How to reach Eveline Rose
Intro:
Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome to The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm your host, Rhonda Douglas. And this is the podcast for writers who want to create and sustain a writing life they love.
Because let's face it, the writing life has its ups and downs, and we want to not just write, but also to be able to enjoy the process so that we'll spend more time with our butt-in-chair getting those words on the page.
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Writers who want to connect with other writers to celebrate and be in community, in this crazy roller coaster ride, we call the writing life. We are resilient writers. We're writing for the rest of our lives and we're having a good time doing it. So welcome, Writer. I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump right into today's show.
Rhonda:
Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome back to another episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. Today, I'm speaking with Eveline Rose. She is an award-winning author who fell in love with storytelling in high school, and she's thrilled to share her small-town romantic suspense stories. Every book she writes has a heroine who's stronger than she believes and a protective hero who falls hard and will do everything to protect her.
She lives in the Chicago area with her cat, HRH, the Prince of Destruction—great, great name for a cat—where she pours out her heart and soul to her characters. She's a foodie who loves her coffee and happy endings. Eveline's a member of the Chicago-North Romance Writers and the Contemporary Romance Writers group.
The second book in her series, Beaten, won a Silver in the Fall 2024 BookFest competition (Romantic Suspense). And the fourth book in her series, Betrayed, won a Gold and a Silver in the Spring 2025 BookFest competition. And—um—I love this series, I'll just say. I'm a big fan. So welcome, Eveline. I'm so glad you're here.
Eveline:
Oh, thank you so much, Rhonda. It's a thrill to be here. Thank you for having me.
Rhonda:
So what is it about small-town romance in particular that you find so intriguing?
Eveline:
I like that closeness of community and family that bleeds through every part of the story.
Rhonda:
And the series is based on sort of one family and friends. That's right, right? Like it's sort of an extended—
Eveline:
Yes. Yeah. So the Sheppards are the main family. And then through their investigation company, we have that extended family.
Rhonda:
Right. Great. And is it—there's five now, or I think there's five, right? So you can, like, go through them all. You could binge them all.
Eveline:
Yes. Yes. Actually, book six comes out on the 29th of this month.
Rhonda:
So—wow—that's exciting.
Eveline:
If you read really fast, finish them all before it comes.
Rhonda:
That's so great. So is book six the last in the series?
Eveline:
It is not.
Rhonda:
Okay, good.
Eveline:
So I have—I do, I do—I have nine books planned, plus a Christmas special that'll fall between book six and seven. So that actually should be out in November. And then at the end of it all, I've been doing a cookbook with recipes from the stories.
Rhonda:
Hmm. Fun. Wow. Okay. And when you first started book one, were you thinking then it would be a series?
Eveline:
Yes.
Rhonda:
Okay. So from the start you were like, this is a series, small-town romance. I'm building this out.
Eveline:
Yeah, I knew—when I developed the Sheppard & Sons Investigations company—that there would be at least a story for everyone who worked there. And then it started smaller, like five books, and then it was seven, and then it was nine, because the characters came and kind of started demanding their own stories.
Rhonda:
Okay. Okay, I love that. So, um, let's talk a little bit about writing romance. So is there anything in particular about romance? I mean, it's, you know, contemporary romance. And I'm just thinking of, you know, when you think about romance, you have all of these obligatory scenes, right? You have to have the meet-cute scene and the first kiss, and then, you know, they come together, they fall apart, the relationship falls apart, and then they end up back together with a happily ever after. Are you—do you map all that out? Like, are you a plotter before you start writing?
Eveline:
I am a pantser.
Rhonda:
A pantser. Okay.
Eveline:
Yeah. So I usually have a general idea of where I want the story to start, where I want it to end. And then I always know what the bad-guy scene will be—the big action scene—because that suspense element, you know, it's not just—my third-act breakup, so to speak, isn't always necessarily an emotional breakup. There's usually an element of actual physical danger and a bad guy involved.
