Carter Wilson's Making It Up

Joey Hartstone is a film and television writer who has written two feature films, LBJ and Shock and Awe , both directed by Rob Reiner. He wrote on the first two seasons of the legal drama The Good Fight and is currently a writer on the Showtime series Your Honor . His debut legal thriller, The Local , was released in June 2022.   Among other things, Carter and Joey discuss the differences between...

Novelist Ashley Winstead holds a Ph. D. in contemporary American literature from Southern Methodist University and a B.A. in English and Art History from Vanderbilt University. Her 2021 thriller, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife , was a breakout hit, and is being followed up with her August 2022 release The Last Housewife .  Among other things, Carter and Ashley discuss getting her Ph. D. and the path...

The 50th EPISODE (!) of Making It Up features Hannah Mary McKinnon, who led a successful career in recruitment before quitting the corporate world in favor of writing. Her debut, Time After Time , was a rom-com but she has since transitioned to suspense novels. Of five, four are bestsellers and her seventh book and sixth thriller is scheduled for spring next year. Hannah’s latest thriller, Never C...

Hilde Kate Lysiak founded the newspaper Orange Street News at the age of seven. Now, at fifteen, she’s written and published hundreds of stories, has been recognized for her work in the New York Times , The Today Show, GMA , and The Washington Post . Additionally, she has a book series with Schloastic and a TV mystery series inspired by her life, titled Home Before Dark , which premiered on Apple...

Novelist Elle Marr strives to tell powerful and compelling stories of women who demonstrate resilience in the face of great obstacles. She is the author of three thrillers, The Missing Sister (2020), Lies We Bury (2021), and Strangers We Know (May 2022).  The Missing Sister was the #24 Best Selling eBook of 2020 on Amazon, #1 in the entire Kindle Store, featured in Woman's World , and named o...

Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries, set in 1920s Appalachian Ohio and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff. Under her given name, she writes the “Level Up Your (Writing) Life” column for Writer’s Digest. She also hosts the “Tea with Jess: Chatting with Authors & Artists” in which creatives share their journeys and insights.   Among other things, Carter an...

D.P. Lyle is the award-winning author of 22 books, both non-fiction and fiction. He is the International Thriller Writer’s VP for Education and runs CraftFest, Master CraftFest, and ITW’s online Thriller School. D.P has also written for television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, House, Pretty Little Liars, and more.  Among other things, Carter and D.P. discuss the importance...

Ananda Lima is a poet whose most recent collection, Mother/land, is the winner of the Hudson Prize. She is also the author of Chapbooks Translation (winner of the Vella Chapbook Prize), Amblyopia, and Tropicália (winner of the Newfound Prose Prize). Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Poets.com, Kenyon Review Online, and many more. She has an MA in Linguistics and an MFA in Creati...

Katrina Monroe is a novelist whose debut title, They Drown Our Daughters releases in July 2022 from Sourcbooks. The book has been named one of CrimeReads' 16 Horror Novels To Look Out For In 2022 and Tor Nightfire's Horror Books We're Excited About In 2022. Katrina lives in Minnesota with her wife, two children, and Eddie, the ghost who haunts their bedroom closets.  Among other thi...

Katie Lattari is the author of two novels, American Vaudeville , a small press work, and her recent thriller debut, Dark Things I Adore . Her short stories have appeared in such places as NOO Journal , The Bend , Cabildo Quarterly , and more.  Among other things, Carter and Katie discuss creepy small towns, the tumultuous journey to writing novels, and how to handle the editor’s first letter witho...

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...