Carter Wilson's Making It Up

Araminta Hall began her career in journalism as a staff writer on teen magazine Bliss, becoming Health and Beauty editor of New Woman. On her way, she wrote regular features for the Mirror's Saturday supplement and ghost wrote the supermodel Caprice's column. She has a MA in creative writing and authorship from the University of Sussex, and teaches creative writing at New Writing South i...

Joe Lansdale has written novels in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, and mystery, and has written for comics such as "Batman: The Animated Series." As of 2020, he had written 50 novels and published more than 30 short-story collections. He has won ten Bram Stoker Awards, a British Fantasy Award, an Edgar Award, and more, and has been inducted into The Texas Literar...

L.R. Jones, or Lisa Renee Jones, is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her dark, edgy fiction includes the novels You Look Beautiful Tonight, The Poet, A Perfect Lie, and the Lilah Love series. Prior to publishing, Lisa owned a multistate staffing agency recognized by the Austin Business Journal and was #7 in Entrepreneur magazine’s list of growing women-owned businesses. Among oth...

Matt Coyle is the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels. He graduated with a degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara. His foray into crime fiction was delayed for thirty years as he spent time managing a restaurant, selling golf clubs for various golf companies, and in national sales for a sports licensing company. Yesterday’s Echo was published in 2013 and w...

Audrey Gale is the author of the new release, The Human Trial . After twenty-plus years in the banking industry, Audrey pursued her master’s in fiction writing at the University of Southern California. Her first novel, a legal thriller entitled The Sausage Maker’s Daughters , was published under the name A.G.S. Johnson. Her second, The Human Trial , is the first book in a medical-thriller trilogy...

Katherine Howe, author of A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself, is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She is the author of several novels for adults and young adults, has edited two volumes of primary sources for Penguin Classics, and is the co-author with Anderson Cooper of the #1 New York Times bestselling books Vande...

Boyd Morrison is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twelve thrillers, including six collaborations with Clive Cussler in the Oregon Files series. His first novel, The Ark , was an Indie Next Notable pick. He has a PhD in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech. His latest thriller The Last True Templar is the second book in the Tales of the Lawless Land series co-written with his sister...

Sara DiVello is a true crime writer and the founder and host of the popular author interview series, Mystery and Thriller Mavens. Her latest book, Broadway Butterfly: A Thriller , received starred reviews from Library Journal and Book List , was a CBS New York Book Club pick, an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of Summer, was featured in Vanity Fair,  and much more. Among other things, Sara and Cart...

Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Cruel Angels Past Sundown, Queen of Teeth , A Light Most Hateful , The Worm and His Kings series, and other books of dark fiction. She is also the author of over 100 short stories, and her non-fiction appears in Writer’s Digest , Library Journal , CrimeReads , and others.  Among other things, Hailey and Carter discuss how to navigate conversa...

Abbott Kahler (formerly Karen Abbott) is the author of four New York Times bestselling works of narrative nonfiction, including The Ghosts of Eden Park and Then Came the Devil . Her debut novel, Where You End , is inspired by a true story of identical twins and amnesia. USA Today once named her “a pioneer of sizzle history.”  Among other things, Abbott and Carter discuss Abbott’s early commitment...

Novelist Kathleen Willett has a B.A. in English from Holy Cross and a M.A. in English Education from Columbia University. An English teacher who grew up in New Jersey and London, Kathleen lives in Manhattan with her husband, two daughters, and a cat named Mr. Sparkles. Willett's debut novel, Mother of All Secrets, was shared by Hoda Kotb on The Today Show as one of her favorite new books.   A...

Novelist Emily Smith is a New Jersey native, who pursued her BFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU and her MFA in Creative Writing at American University. Her electrifying debut novel, You Always Come Back, was released in late 2023 to rave reviews.  Among other things, Emily and Carter discuss Emily’s desire to be a writer from age four, what should be taught during an MFA, and developing an online pres...

Elise Hart Kipness is a former television sports reporter turned thriller writer. LIGHTS OUT is based on her experience in the high-pressure, adrenaline-pumping world of live TV.  In addition to reporting for Fox Sports Network, Elise was a reporter at New York’s WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island, and the Associated Press. She is currently copresident of Sisters in Crime Connecticut, as well as a membe...

