a plotter, you'll generally know more about your characters and their background than you tell your readers. Often there are things in a character's history that are critical to the plot. By holding back and not disclosing these facts right away, you can heighten the level of uncertainty and make the final resolution more surprising.

I found an example in my ménage story Wild About That Thing. Ruby Jones, the heroine, owns a struggling blues club that represents her life's dream. As the story opens, she has received a letter from the lawyers for the new owner of her rented building, indicating that her lease will not be renewed and that she must vacate the premises. Her anxiety over her impending eviction colors her reactions to the two men who become her lovers.

Quite late in the tale, I reveal the fact that one of her lovers, Remy, is in fact the building owner. This serves two purposes in the narrative, emotional and practical. First, it adds a sudden obstacle to the relationship (since Ruby is rightfully upset that he had not told her sooner) and also allows the second man in the triangle, Zeke, to come to Remy's defense. Second, it provides a plausible solution to the problem of Ruby's eviction.

Keeping important details secret from your readers can be an effective way to add unpredictability, but it does carry the risk of appearing contrived. The new information, when it is finally exposed, must be believable. It must not seem to "come from left field". If you can, you should drop hints earlier in the story. When the revelation finally occurs, you want your readers to nod their heads, saying "Yes, of course, I should have known!"

2. Keep alternatives alive

Fiction, especially romantic fiction, frequently revolves around a character's choices. Your heroine may be choosing between two potential relationships, or between a relationship and a life path that will make that relationship impossible. To avoid predictability, you need to paint the competing alternatives as equally attractive and plausible. You should also maintain the ambiguity concerning the character's ultimate decision for as long as possible.

To implement this strategy, you can use trade-offs. No one choice is perfect. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Highlight those contrasts for your reader. Meanwhile, watch out for stereotypes. The handsome, arrogant, wealthy playboy; the smoldering, tortured bad boy biker; the sensitive, nurturing guy next door... You know what I mean. Stereotypes are a sure way to kill suspense - unless you set them up and then turn them on their heads. This is actually another technique for avoiding predictability. If, for example, the playboy is later revealed to be a submissive who wants to serve as the heroine's 24/7 slave, you'll definitely surprise (and possibly delight) your readers.

This strategy can apply to alternative explanations or scenarios, as well as decision alternatives. In my erotic suspense novel Exposure, Stella realizes that any of several people might be responsible for the mayor's murder and the threats she receives: the mayor's widow; his opponent in the upcoming election; the sinister mob boss; even the cop who's Stella's high school friend and current lover. I try to provide evidence supporting each of these hypotheses. I want to keep the reader guessing.

3. Allow your characters to change

A story is a journey taken by your characters. Events occur and the characters change in response. You can use these changes to make your story less predictable. As the tale unfolds and your characters develop, they will behave and react in ways your reader may not expect. In fact, their surprising behavior will reveal the nature of their inner changes.

The movie "Long Kiss Goodgnight" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116908/) provides a great example. Geena Davis stars as a suburban wife and mother who gradually recovers from amnesia to realize that she's a former spy. Over the course of the film, polite, conventional, squeaky-clean Samantha morphs into wise-ass, slutty, violent Charly, the top secret agent now running for her life. The shift is gradual. Since you never know (until you see it) how far Charly has reverted to her old self, you never know exactly what she's likely to do.

Most romance character shifts are less extreme. Just remember that static characters are easy to predict. Also, some change trajectories have become clichés. The uptight, authoritarian female executive who gradually realizes that she craves submission; the woman wounded by past relationships who must learn to trust a new love; the emancipated, free-wheeling chick looking for no-strings sex who discovers instead a deep need for commitment; these patterns have been been employed so often that they'll kill any suspense - unless of course, you use misdirection, shattering the cliché to send the character off on a new and surprising path of development

4. Take advantage of strong emotion

Characters don't just change over the course of the story, but moment to moment as well. Even the most stable individuals are not 100% consistent in how they behave, especially under the influence of strong emotion. Anger, grief, guilt, terror and shame can all induce people to behave in atypical ways that would be hard to predict based on their normal personalities. Since such emotions often occur at critical points in your plot, you can use them to introduce the unexpected into your tales.

For example, Kate O'Neil, the heroine of my novel Raw Silk, is a self-confident, independent professional woman. Her first full-blown experience as a submissive stuns and scares her. She actually skips out of work, jumps on a plane, and escapes to the safest place she can think of (in this case, Singapore). This is highly unusual for someone as responsible and career-oriented Kate. Even I was surprised when she did it! The episode contributes to the plot by providing her with an opportunity to reflect on her reactions - as well as a chance for readers to catch their breath.

