With a background in
journalism and a lifetime of storytelling, Ronni’s work often blurs the line
between fiction and the emotional truths we live through. Her most personal
novel, TIP THE PIANO MAN, is rooted in hard reality, drawn from both true
events and years of inner reckoning. It’s a book she shelved more than once,
unsure she could bear the weight of finishing it, but it’s also the one that
refused to let her go.
She believes in second
chances, fierce characters, and storytelling that dares to be raw and
redemptive. Her previous release, WHISPERS THROUGH TIME, showed her love of
historic family sagas and Native American culture, but TIP THE PIANO MAN is the
heartbeat, the soul, the quiet shout for justice she always knew she had to
write.
Married for many years to her
high school sweetheart, Ronni is a proud Texan, a mom, a grandmother, a lover
of strong coffee and quiet truths, and a believer that humor might just be what
saves us all.
When and how did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I was an only child and my father was in the Air Force, so we traveled often and moved at least once every two years to a new duty station. Because of that, I started reading at four years old and books became my best friends.
My dad, an intelligence analyst, wrote military history and his love of writing inspired me to write as well. So, beginning when I was quite young, writing became second nature to me.
Finally, because both my parents were very creative people, I was encouraged by them in every artistic endeavor I undertook. So, to a great deal of parental fanfare, I wrote my first book at age six.
But I didn’t become determined to write until I was 17, as a result of my senior Accelerated English term paper in which we were asked to totally dissect the book of our choice. When I completed that assignment, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a writer. And, although I had a lot of starts and stops along the way, I never took my eyes off that goal.
Did you have any influencing writers growing up?
Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon, authors of the wonderful Nancy Drew Mysteries and The Hardy Boys respectively, accompanied me all over the world and taught me the importance of characters moving story.
Anne Frank, the famous young girl whose powerful diary impacted the world, taught me the importance of theme, as well as expressing genuine emotion honestly on the page.
Daphne DuMaurier, author of the fabulous Gothic mystery Rebecca, taught me the importance of making an atmospheric setting a main character in itself.
Finally, and probably more important than any other writer on this list, has to be Leon Uris, the incomparable author of Exodus, QB VII and Mila 18, among other extraordinary novels. Uris’ books taught me just about everything I try to use today: the value of creating intriguing male and female characters and allowing them to interact using dialogue and dialect in their own voices, showing (vs. telling) a story without releasing tension until the time is right, no matter how difficult that might be, and the compelling power of utilizing expressive, nearly poetic descriptions.
While Leon Uris is my all-time favorite storyteller, my favorite novel remains Gone with the Wind, written by Margaret Mitchell.
Are any of your characters based on people in real life?
All of them are, but some of them are composites of several people – some of whom I may not even know. I think that may be one of the reasons I enjoy writing more as I get older. The older you get, the more people you know, and the more observant you become. And I no longer care what other people think about me or the people I enjoy being with. Age brings a certain amount of freedom.
Where do you draw your book inspirations from?
My life, mostly. I need to write what I know – at least, the nucleus of my stories has to come from that place. But I keep a notebook/journal/file of story ideas that I might pick up from an overheard conversation, a news blip, even something I might spot on Facebook or a historical website.
Do you use/have a basic outline when starting a new story, or do you let the characters lead the way?
I create a couple of characters, try to build a setting for them, then attempt an initial conflict, and that’s the most I do to begin with.
Then I’ll just let it gestate in my head for a bit before I finally sit down to write a page or two. If it takes off, that’s when I’ll start an outline – no more than five chapters at a time.
If it doesn’t take off, I might try to analyze why it hasn’t (if I love the idea or the characters), or I might start over completely. I’m not a pantser or an outliner. I’m a middle-of-the-roader.
When you are picturing the characters in your book, do you have a cheater photo for inspiration?
My characters either 1) resemble the actual people I’m basing them on, or 2) they’re the products of my own imagination.
However, once I’ve drawn that mental picture, I try to find a ‘cheater photo’ to help keep me on visual track if I possibly can. For instance, Hunter Davenport in WHISPERS THROUGH TIME came clearly physically defined to me as a young Robert Redford/Brad Pitt lookalike, and he never changed. Sierra, his love interest, was much more difficult, and I was never able to find a photo.
Many people read as a form of escape and relaxation. What is your favorite way to sit back and relax?
My husband, Kevin, and I love to travel – mostly short jaunts around Texas these days. That’s my main form of relaxation, but I’m never not working. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas, always eavesdropping, always researching in some form or another. We also love to binge-watch mystery and historical television series. My personal secret guilty pleasure is true crime movies or novels.
Who are your favorite current authors to read?
I love Suzie Black, author of the Holly Schlivnik Swimsuit Series, because she’s so funny, and anything by Robyn Carr because she was a good friend of mine back when I first started out and I’m very proud of her.
I’m currently reading Empire of the Summer Moon, by S. C. Gwynne, an awesome history of the Comanche leader, Quanah Parker, and the Quahada Comanches. But, in all honesty, when I want to revel in a good book, I more often than not go back to re-read my favorite authors from my early days: Leon Uris, Jean Plaidy, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, and Anya Seton, any true crime novel by Ann Rule, or biographies. But most of the reading I do these days is reviewing other authors.