Entertainment Weekly called Martin Clark “hands down, our finest legal-thriller writer.” The New York Times stated that he is “the thinking man’s John Grisham.” Martin’s novels have appeared on multiple bestseller lists and have been chosen as a New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and a Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year. His current release is The Pli...

Erin Hoover is the author of two poetry collections, Barnburner and No Spare People . Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry and Best New Poets, and in journals such as Cincinnati Review, Florida Review, Poetry Northwest, and Shenandoah. She lives in rural Tennessee and teaches creative writing at Tennessee Tech.  Among other things, Erin and Carter discuss how Erin found herself writ...

Stephen G. Michaud is an internationally recognized author, co-author, reporter, and editor whose decades-long career credits comprise twenty books and multiple contributions to periodicals. The New York Daily News named The Only Living Witness (a biography of serial killer Ted Bundy co-authored with Hugh Aynesworth) one of the ten best true-crime books ever written. Ted Bundy: Conversations with...

Edward Cahill is Professor of English at Fordham University, specializing in the literature of British America and the early US republic; more recently, he has been teaching modern and contemporary fiction and writing novels. His debut novel, Disorderly Men , was published by Empire State Editions for Fordham University Press in September 2023 as the press’s first original literary fiction release...

Hannah Nicole Maehrer—or as TikTok Knows her, @hannahnicolemae—is a fantasy romance author and BookToker with a propensity for villains. When she’s not creating bookish comedy skits about Villains and Assistants, she’s writing to Taylor Swift songs. Her biggest passions in life include romance, magic, laughter, and finding ways to include them all in everything she creates. Most days you can find...

Carol Dunbar is a former actor, playwright, and coloratura soprano who left her life in the city to move off the grid. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The South Carolina Review, Midwestern Gothic, and on Wisconsin Public Radio. Her most recent release is A Winter’s Rime , a harrowing and emotional novel set-in rural Wisconsin.  Among other things, Carol and Carter discuss the psych...

Heather Levy is a born and bred Oklahoman and graduate of Oklahoma City University’s Red Earth MFA program for creative writing. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including CrimeReads and NAILED Magazine. The New York Times called her Anthony-nominated debut Walking Through Needles “a spellbinding novel at the nexus of power, desire, and abuse that portends a bright future” and the L.A....

Amy Weinland Daughters is a humorist, a freelance sportswriter, and an author. Her second book, Dear Dana: That Time I Went Crazy and Wrote All 580 of My Facebook Friends a Handwritten Letter (She Writes Press), was released May 17, 2022. Currently a resident of Tomball, Texas, Amy, and her family have also lived in Blackwell, England, and Dayton, Ohio.  Among other things, Carter and Amy discuss...

In a special live episode of Making It Up (recorded at the Broomfield Public Library auditorium in Colorado), Carter takes the stage with mystery author extraordinaire Emily Littlejohn ( Shatter the Night ), teacher, author and artist R. Alan Brooks ( The Burning Metronome ), and acclaimed novelist Erika T. Wurth ( White Horse ).  Among other things, Carter and the authors discuss their different...

Michael Katz Krefeld started his career directing a series of short films, before he moved on to writing scripts for several TV drama-series including the Emmy awarded Nikolaj & Juliet. He debuted as a novelist with Before the Storm (Før Stormen) which won the Danish Crime Academy’s first novel-award in 2007. Since 2013, Michael’s work has won numerous awards including Crime Book of the Year a...

Carl Vonderau writes domestic suspense and thrillers. His novel, Murderabilia, won the Lefty award in 2020 for Best Debut Novel, the San Diego Book award for Best Mystery, and the Kops-Fetherling Gold Phoenix award. Carl's latest novel is domestic suspense published by Oceanview on August 15, called Saving Myles. A former banker, he worked in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and North Africa....

Chris Riley lives near Sacramento, California, vowing one day to move back to the Pacific Northwest. In the meantime, he teaches special education, writes stories, and hides from the blasting heat for six months of the year. He has had over 100 short stories and essays published in various magazines and anthologies, and across multiple genres. He is the author of the literary suspense novels The S...