So I usually have that plotted out. Like, I kind of know where it's starting, where it's ending. I kind of know who's going to be the important key players outside of my main characters. And then I just kind of have to fill in the blanks and make sure I'm hitting all of the key things for small town—like making sure I include those elements. I have to make sure there's family gatherings and there's that friendship and that closeness.
Because I write found family, I always have to make sure there's an element of making sure that the new person or people are brought into the fold in some fashion. And that's—you know, not just by simply being employed—but in some fashion it has to show up with almost a literal, “Hey, welcome to the family.”
Rhonda:
And what about the small-town aspect? I mean, I can remember a couple of elements from book one—I think Taken—where they end up at a pub and then someone's house for Fourth of July celebrations and stuff. So how do you map out—like, do you have a map of your actual town? Like, have you drawn a map?
Eveline:
You know, I do not. I know what Main Street looks like and I know where the Sheppard & Sons Investigations actual compound is. It's bigger than just a business now; they've grown. And then I kind of know where they live in my mind—relative distance and spatially.
But other than that, I don't have a real map because it's never actually been that important to know the map. I just need to know they're this far away and in this direction. I just kind of work off that. I'd go down too many rabbit holes.
If I were to try to map it out, I would lose like six months with colored pencils and rulers. I have better ways to spend my time.
Rhonda:
Yeah, right. It's either write a book or do a map. I got you.
Eveline:
But I always do make sure to include the coffee shop that's owned by the matriarch of the family.
Rhonda:
Right.
Eveline:
It always plays an important role. It varies in size, but it's always there somewhere.
Rhonda:
Okay. And so you're merging genres, right? So it's romantic, it's small town, but it's also suspense. Do you ever find yourself with—like, are there any challenges to merging those things?
Eveline:
Absolutely. Sometimes I find when I'm in the thick of the suspense part—when I get too much into the, you know, the guys are investigating and the danger is threatening—and all of a sudden: “Oh, hey, wait—nobody has talked to anybody. The friends haven't gotten together.” There's been no—almost, in my case, I always think, “Okay, we need a coffee break in here,” because at some point we've got to get them into the coffee shop. It's a staple.
Rhonda:
Right.
Eveline:
It's, you know, the little things like that—making sure that I remember that this is a small town, that I do want those characters showing up and that they have a role. It's not always the same size and it kind of varies depending on who the main characters are, because their relationship to them is gonna determine how big the role is here and there.
But yeah, sometimes with that suspense element, I do—I'll go back in my revisions and be like, “Oh yeah, let's make sure we get that small-town aspect in there.”
Rhonda:
Right. I could see that—actually it’s like—
Eveline:
Yeah.
Rhonda:
Suddenly it's turned into a suspense thriller and you're like, “Wait, wait, no—there's romance here. Wait, wait—there's a small town.” Yeah, totally. But they're so page-turnery, these books. I just eat them up. They're so good.
Eveline:
Thank you.
Rhonda:
Can we talk about your decision to go the indie-publishing route? How did you decide to do that and what were the important considerations for you?
Eveline:
So when I first started writing many moons ago and actually considered publishing, I remember looking into what it looked like it would take to try to find a publisher.
Rhonda:
Right.
Eveline:
But it wasn't that simple. You have to find the editor, you have to find an agent, you have to find this, you have to find that. I was just like, this is overwhelming. And I know for a lot of people this is going to sound silly when I say it, but for me, I found the right mentor and suddenly indie publishing seemed so much easier. In hindsight, I will say that wearing all of the hats can be challenging.
I'm my writer, I'm an editor, I'm a marketer, I'm my business coach, I'm my financial advisor, I'm my planner; I've got to do signings—all the stuff that comes with this. I'm wearing a lot of hats. There are times where, like, I haven't posted on Instagram in six days because I'm busy doing something that's more important, like getting a manuscript done.
So in hindsight, yeah, maybe that wasn't quite as obvious as it seemed at the time. But it was also a lot faster. Once I got the manuscript edited and got it ready, I didn't have to sit there and wait years before I got a possible publisher through all of the many channels.
