Carter Wilson's Making It Up

Author Christopher Flory spent ten years with various correctional departments as a probation and parole officer, specializing in the supervision of sexually based offenders and criminal street gang members. Trust Misplaced: A Paul Dodge Novel was Chris' first published novel, though he's been featured in academic journals and professional conference papers while attending undergraduate...

Don Bentley is the New York Times bestselling author of the Matt Drake thriller series, including Hostile Intent, The Outside Man, and Without Sanction. Don also writes in the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. universe with Zero Hour, Target Acquired, and one forthcoming title.  Don spent a decade as an Army Apache helicopter pilot; while deployed to Afghanistan as a Troop Commander in support of Operatio...

Kara Thomas is the author of The Darkest Corners, Little Monsters, The Cheerleaders, and That Weekend, Barnes and Noble's YA Book Club Pick for July 2021. Kara's books have been sold in multiple languages and have been nominated for the International Thriller Writers Award. In 2013, she wrote and developed the pilot The Revengers with Rashida Jones and Will McCormack for The CW.   Among...

Tessa Wegert is the author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, including Death in the Family , The Dead Season , Dead Wind , and The Kind to Kill . A former freelance journalist, Tessa has contributed to such publications as Forbes , The Huffington Post , and The Economist .   Among other things, Carter and Tessa discuss the control over situations and meditative qualities that writing grants, how au...

Lauren Thoman’s pop-culture writing has appeared in numerous online outlets including Parade , Vulture , and Collider. In-between article deadlines, she managed to finish a book she’d started years before and then set aside. I’ll Stop the World is now out in the world, after Mindy Kaling decided to publish it.    Among other things, Carter and Lauren discuss switching up reading genres to cleanse...

Rebecca Keller is a writer, an internationally exhibited artist, a college professor, a Fulbright Scholar, and recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her stories have been nominated for a Pushcart prize, and her debut novel You Should Have Known was released from Crooked Lane Books in April 2023. She is now working on stories about art and another novel.  Among other things,...

Ciera Horton McElroy is the author of the novel Atomic Family , which has received critical praise including a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Ciera holds a BA from Wheaton College and an MFA from the University of Central Florida. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Bridge Eight, Iron Horse Literary Review, the Crab Orchard Review, and Saw Palm, among others.   Among other things, Ciera and Car...

An intimate, 2.5-day coaching program and retreat in Boulder, Colorado. Find community, inspiration, motivation, and confidence. Led by USA Today bestselling and award-winning novelist Carter Wilson. August 9-11, 2023. Limited to 10 participants; registration now open! www.carterwilson.com/gentle-novelist

Flash-fiction writer Nancy Stohlman is the author of six books including After the Rapture (2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), and Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020). Her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both stage and screen. She teache...

Hank Phillippi Ryan is USA Today bestselling and five-time Agatha Award-winning author of 14 thrillers, winning 37 EMMYs for television investigative reporting. Her newest novel is The House Guest —it’s Gaslight meets Thelma & Louise. The Publishers Weekly says, “Ryan is a master of suspense!” The Library Journal starred review calls it “Binge-worthy.”  Among other things, Carter and Hank disc...

Samantha M. Bailey is the author of Woman on the Edge , a USA Today and #1 national bestseller; her second novel, Watch Out for Her , was an instant #1 national bestseller. As a journalist and freelance editor, her writing has appeared in Now Magazine , The Village Post , The Thrill Begins , and The Crime Hub , among other publications.   Among other things, Carter and Samantha discuss how she has...

Kimberly Giarratano is an author of mysteries for teens and adults. Her debut novel, Grunge Gods and Graveyards, won the 2015 Silver Falchion Award for Best YA at Killer Nashville. A former librarian, she is currently an instructor at a SUNY Orange County Community College and a reviewer for BookPage.   Among other things, Carter and Kimberly discuss the intricacies of describing characters, how t...

