Conflict Archives - Mimi Barbour

Nah!

I don’t think so. And I sure as heck hope you feel the same
way.

I’ve been working diligently on the new edition Book #4 of
my Vegas series “High Stakes Gamble”
which is slotted in the Romantic Suspense genre. And I’ve purposely
incorporated a lot of…

You got it—Suspense!

The Thesaurus’ description of suspense includes words like
uncertainly and anticipation. In my mind, uncertainty and anticipation is linked
together with some sort of conflict… right? And looking up conflict on
Thesaurus shows terms like battle, disagreement, and fight. Okay! So when you
have controversy, tension and opposition there has to be a certain amount of
suspense accumulating over the outcome.

And I have no doubt that the readers expect, prefer and
relish a good chance to feel trepidation and fear of the outcome when reading
these types of stories. At least I know that I do. I love it when the author
makes the book so exciting that I lose sleep because I can’t stop reading.

I have another secret to share with you. I like suspense and
conflict no matter what genre I read. Contemporary Romance, Historical, Urban
Fantasy, Paranormal, YA you name it. To me, a book without some sort of
controversy is a flat story that doesn’t get finished.

(And this is just my opinion, but two characters who don’t
get along in a love tale does not
constitute a proper conflict.)

As authors, we all know that we can’t have our hero and
heroine falling into each other’s arms on page one if we want the readers to
stay engaged with the story. But we also know there has to be viable reasons
for our two lovebirds to be kept apart in order to take up enough words so we
can call our work a short story, novella or a novel. That’s where the conflict
comes in. It’s the basis for their discord. And if a bit of suspense can be
woven into this discord, then for me all the better.

Back to my original question – is a lot too much? I guess if
it takes the place of long boring descriptions and narrative that forces one to
skip to the next page, it isn’t. Therefore, if you feel the same as I do, High Stakes Gamble will be just your
kind of read. It’s a blockbuster, full of conflict and fast-paced thrills.
There’s sorrow and joy, laughter and tears, with romance (of course) intertwined
into the tale. **To be released by the first week in April.