What are your favorite books by others?
Green Darkness, by Anya Seton, is a fabulous historical love story about reincarnation in the early days of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, Exodus, by Leon Uris, another incredible historical novel about the Jewish people following WWII, and Cashelmara and Penmarric, by Susan Howatch, both breathtaking family sagas set in Cornwall. I’ve learned so much from all those books.
Do the locations in the stories have any meaning to you?
In my favorite books, no. I just love the stories, the characters, and the actual writing. In my own books, absolutely. The settings in both my books are very important to me, as is the setting in my current work-in-progress, JOURNEY OF THE HEART.
Do you write in single or multiple POV?
So far, each book I’ve written is written from both the male and female POV – but I love to read first-person viewpoints.
One of these days I want to try Susan Howatch’s method: She writes her family sagas in first-person, but she picks up the story in a different time frame from a different character’s viewpoint. I’ve not read this method anywhere or by anyone else, but I love it because you see an event from several different angles.
What do you find to be your best research tool?
Historical archives on the internet. Old newspapers from the area I’m interested in. Conversations (if I can have them) with people who’ve lived in that area for years. Museums, libraries, diaries, old photos, and letters. My own photographs of the area if I can get there. Movies set in that area, during that time, if I can find any.
Do you write under a pen name? Also, do you write under more than one name?
I write my books under my full name: Rosetta Diane Hoessli, because my mother named me Rosetta Diane thinking that name sounded like a writer. I just think it’s a mouthful, but I wanted to honor her after she died, and the Wild Rose Press published WHISPERS THROUGH TIME in 2021. Many of my earlier articles, books, and the publications I managed/edited appeared under Ronni Hoessli (my nickname). No matter what genre I write in, I’ll never use a pen name.
What genre do you write, and why is this your preference?
I don’t write in a particular genre. WHISPERS THROUGH TIME is a historical/dual-time mystery with a touch of romance and spirituality, and TIP THE PIANO MAN is a suspenseful mystery/thriller set in my city, in my time.
I write the story as it comes to me. My agent calls it ‘women’s fiction’ or ‘mainstream fiction.’ That seems general enough to me. I’m not easy to pigeon-hole.
Tell me something about yourself outside of writing. Jobs, accomplishments, family, quirky traits…what led to you being you?
An only child, I was raised in a traditional 1950s family.
My father was the baby in a family of five kids from the Chesapeake Bay area, a self-taught musician, and a talented photographer.
My mother, one of six kids, was a gifted blues singer and an artist originally from Arkansas. She could draw the most beautiful women you ever saw in your life.
So, my parents always encouraged me to march to the beat of my own drummer. I wouldn’t be who I am if not for them, their constant reassurance of my worth, and the unconventional way I was brought up. I still have the piano my parents bought for me when I was five and insisted I learned to play until I finally quit taking lessons at 17. I can’t part with it now, even though I haven’t played it in years and it’s horribly out of tune, because it’s somehow symbolic of how much they believed in me.
I learned right out of high school that I wasn’t the kind of person who could ever hold a 9-5 job. On the third day of my first job in an insurance company, I threw up on my boss’ new alligator boots and … well, that was the last full-time job I ever held. Finally, after a lot of zig-zagging, I got around to paying attention to my heart and married my high school sweetheart, Kevin – the ‘bad boy’ of the neighborhood. When we had our little girl less than a year later, my life really started.
Kevin and our daughter, Michele, have always been my support system, from Day One. Whatever I’ve wanted to do, they’ve backed me up, without question. The fact that I’ve been able to do nothing but take jobs that allowed me to write – ghostwriting, managing publications, finally writing novels about subjects that lived in my soul – is due to them and the freedom they always afforded me.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Things have changed so much since I first began writing. I wrote my first novel on an electric typewriter that Kevin bought me in 1976 for my birthday, put the manuscript in the mail to a publishing company I thought might like it, waited six months before I finally got a form letter rejection notice, and started all over again.
When I sold my first article to McCall’s called Innocence Lost (the basis for my second book TIP THE PIANO MAN), and the editor called me on my landline to tell me they wanted it (no cell phones back in those days!), I was so shocked I hung up on her.
But that’s when I decided to never, ever quit. I can promise you that every single writer has a story like that.
READ what you love. Study those books that you can’t put down, and figure out why they work. Take writing courses. Back in the day, there were no word processors, no computers, and no internet. We did everything by hand. But now, go online and take a course in novel-writing or article-writing, and do it at your own speed. How easy is that? But, if you can’t afford a course, don’t let that stop you. Go to a half-price book store, buy a writing book that has assignments, and do them just like you were in a classroom. Audit a creative writing course at a local college. Do everything you can to learn your craft.
