Whispers Through Time
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***Synopsis***
WHISPERS THROUGH TIME is the first book in my series by the same name.
In WHISPERS THROUGH TIME, the opening book of the series, successful novelist Sierra Masters has it all. So, when the only man she’s ever loved, investigative reporter Hunter Davenport reappears on her doorstep after being out of her life for years with a proposition that could alter her entire future, she has to refuse – until she has a dream that she knows isn’t a dream. Instead, it’s more like a movie of something that’s already happened.
Although Hunter realizes that the information he’s shared with her could destroy her, he also knows it could free her, and he’s relieved when Sierra finally agrees to join him in South Dakota to discover the truth. When the past and present collide through a historical portal on sacred Indian land, offering Sierra the powerful gift of ‘seeing’ the past and even joining it, both psychically and physically, Hunter does what he didn’t do twelve years earlier: He stands by her.
As Sierra passes through intertwined realities, she learns secrets potent enough to bring down a dangerous sociopath and hope to a trouble land: The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. And because Hunter never leaves her side, Sierra realizes that she should never have allowed the pain of their past to alter the fresh promise of their future.
So, each book will involve Sierra Masters in a contemporary conflict – sometimes intimately, sometimes on the fringe – but the key to resolving the conflict is always hidden in the past and is never well known historically. This key can only be discovered, and understood, by Sierra, who’s inherited the Gift from the maternal side of her Lakota family.
While the series will be written in chronological order and each story may be told through more than one character’s viewpoint, each book will stand alone so that new readers can pick up the series at any time. What makes this series fun and exciting is that it can be set anywhere in the world, during any historical period, introducing both fictional and non-fictional characters while revisiting old ones.
What is the sub-genre and trope? Did your characters lead you to this genre or was that decided before the story began?
I’m not a formulaic writer, and I don’t write in any particular genre. Characters and story just come to me and I go to work. If I had to give WHISPERS THROUGH TIME a specific genre and sub-genre, I’d have to say it’s an atmospheric dual-time historical novel, with second-chance romance as the sub-genre.
Sierra was the first character to make herself known to me, followed by Hunter, and they both appeared as clear as day to me when I visited the Wounded Knee Memorial on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time. The story started there for me, although it expanded naturally in the course of each draft.
Are you more character or plot-driven?
I’m definitely character-driven. If you have good characters, they’ll move the story forward far better than you ever could. You can give them a little push in one direction or another, but they’ll run with the story.
With many main and secondary characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?
Not yet, but I’m sure I will. Right now, I just work with files – family trees, character sketches, and overviews of mystery, historical, and contemporary plot points that I can pull up at a moment’s notice. I’m pretty organized.
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?
If you have a well-drawn character, you should expect that to happen – and in WHISPERS THROUGH TIME it certainly did!
For example, I had no intention of Sierra and Hunter ever getting back together, but I was overruled on that front by the third chapter. Skye Morning Sun Parker, Sierra’s best friend, wasn’t supposed to be a major character, nor was Colt Chambers, Sierra’s property caretaker, but they took off and flew, all on their own.
In fact, just about every character came to life in a way I never anticipated.
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?
Hunter Davenport’s POV is based primarily on my husband, Kevin. We’ve been married 51 years, and our love story is, in many ways, the same as his and Sierra’s. Many of their memories were ours. I also used Kevin as a prototype for Colt Chambers because he can fix anything – he’s the handiest man I’ve ever seen! (But he talks a lot more than Colt does…)
Are any of the female POVs based on someone you know?
Sierra’s writing habits and need for solitude are mine, and Skye Parker’s adventurous, spontaneous nature is mine, but Melanie Winterhawk’s love of friends and family is based on my best friend.
But, for the most part, all my characters are composites of people I know or have studied about in history.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
The scene where Sierra has to confess to Hunter a secret she never told him when they were together years before was probably the most emotional and difficult for me, but the love scene that followed literally wrote itself!
What is your favorite book in the series?
I’m working on the second book in the series now, JOURNEY OF THE HEART, and I think it’s going to be terrific, if I do say so myself. But I think WHISPERS THROUGH TIME will always hold a special place in my heart.
I know that we’re not supposed to have ‘favorites’ as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
Nathan Winterhawk, hands down, is my favorite character. He’s a Lakota elder, loosely based on several American Indian Movement (AIM) activists (Leonard Peltier, Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and Alex White Plume, mainly), and his humor, sense of justice, and just-below-the-surface, simmering anger took over the story in ways I never even imagined. I felt I knew him and his family intimately before I even started writing.
Series question – Who is your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?
Sierra and Hunter are my favorite couple because I know them so well, and I wanted to explore my husband’s and my love story, if that makes any sense.
But Nathan and Melanie Winterhawk run a very close second because they were just so much fun to write – especially Nathan. I loved his respect for Melanie, her matriarchal place in their family, and the way he’s always slightly intimidated by her – even though he’s a real warrior in the very best sense of that word.
How do you get inside these characters’ heads to find their perfect HEA?
Like I said earlier, I had no intention of Sierra and Hunter finding their perfect Happily Ever After, but they found it in spite of me. Things just kept happening – obstacles, historical visions, major events – that played to each one of their strengths until it became very clear to me that not only did they want to be together, but they had to be. And I knew I couldn’t keep them apart for the sake of the plot.
What scene in this book/series sticks out the most for you?
The last vision that Sierra has of the massacre at Wounded Knee and what it meant to her family was heartbreaking to both research and write. It took me several days to get it exactly the way I wanted it, and I was terrified that it wouldn’t work when I finished. But it did, and I’m so grateful. I’m very proud of it.
Series – Were any of the books harder to write than others?
Like I said, I’m working on the second book now, JOURNEY OF THE HEART, and it’s been much harder to write than WHISPERS THROUGH TIME.
WHISPERS THROUGH TIME blew onto the page, almost fully formed. But JOURNEY OF THE HEART will come together if I’m patient, and I’m very patient.
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.
Hunter Davenport realizes the evidence he's shared with Sierra could indeed destroy her—but it could free her as well. The decision is yanked from her hands when the past and present collide through a historical portal on sacred Native American land. Will she take the gift that is offered? And will Hunter do what he didn't do twelve years earlier—stand by her? Only time will give them their answers.
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