I’ve been using erotic romance for my examples so far, but non-romantic erotica also has its predictable patterns. Ultimately, readers expect the characters to have some sort of sexual interaction—and more likely sooner rather than later! Readers are in it for the climax, sure, but the experience will be more pleasurable if there are some twists and turns along the way. That’s why I personally find a lot of “stroke fiction” uninteresting and unsatisfying. If there’s no suspense at all, just people having sex, the story falls flat. (Your mileage may vary, of course.)

Authors of genre fiction walk a tightrope. On the one hand, we must give our readers the pattern of resolution they expect - a happy ending, in the case of romance, an orgasm (or more than one!) in erotica. On the other, we want to keep our readers turning the pages, wondering what is going to happen next. We must be faithful to the conventions of our genre while still ringing enough changes to be fresh and exciting. It's a tall order. I hope that the suggestions I've made in this post get you thinking about how you can maintain this balance in your own work.

And if you’re a reader but not a writer, maybe this will help you understand why some books thrill you and others leave you flat.


Saturday, March 29, 2025

ROCK-A-BYE COWBOY by Lexi Post has released!

  

Rock-A-Bye Cowboy 

by Lexi Post 

has released and it's in KU!

He’s done with everything changing on him. But what if she was the change he needed?

Amazon Amazon UK Amazon AU Amazon CA

Jackson Dunn has come home from his deployment with a baby he didn’t know he had, only to find the family cattle ranch is becoming a dude ranch, his oldest brother has married their enemy’s daughter, and his robust father is now in a wheelchair. That’s far more change than he’s willing to handle. He’s not even sure how his brothers think he can work when he has a tiny, pooping machine to take care of and his mind keeps jumping back to the war zone. To make matters worse, the first “guests” arrive and the last thing he has time for is a woman who keeps wandering away from the activities she’s supposed to be at.

Danielle “Dani” Hubbard has burned up her Mr. Right checklist and plans to enjoy two weeks at home watching movies, eating ice cream, and sleeping. Unfortunately, her friend whisks her away on a two-week vacation she won to a dude ranch, and Dani finds herself sleeping in bunkbeds, getting up before dawn, and chowing down with dozens of others. Intrigued that one of the Dunn brothers, who own the ranch, appears about as happy to be there as she is, she makes her vacation more interesting by investigating the sullen cowboy. The more she discovers about him, the more she’s convinced he’s the perfect Mr. Wrong.

As much as Jackson doesn’t want to admit it, Dani is actually helpful, from her advice on taking care of his daughter to putting in fence posts. That their physical attraction is off the charts, just makes their time together more enjoyable. She’s also much easier to talk to than his family, and only she has witnessed his flashbacks. Unfortunately, she’s a guest and has to go back to her life three hours away. Now, he has to decide if he’s opened up to her because she’ll be leaving and he won’t have to face her, or if it’s something else…something more.

Just her luck, she discovers too late that Mr. Wrong could well be Mr. Right. 


Lexi Bio:

Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher education taking and teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and taught wonderful classics.

But Lexi's first love is romance novels so she married her two first loves, romance and the classics. Whether it’s sizzling cowboys, dashing dukes, hot immortals, or hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a “whole lotta story.”

Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her two cats in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you’ll never see her without a hat.

Website

Lexi Post Updates

Facebook

Instagram

Amazon Author Page

BookBub

D2D

Goodreads

Instagram

Blog

Pinterest

Email

 

Friday, March 28, 2025

Read A Poisoned Garden by Kim Alexander #Fantasy #Romance #Romantasy

  



A Poisoned Garden
(New World Magic Book 4)


Synopsis

A unicorn walks into a bar and…wait, what was I saying?

Look, between what I’m pretty sure is premature senility and wanting to barf all the time, I’m barely hanging in there. At this point, I need a break after solving xeno murders, fighting murderous fox shifters, and my best friend nearly murdering me for…reasons.

But do I get a break? No, I get an invitation to the court of the Unseelie fae, and it’s the kind of invitation you can’t refuse because it’s from the king who flip-flops between wanting to share a pizza with me and stabbing me.

The upside is that I can see my best friend Marly, the newly minted and slightly murderous Unseelie fae queen. The downside? Apparently, I have to prevent a civil war between powerful magical beings, and I don’t even get a can opener for self-defense.

Just like clockwork, I’m back to running from supernatural squids, double-dealing with triple-dealing fae who probably all want me dead, and getting tangled up with a beautiful, broken-hearted unicorn who makes me feel guilty, and I don't know why.
After all, we've never met before...have we?






What are the other books in the series?

Pure

‘A unicorn walks into a bar….’ That is not a joke. 


