{"id":3296,"date":"2022-07-20T16:03:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T23:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2022-07-20T17:19:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T00:19:04","slug":"he-writes-edge-of-your-seat-suspense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"He Writes Edge-of-Your-Seat Suspense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cEven though I was at the end of two careers spanning 30 years, I saw retirement as more of a transition into something new, not stopping and sitting around. I wanted to get into something creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what Rich Bullock got into was writing novels. \u201cFirst rate thrillers,\u201d according to one critic. \u201cEdge-of-your-seat suspense,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n

Technically, Bullock\u2019s stories are Christian\u2014he features themes of hope, forgiveness, faith, trust, redemption, and, in the end, good always triumphs over evil. But don\u2019t expect stain-glass, religious characters or easy, predictable plots. His tales are genuine, messy, even edgy, the way life really is.<\/p>\n

Recently, I spent time with Bullock in Redding, California where he and wife Sheryl moved to be close to grandkids. I was there because Rich doubles as an interior page designer for other authors (he takes the raw manuscript and makes it look and read like a real book).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed seeing someone else\u2019s dream become reality,\u201d he said. And he does\u2014Rich has designed all of my works.<\/p>\n

And since many of my readers aspire to put their own stories to print, I asked what advice he has for new authors. Rich suggested attending writing conferences and workshops, which is how he began over 10 years ago. Then, get started, he said. \u201cNo one will read it if you don\u2019t write the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bullock, getting started means beginning with a character (always female, always a strong, independent type) whom he places in a dangerous situation. \u201cI keep writing until I\u2019m about 25% of the way through my normal word count, and then I stop and try to figure out what the story is about.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s the character\u2019s story,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m just writing it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, what Rich hopes for is a tale he calls \u201cunputdownable.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you read his reviews, you\u2019ll see he succeeds more than not. After coming back to Texas with a copy of his latest, I texted the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether to thank you or scream at you. Killing Callie<\/a> had me from the start, and I\u2019ve been sitting in this chair most of the last 24 hours. I\u2019ve got things to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

You can contact Rich Bullock at richwordswriter@gmail.com<\/a>. All of his books are available on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEven though I was at the end of two careers spanning 30 years, I saw retirement as more of a transition into something new, not stopping and sitting around. I wanted to get into something creative.\u201d And what Rich Bullock got into was writing novels. \u201cFirst rate thrillers,\u201d according to one critic. \u201cEdge-of-your-seat suspense,\u201d wrote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3300,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions\/3300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}