Carter Wilson's Making It Up

Novelist Erica Ferencik is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Boston University. Her most recent release, Girl In Ice , was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Los Angeles Times Best Crime Novel of Winter 2022, and a Reader’s Digest Best Fiction Book of 2022.  Among other things, Carter and Erica discuss the benefit of travel for researching books, how writing comedy and th...

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award-winning co-host of the literary TV show A Word on Words . She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker. With millions of books in print, J.T. has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, been optioned for television, and has been published in 28 countries.  Among other t...

Lara Elena Donnelly is the author of the Nebula, Lambda, and Locus-nominated trilogy The Amberlough Dossier , as well as short fiction and poetry. Lara has taught in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College as well as the Catapult Workshop in New York. She is a graduate of the Clarion and Alpha writers’ workshops and has served as on-site staff at the latter, mentoring amazing teens who will some...

Aaron Philip Clark is a novelist and screenwriter from Los Angeles, CA. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in the film industry and law enforcement. His most recent novel, Under Color of Law , which was inspired by his experience in the LAPD, was just named a 2022 Thriller Awards finalist (Best Paperback Original).  Among other things, Carter and Aaron discuss the world of screenwrit...

Alex Finlay is the pseudonym of Anthony Franze, who launched his debut thriller the same year as me back in 2012.  His 2021 breakout thriller as Alex Finlay, Every Last Fear , was an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN , Newsweek , E! , BuzzFeed , Business Week , Goodreads , Parade , PopSugar , and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated t...

Daniel Jude Miller is the author and illustrator of the children’s picture book series Monsters in Manhattan , as well as Everybody Wake Up , Earclaw and Eddie , and Halloween Boy and the Christmas Kid . Growing up in Queens, NY and working in Manhattan inspired Daniel to write and draw all the creatures and goblins he came across on a daily basis. He now lives upstate, far from the clutches of th...

Allen Eskens is the bestselling author of The Life We Bury , The Guise of Another , The Heavens May Fall , The Deep Dark Descending, The Shadows We Hide , Nothing More Dangerous , and The Stolen Hours . He is the recipient of the Barry Award, Minnesota Book Award, Rosebud Award (Left Coast Crime), and Silver Falchion Award and has been a finalist for the Edgar® Award, Thriller Award, and Anthony A...

Lynne Reeves Griffin is an internationally recognized family counselor, public speaker, teacher, and writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her work has appeared in Parents, Psychology Today, Solstice Literary Magazine, Chautauqua Journal, Craft Literary, Fiction Writers Review, Brain, Child, and more. She writes novels of domestic suspense as Lynne Reeves, with The Dangers of an Ordinary Night publis...

Amanda Kabak is the author of The Mathematics of Change and her latest novel, Upended . Her stories have been published in The Massachusetts Review, Tahoma Literary Review, Sequestrum, The Laurel Review, and more. She’s also the recipient of the Lascaux Review fiction award, the Arcturus Review’s Al-Simāk award for fiction, and the Betty Gabehart prize from the Kentucky Women Writers’ Conference....

Gabrielle St George is a Canadian screenwriter and story editor with credits on over 100 produced television shows, both in the USA and Canada. Her feature film scripts have been optioned in Hollywood. She also writes humorous mysteries and domestic noir about subjects of which she is an expert– mostly failed relationships, hence her début soft-boiled series, The Ex-Whisperer Files , which recentl...

Yasmin Angoe recently released her debut novel, Her Name Is Knight . She taught English in middle and high schools for years, served as an instructional coach for virtual teachers, and spent time as a freelance copy editor. Angoe recently received the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for emerging writers of color from Sisters of Crime, of which she’s a proud member. Among other things, Carter and Yasmin...

Dr. Ian Smith is the author of 15 books, both novels, and multiple #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction health and diet books. He is currently the medical contributor and co-host of the nationally syndicated television show The Rachael Ray Show and a former co-host of the Emmy award-winning syndicated daytime talk show, The Doctors . Among many more noteworthy achievements (too many to list h...