Look, I’m a bartender, I have nothing to do with the xenos. 


I don’t care if it’s an elf or a vampire--as long as they don’t bother me, I steer clear. 


I have my reasons--you can see them in the scars on my neck. I never wanted to get involved. But my life changed for the second time when I saved the life of a unicorn. I made an enemy of something old--old and evil, and whatever it was, it’ll be back for another try. 


I also made a friend when I decided to help March. He’s only been a human man for a day. I’m responsible for him now. He’s my friend…and maybe something more. 


Maybe a lot more. It doesn’t matter to me that he isn’t magical anymore. I don’t care if he’s not PURE. But he does.



-----
The March Effect

A unicorn walks into a bar…and leaves with my heart. He’s gone, and now I have a unicorn-named-March-shaped hole in my life. 


But, I get it. Unicorns aren't meant to live in a world where they have to deal with putting gas in the car, getting groceries, and paying cell phone bills. I'm trying to get past this. Really, I am. It's just that everyone constantly talks about him, from his immortal ex-girlfriend, to reality TV-obsessed Fae, to even my own fully-human friends. 


Even his enemies are still obsessed with him. I learned that the hard way. 


Did I mention the part where I end up on the run—again—from an old, powerful enemy of his? Yeah. Fun times. I just want to be left to get over my broken heart while watching home improvement shows and eating ice cream. But mysterious disappearances, murder, and a quest for affordable real estate in Washington D.C. keep getting in the way. Maybe that's just life. 


Sometimes we get what we want. 

Sometimes, we get what we need. 

And sometimes, we get what we deserve. I guess you could call it…The March Effect.



-----

The Great Shatter


A unicorn walks into a bar...except there are no unicorns or bars in the court of the Unseelie fae, which sucks because Marly could really use a drink.

Honestly, going from human to vampire, to something not quite mortal would drive anyone to drink. Being hounded by a grudge-holding kitsune didn't help, either. But when the king of the Unseelie fae declared Marly his queen and the hope of his people, it seemed her troubles were over, and off they went to his magical kingdom in a reality-tv-worthy happily ever after.

Except it's more hard landing than happy ending. Marly is thrown into the crosshairs of ancient hatreds where war masquerades as etiquette, shadows must beg for light, and things with tentacles are just waiting for something to go wrong. And something is going wrong...very wrong.

With every mis-step, she stumbles closer to the edge of a darkness waiting to consume her, and the king's love is like a poison that can cure or kill. Her only hope is to unveil the truth dancing in the great mirrors in the sky, even if that sky comes crashing down.



-----

A Poisoned Garden


A unicorn walks into a bar and…wait, what was I saying?

Look, between what I’m pretty sure is premature senility and wanting to barf all the time, I’m barely hanging in there. At this point, I need a break after solving xeno murders, fighting murderous fox shifters, and my best friend nearly murdering me for…reasons.

But do I get a break? No, I get an invitation to the court of the Unseelie fae, and it’s the kind of invitation you can’t refuse because it’s from the king who flip-flops between wanting to share a pizza with me and stabbing me.

The upside is that I can see my best friend Marly, the newly minted and slightly murderous Unseelie fae queen. The downside? Apparently, I have to prevent a civil war between powerful magical beings, and I don’t even get a can opener for self-defense.

Just like clockwork, I’m back to running from supernatural squids, double-dealing with triple-dealing fae who probably all want me dead, and getting tangled up with a beautiful, broken-hearted unicorn who makes me feel guilty, and I don't know why.
After all, we've never met before...have we?



-----

The Glass Sword

A unicorn walks into a bar…it's cheaper than therapy.


Therapy, you say? 

Sign up Marly, the angry ex-Unseelie-fae-queen. 

Or how about Sasha, the bitter exiled-Unseelie-fae-king? 

And definitely Ruby, the mortal bartender who lost her heart when she found her memories of March, the unicorn shifter she loved.


A good therapist would say learn to live with the consequences of choices, but Ruby isn't ready to accept that a choice she didn't even know she made landed March as the prisoner of the Seelie fae court. And Marly and Sasha have some feelings about reclaiming the throne of the Unseelie court.

But consequences beget consequences. Amid dying kingdoms and the dying embers of old loves and older hatreds, friends become betrayers, lovers keep secrets, and someone or something is out for blood-red revenge.


-----

Who am I?

Kim Alexander grew up in the wilds of Long Island, NY, and slowly drifted south until she reached Key West. After spending ten rum-soaked years as a DJ in the Keys, she moved to Washington DC, where she lives with two cats, an angry fish, and her extremely patient husband who tells her she needs to write at least ten more books if she intends to retire in Thailand, so thank you for your patronage. 



Stalk Me