I was able to just be like, “Oh, hey—click, download.” Suddenly my book was in the wild—which was, you know, intimidating to say the least—but it was so much faster than the other route.
Rhonda:
Yes. Yes. Love it. I totally get what you're saying there. So, can we talk about your covers? Because I just find that they're perfect for the genre, right? You have a large-scale couple and then the small town underneath them. Did you go through—like, how did you end up doing your covers? How did you know the kind of covers that you needed to have?
Eveline:
I went on Amazon.
Rhonda:
Okay.
Eveline:
And I found all of the books in my genre—small-town romantic suspense. I looked at the ones that were doing well and recently published—those ones that had that stronger suspense/mystery. You know, they had to have that kind of “we've got that protector.” Mine definitely fell into a protector series versus just suspense, because in every book one of the MCs is a protective character—
Rhonda:
Okay.
Eveline:
—like, by profession. And so I kind of looked at all of those and I went, “I like, I like, I like… I don't like, I don't like.” And I literally just picked out elements and—I use GetCovers for my covers. They've done an amazing job working with me. I've been very clear, showed them samples, and they designed my logo.
So the Sheppard & Sons logo that shows up on every book—you know, they've done a great job with it. And I tweak the sunset colors on every one and the colors in the title just a little—there’s a little differentiation between them. The couple obviously changes because it’s representative of the couple in the book, but yeah.
And, you know, my mentor was very helpful helping me nail down what this should look like. Because I write steamy closed-door, which means there are elements, but we don't get graphic. And so I had to be real careful about putting, like, a naked-chested man—very attractive, but not what I'm actually putting in my books.
That kind of tells the reader to expect something. So I got help learning what the cover might tell a reader so that I didn't accidentally put something on my cover that gave a false impression and then disappointed my readers down the line.
Rhonda:
That's so important, so important—because, you know, someone who doesn't want a graphic sex scene doesn't want to be surprised by one, right?
Eveline:
Right, right.
Rhonda:
So, I was just looking at your reviews. Book one and two—like, you're in that hundreds-of-reviews zone. How did you approach getting reviews? Because it's so important for readers to know that other people have read and enjoyed this.
Eveline:
I had a few ARC readers for the books. And then they borrowed—stole—maybe not really; you can't steal reviews. Yeah, just—literally—I'm constantly on social media, putting it out there: “Hey, best way to help an indie author? Even if you just do five stars, leave a review. You don't need to write anything—just leave your review. If you like it, five stars. If you hate it, do me a favor—just don't post anything.”
Rhonda:
Right.
Eveline:
You know, you've seen them come through Facebook or Insta—just that same thing. You don't have to spend any money; it costs nothing to leave a review, costs nothing to do a quick post—“Hey, I'm reading this book, I liked it”—you know, to share it. So I do that.
I've done some promos where you can have your book free for a couple of days and they get downloaded, and I always find I get a couple reviews after that—I see a little spike there. So that's been helpful as well. And again, honestly, if it wasn't for the mentorship of all the people I've worked with—you were included throughout the process—I wouldn't know all of these little tips and tricks. I'd still probably be sitting in that 2020 review, because I've taken advantage of different key marketing strategies.
Rhonda:
Okay. Great. So you talked about the different roles that an indie-published author has to play. Which one is most challenging for you? Like, which one do you enjoy the least?
Eveline:
Marketing.
Rhonda:
Oh, really—marketing.
Eveline:
I am—the whole having it be on social, the whole trying to put myself out there and sell. I do great if I'm at a signing and I can connect with the people—I love that. That's wonderful. I love watching their eyes light up when I hit their favorite trope. I love seeing their interest. And I love talking to them.
But when it comes to just sitting here and being like, “Oh, I have to plan out social media posts. I have to do this. I have to try to sell myself to strangers online. I want to reach out here, and I'm trying to get into signing events, and I have to sell myself to some of the bigger events”—that's the part for me that's always been really hard.
