Q&A With Brittney Sahin 

Today’s Q&A is with the Wall Street Journal and Amazon Top 5 Bestselling authors of romantic suspense novels. Some of Brittney’s work includes The Lost Letters, The Taken One, The Broken One, & The Hunted One. 

Q: In your bio on both Amazon and on your website, it said that you started writing at a young age and that you wanted to have a book published before you turned 18. Among your family and friends who were your biggest supporters of your writing talent? 

A:I wound up giving up writing in college (and didn’t pick it up again for a decade), so I never did publish prior to 18—but my parents were always very supportive when I was younger. And it was my husband that pushed me to follow my dreams and start writing again, so I owe much of my career to him.

Q: What made you want to write romantic suspense specifically? 

A: I have always loved action/suspense novels. And I grew up watching action movies with my father. It wasn’t until I was in college I discovered romance books. I fell in love with the genre, but I love the mix of both, so romantic suspense felt like the perfect fit for me.

Q: What is your advice to anyone wanting to write romantic suspense? How do you deal with writer’s block if you deal with it at all that might help aspiring authors on how to deal with it? 

A: I would highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the genre before writing it. I’m a bit old school when it comes to the genre, which means I try to balance romance and suspense evenly (50/50) how it was originally done. It widely varies today in the ratio of romance and suspense, though. So, I’d recommend writers to do what they feel the most drawn to and comfortable with. 

I usually only get writer’s block right after publishing another book and when I actually need to start a new one. It can be daunting to “do it all over again.” I’m writing my 31^st book, and with each book I still ask myself, “can I really turn words into a book again?” That mindset can block me a bit. But mostly I get blocked when I don’t have a solid grasp of the character’s backstory. I don’t even need to know the plot, but if I understand the characters and their motives it’s so much easier to get moving and “unblocked.”

Q: Is it fair to say that the characters and places in your books are loosely taken from real people and places? I love how authors can create fictional worlds and people taken from reality. 

A: I mostly write military romance because I have strong ties with military servicemen and women in my life, and giving back to veterans is something that’s important to me. I would also say that each character I write has a little bit of me in them more than anyone else I actually know, though.

Q: If you were to write in genres other than romantic suspense, which genres would they be and why?

A: I love the show Timeless and wish it kept going, so if they ever offered for me to continue that TV show series in book format I’d say yes in a heartbeat. (Time travel romance).

Q: Do you have a new release coming? If so, would you like to tell the readers of the blog and I a little bit about it?

My next book is the fifth in my Falcon Falls Security series and it stars Jack London. He’s divorced and struggling to find his “the one” the way many of his teammates already have. I have yet to reveal more details so I don’t want to spoil it yet.

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to your work? It would be great if Hollywood had originality again instead of constant remakes, reboots and sequels and prequels that should have been made (or not) decades ago. 

A: The rights for my Stealth Ops and Falcon Falls Series are currently tied with a producer and his studio and we’re in the early stages of developing the books for film.