Veronica G. Henry is the author of Bacchanal , The Quarter Storm , and The Foreign Exchange in the Mambo Reina series. Her work has debuted at #1 on multiple Amazon bestseller charts, was chosen as an editors’ pick for Best African American Fantasy and shortlisted for the Manly Wade Wellman Award.   Among other things, Carter and Veronica discuss how being a writer changes your reading habits, how...

Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned PaI Cassandra Raines. Her debut, BROKEN PLACES, made Library Journal’s list of the Best Crime Fiction of 2018 and CrimeReads named Cass Raines Best New PI of 2018. The novel was nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel, an Anthony Award for Best Debut Novel and a Shamus Award f...

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including The Personal Assistant, The Marriage Lie , a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller, and the co-authored #1 Audible Original, Young Rich Widows . Her books have been published in dozens of languages and optioned for film and television.  Among other things, Carter and Kim...

Rebecca Kelley is a fiction writer from Portland, Oregon; her first novel, Broken Homes & Gardens, was published in 2015. She also co-authored The Eco-nomical Baby Guide with Joy Hatch and her most recent novel, No One Knows Us Here, launched in early 2023.   Among other things, Carter and Rebecca discuss how a teacher provided early courage in Rebecca’s writing abilities, how she used a blog...

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of Winter Counts, which has won multiple awards and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Weiden received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph. D. from the University of Texas at Austin.   Among othe...

Lexie Elliott has been writing for as long as she can remember, but she began to focus on it more seriously after she lost her banking job in 2009 due to the Global Financial Crisis. After some success in short story competitions, she began planning a novel. The result was The French Girl, which was published by Berkley in February 2018. This was followed by The Missing Years in 2019 and How To Ki...

Before launching his career as a novelist, Chad Boudreaux served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He has also served in several high-ranking positions at the U.S. Justice Department, where he was hired the night before the September 11, 2001 attacks. During his time at the Justice Department, Boudreaux focused most of his time on matters relating to terrorism...

Mark Stevens returns to Making It Up to talk about his fantastic new novel, The Fireballer. Mark has worked as a reporter, television news producer, and in public relations. He's also the author of The Allison Coil Mystery Series and has had multiple books be finalists as well as his, Trapline, won the Colorado Book Award. In September of 2016, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers...

Nuzo Onoh is a Nigerian-British writer of Igbo descent, a pioneer of the African horror literary subgenre, and hailed as the "Queen of African Horror.” Nuzo holds both a Law degree and a Masters in Writing from Warwick University. Nuzo’s works have featured in numerous magazines, podcasts, and anthologies, as well as in several academic studies and publications, and her latest novel was relea...

Ronald Kelly has been writing and publishing horror tales set in the American South for 36 years. A former Zebra Books author, his published works include Fear , Undertaker’s Moon , Blood Kin , Hell Hollow , and many more. His audio collection of Southern-fried short stories, Dark Dixie: Tales of Southern Horror, was included on the nominating ballot of the 1992 Grammy Awards for Best Non-Musical...

Jennifer Givhan, a National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellow, is a Mexican American writer, activist, and the author of four full-length poetry collections: Landscape with Headless Mama , Protection Spell , Girl with Death Mask , and Rosa’s Einstein . Her novels include Trinity Sight, Jubilee, and most recently, River Woman, River Demon .   Among other things, Carter...

Carla Damron is a fiction writer and social worker. In addition to The Stone Necklace , she authored the Caleb Knowles mystery novels, in which she explores the social issues of addiction, homelessness, and mental illness. Her latest novel, The Orchid Tattoo , takes on the dark horrors of human trafficking.  Among other things, Carter and Carla discuss using writing as a therapeutic outlet, how Ca...

Katie Sise is a bestselling author, TV host, and jewelry designer featured in major fashion magazines and television shows. Jewelry and television work inspired her first novel, Creative Girl , which was when she realized the thing she most wanted to do in the world was write books. After ghost writing bestselling NYT suspense books, she published three of her own novels with HarperCollins and has...