Rhonda:
And I happen to know that you write with a pseudonym. How did you decide on your pseudonym? Because this is something that really—it's such a struggle for people. They're like, “How do I know nobody else has this name? How do I know it's going to work for my book? What do I do about websites? What do I do about marketing? How do you handle everything that comes with being an indie author writing under a pseudonym?”
Eveline:
Well, I knew I wanted a pen name—or pseudonym. I knew that right from the get-go. I wanted to separate my two lives. And I actually chose a name that I completely ended up discarding when I first started writing. And it took me forever.
Rhonda:
Really? Okay.
Eveline:
It took me forever. I tried putting it together myself, and I was talking to a friend of mine who actually just wrote a really amazing book that he's looking for someone to publish. We got talking and he went on a name generator.
Rhonda:
Oh!
Eveline:
He literally texts me Eveline Rose Talbot. And I was like, “Holy camoly—that's perfect.” So I use Eveline Rose for my contemporary. I actually have five—or maybe six—historical romantic-suspense books planned, and Talbot is actually a noble name from the time frame that I'm writing in. So I'll be using Eveline Rose Talbot when I write those books. That way, the two—you know it's the same author; you're going to see a lot of the same similarities in the writing styles and stuff—but there's that slight distinction.
So yeah, a friend used a name generator and it was perfect. I literally did all this research, tried different names on. I even set up Instagram at one point under one of the other names and didn’t like it. And she does a little search, pops it up. I was like, “Oh—okay.” Well, that's just kind of sad, but it's perfect. So thank you for that.
Rhonda:
Thanks for your help, friends. Yeah.
Eveline:
Right.
Rhonda:
Wow. Okay. And what's the plan now? So we have book six in the Sheppard & Sons Investigations series coming out in August. And then in November we'll see a Christmas—is it a novella?
Eveline:
So it's going to be longer than a novella—probably about 70,000 versus my normal like 83. So it'll be a little bit shorter. I'm tweaking things up. It is going to be a standalone in the sense that you don't have to read any of the other books. It's just going to be one major, action-packed day.
You also don't need to read it between book six and book seven—although my fans will; it'll be available and they'll want to. But it won't be necessary. I'm doing it completely standalone, and I'm kind of having a little bit of fun with it and giving every Sheppard a point of view, because I write dual point of view usually.
And in this one, I'm doing something a little different and I'm giving the entire family a chance to have a voice during the same book.
Rhonda:
Oh, I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for that. That sounds fun. So, okay, so then we're finishing this, and you say you're working on something that's historical as well?
Eveline:
So I've outlined five, and I have in mind to possibly do a sixth, where I'm going to take some of the things that have always just kind of been accepted as truth during the Plantagenet–Tudor timeframe in England. So, you know, King Henry VIII, and then all the stuff that happened before him with, you know, his great-grandfather, Edward, and such—and challenge it.
From the perspective of the servants—because servants are always around but never noticed. They see and hear everything, but nobody pays attention, even though they're in the space all the time. So I think it'll be a lot of fun to challenge that. And I first got the idea because of Richard III with the Princes in the Tower.
Rhonda:
Oh, yes.
Eveline:
And there's actually a lot of new stuff coming out. It's really being challenged. His name is absolutely being brought back into the light in a positive way, as opposed to just, you know, naming him the killer. But that was my first idea with that. And then I went on with a couple of the others—tackling, you know, some of Henry VIII's wives and some of the situations there. So yeah, it's 2027 before I even start writing.
Rhonda:
Right.
Eveline:
Because I've got to finish Sheppard & Sons, and that'll get finished. I'm not in a situation where I can write both at the same time because of time constraints. But every time I get a thought or a note, I have a digital file. I just keep adding to it.
Rhonda:
And you are—I mean, you're six books into this series. It's amazing. And you've got a day job. So how is it you're fitting writing into your life?
Eveline:
Every second. I dictate while I drive.
Rhonda:
Oh wow—okay.
