Wild Women Authors features Tip The Piano Man, a contemporary mystery-suspense, written by Rosetta Diane Hoessli and recently released by the Wild Rose Press. With Rosetta is child therapist Madison Wagner who will go first.
Good morning, Madison. Let’s begin with you telling us a bit about Tip The Piano Man. I’m a child psychologist in the city of San Antonio, Texas. When little Piper Callaghan appears at my children’s shelter, Hope's Home, she’s too traumatized to speak after discovering her mother, murdered. I’ve treated hysterical muteness before, so I hoped to make Piper’s possible father, mystery writer Luke Callaghan, take responsibility for the bloody chaos I thought he’d created in her life. I’m pretty bossy, but he wouldn’t let me bully him because he had his own story, so I didn’t impress him at all. But none of that mattered to us when we discovered that Piper—and maybe other kids—were the victims of prominent citizens profiting from an online international child sex ring. Luke and I had to go up against overwhelming odds to rescue these children.
What made you choose child psychology for a profession?
I was driven to do it. I had to do it. I
handled all kinds of cases, but I gradually focused all my energy on child
sexual abuse because I saw those children as so misunderstood and defenseless.
And then, when I saw how I could work within the legal system to make a
difference in how they were handled, there just wasn’t any stopping me.
Knowing what you know now, if you had it to do
over again, would you stick with being a psychologist or do something
different? No.
Especially knowing what I know now, I’m all in.
What is your biggest fear? That I won’t be able to help a child who needs me, that I’m not good
enough. My father was a heart surgeon and he left me Hope’s Home,
knowing what I wanted to do with it, and I’m so grateful for that. But I’m
terrified I won’t make as much difference as I want to.
Who
is your favorite fictional character and why? You’re not going
to believe this, but it’s Pollyanna. You know, she lived in a world of
butterflies and lollipops. But when you live in the world that I live in, 24/7,
you forget how to appreciate the beauty and you always seem to focus on the
ugly. Pollyanna has saved my life more than once by reminding me of that.
What is the best piece of advice you ever
received? Jerome Scranton is a retired police detective
who sits on my Board of Directors. I worship the ground he walks on—he’s like a
second father to me. He always says, “These people are animals, and we have to
stop them. Focus on that.” He’s right, and that’s all I focus on. Someone has
to.
Thank you for spending time with us, Madison.
Now we’d like to chat with Rosetta.
Which writer or
character[s], from either books or movies, [or both] have had a major impact on
your writing? Out of all the writers
I love—Margaret Mitchell, Daphne DuMaurier, Susan Howatch, Leon Uris—I still
have to hang with Leon Uris. His characters in EXODUS, for example—Ari Ben
Canaan, his uncle Akiva—just leap off the page in a way I’ve never read before
or since. Not even in GONE WITH THE WIND, which had fabulous secondary
characters: Mammy, Aunt Pitty Pat to name just two. I read EXODUS and everything
on every page was incredibly vivid. I want to write like that. I don’t come
anywhere close to Uris’ talent or expertise, but I keep working at it. The
movie was a pale, pale second to that book.
With regard to research, where did you start
for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths, thereby changing the
original concept? I wrote the original novel in the 1980’s after
discovering that a very young child in our family had been sexually abused for
more than two years by a neighbor. It was a nightmare. Then I worked with
sexually abused children and their families for several more years, but I had
to put it away. It was just too painful to deal with and I couldn’t do it. But,
yes, I went down several paths before I finally settled on the story that’s now
Tip The Piano Man. Only the title remains the same. I had to update it
in the late 2000’s to incorporate the Dark Web and how kiddie porn websites
seem to be safe there, and that’s where the technical research began. I
researched the online, worldwide child pornography websites (and individuals)
that law enforcement organizations had to break up via stings and undercover
operations—that was out of my skill set, for sure. But the basic story—children
being victimized by people they trusted, and the people who try to help
them—always remained the same. And I knew that story intimately.
Tell us a bit about your publisher. How did
you hear about them; what influenced you to submit to them? The Wild Rose Press is run by women, and I love that. I’d never heard of
them until my best friend, who’s also a writer, told me I should submit my
first novel, WHISPERS THROUGH TIME, to them. Then, Tip The Piano Man was
accepted by the Wild Rose Press within a month after it was submitted.
What are you reading right now? I love anything about the Titanic, so I’m going to curl up and read The
Second Mrs. Astor, by Shauna Abe.
What's next for you? I’m working
on my second book in the WHISPERS THROUGH TIME series and hopefully it’ll be
done by the end of this year. The plot involves the Texas Revolution and I’m
going to really enjoy writing it!
Twitter (X): DianeThomp3419.
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/RosettaDianeAuthor
Facebook Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/RonniHoessli
AllAuthor Landing Page: https://www.allauthor.com/Rosettah21/3/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21788498.Rosetta_Diane_Hoessli
Go to Linkt.ree and find everything in one
place!
To purchase Tip the Piano Man, go to:
AllAuthor: https://allauthor.com/page/rosettah21/3/
The Wild Rose Press: https://www.thewildrosepress.com
Barnes & Noble Book Store: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tip-the-piano-man-rosetta-diane-hoessli/1144905691?ean=9781509254415
BooksAMillion: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9781509254415
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/tip-the-piano-man/id6478547553
What a timely and important subject! Best on the book!
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