Drew Magary is a co-founder of the employee-owned sports and culture website Defector , as well as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle online and the author of three novels. Drew’s life changed forever at a company holiday party in 2018 when he suffered a mysterious fall that caused him to smash his head so hard on a cement floor that he cracked his skull in three places and suffered a cat...

Alverne Ball’s creativity is seemingly boundless. His writing has been featured in literary magazines, he’s crafted award-winning comic and graphic novel material for various production studios, and he’s written and produced a short film himself. Oh, yeah, he’s also a novelist. His latest book is Blue Religion , a sequel to his earlier work Only The Holy Remain . Among other things, Carter and Alv...

Farrah Rochon is a USA Today bestselling author who has garnered much acclaim for her popular Holmes Brothers and New York Sabers series. More recently, The Boyfriend Project and The Dating Playbook . When she’s not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah enjoys reading, cooking, traveling the world, visiting Walt Disney World, and Broadway shows. Among other things, Carter and Farrah discuss...

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times , Wall Street Journal , Washington Post , and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series , which has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. In addition, he has two other series, several standalone novels, and numerous short stories. His latest book, The World Played Chess, is the emotionally arresting follow-up to The Extraor...

Matthew Fitzsimmons nearly abandoned writing forever. Thankfully he persevered and is now the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Gibson Vaughn series. His most recent release is Constance, a mind-bending thriller about human cloning. Among other things, the two discuss Matthew’s long and sometimes painful path to success, which included being a playwright in New York, a long stint of te...

Sarah Fine, writing under the name SF Kosa, is a psychologist by training and a writer by passion. Though The Quiet Girl was her debut psychological suspense novel, she is the author of over two dozen fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, and romance novels, some of which have been translated into other languages. Among other things, Carter and Sarah discuss how she went from wanting to be a surgeon, to...

Maureen Johnson is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes , Suite Scarlett , The Name of the Star , and Truly Devious . She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle (now on Netflix), and several works in the Shadowhunter universe with Cassandra Clare. Among other things, Carter...

Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, became a cultural phenomenon with his 13-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events. His books have sold more than 70 million copies, won Peabody and Writers Guild of America awards, and have been made into box-office and streaming movies. His latest release, the standalone novel Poison for Breakfast, is self-described as a “book about bewilderment.”  Amo...

S.A. Cosby, thriller-writer extraordinaire. Shawn (S.A.) struck oil with his breakout 2019 novel Blacktop Wasteland, a Los Angeles Times book winner and the ITW Thriller Award winner for best hardcover (a big goddamned deal). He followed that up with his 2021 book Razorblade Tears, which was an instant New York Times bestseller. Among other things, Carter and Shawn discuss writing for a purpose an...

Stuart Turton lives in West London with his wife and daughter writing murder mysteries after years spent as a journalist. He is the author of the international bestsellers The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which got picked up to be a Netflix series, and The Devil and the Dark Water .  Among other things, Carter and Stuart discuss finding work as a writer after traveling for five years straight ou...

Adrian Goldsworthy is a historian and novelist who specializes in ancient Roman history. After teaching Greek and Roman history for six years before pursuing writing full-time, Adrian has since published a vast collection of both fiction and non-fiction works, most centered on Ancient Rome. His latest novel, The Fort , was released in August 2021.  Among other things, Carter and Adrian discuss the...

Barb Webb is a sustainable living expert living in Appalachian Kentucky and the author of Getting Laid and Getting Baked . Barb's writing isn't just limited to books on sustainable living; she's also a prolific blogger with her self-founded company Rural Moms, which has a social media audience of over 200,000 followers.  Among other things, Carter and Barb discuss growing up in a tr...

Brad Parks is an international bestselling author and the only writer to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of American crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes. A graduate of Dartmouth College, a former journalist with The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger, he now lives in Virginia with his wife and kids as a full-time novelist, his most recent being Unthinkable. A...