Eveline:
Yeah, I have theater experience, so I actually have decent dictation/diction. My grammar is not great—my words not good—but I can speak very clearly, so I use that a lot. Like when I'm driving around, or, you know, there have been times I'll be taking a break on my walk at work and I'll just be walking and I'll have an idea, and I just pull my phone out and I literally just hit record and I do talk-to-text, basically. And I keep ideas.
Rhonda:
Oh—just a voice memo. Yeah. Wow.
Eveline:
Yeah. And then, you know, when I'm home, I take advantage of my time at home. At night—I get done at work at 3:30—so I just sit down, write for a bunch of hours, or whatever the next task is.
Rhonda:
Okay. Wow. I find that amazing—that you are getting so much writing in.
Eveline:
Thank you.
Rhonda:
You must have a really great relationship with your writing life. Like, it must feel really good to you. Does it?
Eveline:
It does. It does. I really—I love the writing and the creative process. That's probably my favorite part—just sitting down and letting the ideas flow, letting those characters come to life in my mind. I don't love it when they don't let me sleep because they decide something has to happen next, and I'm like, “Guys, I just want to sleep.”
That part's not so much fun, but I love the creative process. I've always been creative. I've always wanted to express myself in some fashion—with theater, creating jewelry, making costumes. I've just always found a way for a creative outlet. And now that I'm doing it and I've got the series and I really know the back characters—
And even though we don't see a lot of—like—the sister in Sheppard & Sons. We don't see her; she's away in the Navy. She doesn't come—her book is actually book seven, so we're going to see her really for the first time in the Christmas special. And then her book is book seven.
So finally—nobody else has really gotten to see her, but while I'm writing all these other stories, I'm developing her so I know who she is. So for me, just knowing all these characters, watching them develop—seeing the changes as they come. And now I'm six books in; some of the characters have been married for years and they're starting families and we're seeing just massive—
You know, we're seeing growth everywhere, and we're seeing all the different ways that changes the dynamic of the people. Like: how does that change the outlook of, “Hey, the girls are getting together for craft-and-booze night—but oh, what do we do now if everyone’s showing up pregnant?” Okay, well, booze is probably not going to be the focus anymore—but how does that dynamic change? So there are a lot of fun, different things that are happening as the stories are developing and being told.
Rhonda:
Okay. I mean, I guess that's really the fun of staying with characters through a series, isn't it? How everyone falls and grows, right?
Eveline:
Yeah. And I will say when I first started—again, learning from the mentors—because I knew exactly zero. I just put pen to paper and thought it was cool. But I learned that, especially for my genre, you want a minimum of five books.
Nine is a bit excessive for your first time out of the gate, and I may have kind of roped myself in. But I love these guys, and I'm not gonna lie—come the end of this series, it’s going to be a little sad for me to finally have to let go of them.
Rhonda:
Yeah, I can see that. The characters become almost real, right?
Eveline:
They live rent-free in my head. They do. They totally do. That's so great.
Rhonda:
All right. Well, thanks so much for being with me today, Eveline. I just want to remind people: book six is out at the end of this month, but you can get started with book one, right—which is, if I remember, Taken, isn't it?
Eveline:
Yeah.
Rhonda:
So get started with book one, which is Taken. If you like small-town romantic suspense, you're really going to love it. I just enjoy reading these so much and they are absolute page-turners. So thanks so much for being with me, Eveline. I really appreciate it.
Eveline:
Oh, thank you, Rhonda. And thank you for your kind words. It was a pleasure talking to you, and thank you for all your help over the last year or so, because I've taken several of your workshops and seminars, and you are one of the mentors that I rely on.
Rhonda:
Oh, thank you for saying that.
Eveline:
So thank you so much for all of your support as indie authors.
Rhonda:
I'm so glad you got there. It's great.Eveline:
Thank you.
Outro:
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. While you're here, I would really appreciate it if you'd consider leaving a rating and review of the show. You can do that in whatever app you're using to listen to the show right now, and it just takes a few minutes.
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