Carter Wilson's Making It Up

“The biggest thing you have to be able to do with someone is step back, leave your ego at the door and just really both have the same mindset of like, 'Hey, we're in business together... every decision we make has got to be for the readers.” — Ryan Steck   “I get excited every time he sends me new material, then I take over and I do a little bit and he reads it and he said, 'Oh my g...

“From the time that I started publishing, my goal was to be able to do it full-time... it took 10 years to get there, but you know, slow and steady wins the race.”— Jen J. Danna  After over thirty years in infectious diseases research, Jen hung up her lab coat to concentrate on writing thrillers. She is the coauthor of the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries with Ann Vanderlaan, a series of suspe...

“I figured out at some point along the way that I was happier trying and failing than I was not trying at all.” — Clémence Michallon  Clémence Michallon is an author and a journalist. Her debut thriller The Quiet Tenant was published in June 2023 and is an international bestseller. Her thriller Our Last Resort came out in July 2025. She was a staff writer at The Independent for five years, and is...

“You want to bond with the reader, you know? And you want to take the reader and basically say to the reader, I'm about to tell you a story now. You're not gonna believe this, but bear with me, okay? And once you've established trust with the reader, you can go pretty far.” — Joseph Finder  Joseph Finder is the New York Times bestselling author of 17 suspense novels. His books have...

“I've loved the actual act of writing. You know, I meet a lot of people who wanna be writers. I meet very few who wanna write. I always wanted to write.” — Gregg Hurwitz  Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 27 thrillers including the Orphan X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently s...

Episode 212 of Making It Up is out and features Wendy Walker, the bestselling author of psychological thrillers including Don’t Look for Me, The Night Before, and All Is Not Forgotten, as well as multiple Audible Originals. Her latest book, Blade, draws from her past as a competitive figure skater and marks a personal and creative turning point in her career. Before writing full-time, Wendy practi...

“If you're not exploring, if you're not really kind of pushing limits, then you really have to ask yourself, well, what am I doing here? Like, this isn't accounting, you know what I mean? It's creative writing.” —Matthew Sullivan  Matthew Sullivan is the author of Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, an Indie Next Pick, B&N Discover pick, a GoodReads Choice Award finalis...

“Writer’s block is a myth. It’s your brain lying to you. Chefs don’t have chef’s block.” —Tod Goldberg  Tod Goldberg is a New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books, including the Gangsterland quartet, which have won/been a finalist for the Hammett Prize, the International Thriller of the Year and many more. His short fiction and essays appear widely and have been selected in Best American...

“I’ve just always been drawn to dark stuff. I’m really fascinated by why people do the things that they do—particularly bad things.” —Jennifer Fawcett  Jennifer Fawcett is an author, actor, and playwright. She grew up in Canada and spent many years in theatre there before moving to the US. She has an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and was a founding member of Working Group Theatre. Her wor...

“The idea that you could be at the whim of something as mercurial as a muse doesn’t work if you also have to show up for a job and a family and kids.” —Danielle Girard  Danielle Girard is the USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels. Her books have won the Barry Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and more. In addition, two of her titles have been optioned for sc...

“You're really investing in yourself. And when I actually do get a check, I'm like—wait, I got paid for this one?” —Courtney Psak  Courtney Psak is the author of two novels, and her third, The Hostess, is being released in April 2026. She graduated with a degree in Communications and Journalism with a master’s degree in Publishing. She is a member of the Crime Writers' Association,...

“Don’t wait for chapter five to be good. Be good immediately.” —Chris Pavone  Chris Pavone is an international thriller author whose novels include THE EXPATS, winner of both the Edgar and Anthony Awards; the instant bestseller TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON; and THE DOORMAN, a New York Times Notable Book of 2025. His novels have appeared on all the major bestseller lists and have won or been shortlisted fo...

“(The CIA) redacted my height and weight. I kid you not—they redacted the color of the sky.” —I.S. Berry  I.S. Berry spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She has lived and worked throughout Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. I.S. Berry is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Internatio...

