Success Story: Serial Novelist, Barbara Hinske

It’s hard to keep up with my writing coach client and serial novelist, Barbara Hinske.

Although she never intended for Coming to Rosemont to be a series, it now boasts eight novels and counting, since Barb is planning to write another one later this year. For those of you who haven’t read my regular Barb updates, Coming to Rosemont follows Maggie Martin to a seemingly serene Midwest town as she tries to rebuild her life following the death of her husband. That’s easier said than done since it turns out that he had been leading a carefully concealed double life.

I’m not sure if Barb would have ever considered writing book two if her readers hadn’t clamored for more. Over the years, they’ve kept asking when the next Rosemont book was coming. And Barb has continued to oblige. So the series has continued to grow. So have the number of five-star Amazon reviews, which now top 2,000.

Speaking of series, Barb and I have already started brainstorming about the third novel in her Guiding Emily series. In the first book, the protagonist, Emily, loses her eyesight due to an accident on her honeymoon; she loses her husband shortly thereafter. She doesn’t have to navigate the world alone, however. In addition to her hugely supportive mother and an unlikely workplace ally, by the end of the book, Emily winds up with a black lab guide dog named Garth, who narrates part of the series. Despite the challenges Emily faces, life doesn’t slow down for this high-powered executive, and seemingly neither do the novels she stars in.

Barb is also currently working on two other series. The novellas in Paws & Pastries features a young woman establishing a new life and baking career in a small town after her husband’s repeated infidelities finally prompt her to leave him. In the Wishing Tree series, Barb is one of a handful of bestselling and award-winning women authors writing novellas centered in the same locale, famous for its Wishing Tree to which residents tie scraps of paper on which they’ve scribbled their hopes and dreams.

“A heartwarming story of love, family, friendship, and the hope of a new beginning,” reads the Amazon sales copy for Barb’s first Wishing Tree novella. Those themes resonate in almost all of Barb’s books, which, along with the fact that they’re downright fun reads, helps explain her popularity. I’m always moved when I finish reading a Barb novel — even though I’ve read it countless times before and have even helped to plot some of it out. If you need a little pick-me-up these days (and who doesn’t?), I’d advise you to pick up one of Barb’s books and then work your way through the sequels. Even if you read all the novels in the series, before you know it she’ll have written another one. That’s just what Barb, the serial novelist, does.

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