Tip the Piano Man
Get a behind-the-scenes all-access pass to Rosetta Diane Hoessli's Tip the Piano Man!
***Synopsis***
When little Piper Callaghan appears at Hope's Home, too traumatized to speak after discovering her murdered mother's body, Dr. Madison Wagner hopes to make the child's possible father, writer Luke Callaghan, take responsibility for the bloody chaos he's apparently created. For his part, Luke has his own story and refuses to be patronized.
But when they discover Piper is the victim of prominent citizens profiting from an online international child sex ring, Madison and Luke understand they're in this fight together. And guiding them from beyond the grave is a murdered young mother seeking retribution...and atonement.
Madison and Luke must prevail against overwhelming odds, or their relentless pursuit of truth will hurtle them toward a shocking reality neither ever anticipated.
What is the sub-genre and trope? Did your characters lead you to this genre or was that decided before the story began?
This is a suspense/mystery based on current fact and real, personal events that I either witnessed or experienced. There are only a few characters that came strictly from my imagination.
I wanted this book to be a vehicle to bring people into a world that few of us (fortunately) ever experience, and that many more of us don’t know anything about. But I wanted it to be a real edge-of-your-seat story, and I think it is.
Are you more character or plot-driven?
I’m definitely character-driven, but in the case of TIP THE PIANO MAN, almost every character was already based on a real person before I ever started, and most of the story itself is real, too.
Part of it my family lived through, part of it I worked in, and part of it I wrote about and researched for years.
I know from previous interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?
Absolutely! The character who turned out to be Piano Man was a character I never even thought of when I began the book many years ago.
Lacy, who’s been murdered at the beginning of the story and is a catalyst for everything that happens subsequently to save the children, took on a life of her own and became one of the most important characters in the book.
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?
Yes! Private detective Jerome Scranton was based on a Texas Ranger who helped locate missing children for an organization I worked with.
Darth, a San Antonio police detective in the Special Victims Unit, was based on one of our oldest friends who worked for years in Vice for the Dallas Police Department.
Luke Callaghan has a great many traits and vulnerabilities of my husband and several other fathers we knew well.
Are any of the female POVs based on someone you know?
Madison Wagner was based on one of my closest friends from that time – a woman who literally lost herself in her work and nearly went crazy – and me.
I modeled Madison’s chief assistant, Whitney, after a woman I worked closely with who used her own past as a guide for working and empathizing with abused children.
And Sasha, the Alaskan Malamute that brings Piper out of her shell, was based on our Malamute, Miss Sasha Rotten. She flunked her Therapy Dog test because she was too ‘verbal’ – Malamutes and Huskies howl and yodel at the drop of a hat – but she was wonderful with children and the elderly, and they all loved her.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
I’ll be honest: This whole book was hard to write, for a lot of reasons, but the lead-up to the climax where the main characters are attempting to connect with pedophiles on the Dark Web, was the toughest.
In fact, whenever I’m writing a scene now that I think I just can’t write, I remember that scene and I know I can do it.
I know that we’re not supposed to have ‘favorites’ as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
I loved Lacy. Although I really hadn’t thought about her in terms of the huge character she became, she grew on me to the point where I actually dreamed about her – her despair, her ultimate courage, her love for her child and for Luke.
My other favorite was Jerome Scranton, but mainly because the Texas Ranger he was based on was like my own grandfather, whom I never knew.
What scene in this book sticks out the most for you?
The final climax, when Rafe meets up with Tony Davila. What happens in it wasn’t planned. I was just as shocked as everybody else.
Check out all my interviews/reviews for Rosetta Diane Hoessli!
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2025/12/author-at-glance-rosetti-diane-hoessli.html
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.
But when they discover Piper is the victim of prominent citizens profiting from an online international child sex ring, Madison and Luke understand they’re in this fight together. And guiding them from beyond the grave is a murdered young mother seeking retribution…and atonement.
Madison and Luke must prevail against overwhelming odds, or their relentless pursuit of truth will hurtle them toward a shocking reality neither ever anticipated.
No comments:
Post a Comment