“He’s psychotic, you know. That really messed me up… but I think it was good to do—to delve into what is the point of view of someone who’s psychotic.” – Kika Dorsey  Kika Dorsey is an author and an English lecturer at the University of Colorado, Boulder. While finishing her Ph. D. in Comparative Literature, she performed her poetry with musicians and artists. She currently writes and publishes fi...

“I wrote the first book to try and give my mother comfort and closure. But halfway through, I realized—I wasn't just telling her story anymore. I was telling mine.” – Casey Sherman  Casey Sherman is a New York Times Bestselling Author of 13 books including The Finest Hours (now a major motion picture starring Casey Affleck & Chris Pine), Boston Strong (the basis for the film Patriots Day...

“Is it a good idea that I write in both horror and spy thrillers? No. I think it’s a crap idea. But Hollywood really loves the spy stories.” —Alma Katsu  Alma Katsu is a NYT bestselling author whose books have been nominated for and won multiple awards including the Stoker, Goodreads Readers Choice, and International Thriller Writers, among others, and appeared on numerous Best Books lists. She ha...

“You’re trying to beat on these doors in the publishing world… and suddenly this door you didn’t even know was there opens up and says, ‘Hey, come in.’”  —Andrew Bourelle  Andrew Bourelle is the critically-acclaimed author of Shot Clock, 48 Hours to Kill, and Heavy Metal, as well as a coauthor with James Patterson of the Rory Yates series. Publishers Weekly described him as “a writer to watch”. He...

“The whole concept of working together started when we were in a writer's room—a Hollywood production company writer's room—and we learned how to create cliffhangers.”  – Christina Baker Kline  Christina Baker Kline is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including Orphan Train , The Exiles , Please Don’t Lie (with Anne Burt), and the forthcoming The Foursome (May 2026...

“Readers are giving you such a huge gift—and the gift is their time. So I always feel like to be respectful of that time, I have to be providing them with the best quality book I can.” —Cynthia Swanson  Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the psychological suspense novels The Bookseller , The Glass Forest , and Anyone But Her . Cynthia was named 2025 Indie Aut...

“I got one life. What do I want to leave behind? And I decided a failed writer was better than a successful attorney.” —Elena Taylor  Elena Taylor spent several years working in theater as a playwright, director, designer, and educator before turning to fiction. Her first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries, introduced a quirky mother/daughter crime fighting duo. With the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mysterie...

“I wrote 90 pages about the most boring man in the world. He drove around, got coffee, thought about life... and after six months, I killed him and buried him in a desk drawer.” —Harry Hunsicker  Harry Hunsicker spent his working career as a commercial real estate appraiser. His first novel was the Shamus Award nominated Still River , about a Dallas PI with the unfortunate name of Lee Henry Oswald...

“The muse days and the slog days look the same on the page, but they feel completely different when you’re writing them.” —Aime Austin  Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort and Nicole Long legal thriller series, weaving sharp social commentary into gripping crime fiction. Born in Brooklyn, Aime graduated from Smith College and Cornell Law School before practicing family and criminal law in...

“Don’t be afraid of the fact that pretty much every first draft is a failure. Just get the thing out.” —Scott Graham  Scott Graham is the author of the National Park Mystery Series, which includes nine books and counting. In addition to his mysteries, Scott is the author of five nonfiction books, including Extreme Kids , winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. Scott is an avid outdoorsman and a...

“Nothing guarantees anything. A breakout book doesn’t mean your next one won’t flop—and that’s just the reality.”—Andrea Bartz  Andrea Bartz is a reporter, consultant, and New York Times bestselling author. Her third novel, WE WERE NEVER HERE, was a Reese’s Book Club pick and an instant New York Times bestseller; it was optioned by Berlanti Productions and Netflix. Her most recent thriller, THE LA...

“I always say that both horror and romance are genres of hope.” —Lindy Ryan Lindy Ryan is an award-winning author, anthologist, and short-film director whose books and anthologies have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly , Booklist and Library Journal . She was named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2020, and in 2022, she was named one of horror's most masterful anthology...