WRITE what YOU want. Write what you care about. Write with passion. Be persistent, determined, and believe in yourself – even if no one else does. Writing groups are great, but always consider the person who’s critiquing your work. Do you like his writing, or can he not write his way out of a paper bag? In other words, always consider the source. On the other hand, try to surround yourself with writers whose work you admire and appreciate.
Finally, NEVER give up.
How do you deal with and process negative book reviews?
I haven’t gone after that many reviews, to be honest. I’m not one of those writers who loves numbers: 1,055 reviews on Amazon! 6,000 followers on Facebook! I understand why some people think they’re all-important, but I’m not one of them. I think that has to go back to my belief that I have to write what I care about.
But the reviews I’ve received have all been incredibly positive – some have even brought me to tears because the reviewers obviously GOT what I was trying to say. So, I can’t really talk about processing negative book reviews. When I get one (and I will), I hope I can ignore it and move on. I think I’ve had enough rejection in my time to know how to handle it.
What is the most difficult part of your writing process?
The most difficult part of writing, for me, is keeping my focus. My family means more to me than anything else, and I’ve been torn away (kicking and screaming) from my work many times to take care of my husband, my daughter, my grandchildren, a friend in crisis. Life happens. But it doesn’t take me long to get back into it, thank goodness.
What do you need in your writer’s space to keep you focused?
Quiet. The quieter the better. If it isn’t quiet, I can’t work. That’s the only child in me, I guess. Everything else I can deal with. I’ve written in our travel trailer, our bedroom, a hotel room. As long as it’s quiet, I’m fine.
What is your naughty indulgence as you’re writing?
A glass of wine at 3:30 pm. I think I must see it as my reward.
If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose? And why?
Leon Uris. No doubt about it.
I actually attended a speaking engagement way back in which he answered questions from the audience about his books, and I was too shy to even raise my hand! Looking back on it, I could’ve met him – but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. How sad is that? Still, it was one of the most inspiring evenings I’ve ever spent – the man was incredibly eloquent and passionate about his work. It just reinforced the fact to me that I had to write.
Other than Leon Uris, I’d love to have spent a day with Harper Lee, the woman who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 for her fantastic work, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee was a good friend to Truman Capote – he could never have written In Cold Blood if not for her research. He never gave her any credit for that, and she never demanded any. She was all about the work, nothing else.
What is your schedule like when you’re writing? Do you have a favorite writing snack or drink?
I lay out my schedules by month, as detailed as I can make them, and I try to follow them pretty closely. Since I have to market my already-published books as well as write anything I might have on the horizon, plus take care of my home and family, a schedule I can adhere to is very important. But when I’m close to the end of a novel, or working on edits of a novel already accepted, everything else in my life completely shuts down and that’s all I do.
I try not to eat while I’m working, but, like I said, a glass of wine about 3:30 will definitely happen.
Do you listen to music when you write – what kind of music is your favorite?
I can’t listen to music when I write. I have to have quiet. But I love music – both my parents were musicians, and so am I – but I do always listen when I’m looking for a story. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, plus any 1940s love songs, are great for that. Marty Robbins and his wonderful ballads "El Paso" and "El Paso City" helped put WHISPERS THROUGH TIME solidly in my mind.
But I love all kinds of music – classical piano, Big Band sounds, rock’n’roll, country…you name it, I love it. Except for Rap music, and Heavy or Death Metal. Not happening in my house, or anywhere around me. It makes me a nervous wreck.
Have pets ever gotten in the way of your writing?
What an interesting question! Absolutely, yes. We had cats until our daughter was ready to graduate from high school, but we got a gorgeous Husky puppy from my sister-in-law and didn’t discover until a bit later that she was actually a Wolfdog. We named her Miss Sasha Rotten and I had to put my work on the back burner so we could take her to charm school because she was so stubborn and destructive. Ultimately, she became a fabulous dog and lived to be 14 years old – but all of us had to put our lives on ‘hold’ to make her a part of the family.
She ‘wrote’ her own column, called Sasha’s World, in one of the senior regionals I managed and had her own following. We took her everywhere – and she started our obsession with Wolfdogs, which didn’t end until we lost our last one at the age of 15, back in 2022. If any of them ever got sick, everything shuts down until they’re better – and that includes my writing. We only have a Lab now, but he’s as much a member of our family as anyone else.
What is your kryptonite as a writer? What totally puts you off your game?
The last time I was put totally off my game was July 4, 2025, when the Texas hill country flooded. I was glued to the TV for three days, and so heartbroken I couldn’t think straight. The time before that was September 11, 2001, when the towers came down.
So, it literally takes a crisis of world-sized magnitude to take me out of the picture. I did some of my best writing when I was recuperating from COVID-19 because everything was locked down and no one was allowed to come near me.
Have you ever killed off a character that your readers loved?
I don’t think so. At least, not yet.
How do you celebrate after typing THE END?
At first, if anyone’s at home with me, I scream with whoever is there, then pour myself a glass of wine, and, finally, cry. Then, Kevin and I go out to dinner and we plan some kind of a get-together with our families and our very closest friends. Then we go back home and I sleep as long as I can.
I hope you enjoyed this interview!
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