Suit Up! With Terrance Layhew

Survival is not guaranteed. This should be the guiding principle of any action thriller. It should force the character to keep swinging from the moment they step into the arena. The value charge of action stories should be life or death. The harder you push your characters to the edge of death builds greater tension and drama. It forces them to innovate, surprise, and push back against the conflic...

When a landmark case with global implications reaches a divided court, everything hinges on the vote of one Supreme Court Associate Justice. The court prides itself on being impartial, but can one member be swayed to abandon their principles in order to ensure the safety of one they hold most dear? Suit Up! With Eric P. Bishop and his latest book  Supreme Justice . Today we'll be talking about wri...

Trouble doesn't care how you're dressed, but it cares if you are prepared. James Bond is popularly seen as a martini drinking Brit in a tuxedo, charming women and evading danger. It's an oversimplification and easy to mistake the accessories for the meaning. James Bond isn't cool because of the tuxedo, watches, gadgets or girls. It's because he has a robust skill set to meet any challenge and face...

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man? Ryan Holt from Analyze This Mr. Bond joins the show to chat about the 90's Pulp Perfection of  The Shadow . We'll talk about what it got right, what it got wrong, and what was missing from making the same splash as  Batman 1989 . Order my pulp treasure hunt novel,  One Man's Treasure  https://a.co/d/i19YMn7 Order my 1920's Aviator novella,  Unwanted...

The age of discovery never ends. It's easy to forget that. Modern mapping and technology makes the world feel smaller than ever before. Yet, there's still more to learn and discover each day. You may not be the first to walk into uncharted territory, but there are worlds to explore around you now. It's a question of mindset. Approach life with a sense of adventure and you'll find it. Curiosity for...

When an ex-Navy SEAL ends up injured and imprisoned, a shadowy ring of power brokers offers him the only way out—through a high-stakes military mission. Kyle Mills joins the show to talk about Fade In , his latest thriller. We'll discuss resurrecting Fade as a character, publishing with Author's Equity, writing habits, and much more! Pick up Fade In - https://a.co/d/hEUQOCF Order my pulp treasure...

The martini and the mission. They can be seen as two sides of Bond's world, or the intersection of them. From the outside, we see the division. James Bond socializing with his martini in hand, until he steps away to begin his mission. I would argue they are one and the same. The mission is the martini. The work of a spy is to gather information. Pay attention to the details and get into the rooms...

Strap on your jetpack, we're diving into The Rocketeer with Scott McCrea. We talk about the age of wonder, spirit of adventure, and the sincerity of the film. Pick Up Scott's latest book  Cry Flint - https://a.co/d/1ZvMHl5 Pick up  Targets West -  https://a.co/d/ivKWojD Order my pulp treasure hunt novel,  One Man's Treasure  https://a.co/d/i19YMn7 Order my 1920's Aviator novella,  Unwanted Passeng...

Dreams are easy. Too formless to have faults. They are pretty, perfect and satisfying to consider. The work comes in daring to make them real. The results have no guarantee of success. You can pour your heart and soul into the work only to come up short. For the audience to look at what you made and turn up their nose. You need to ask yourself if the dream you have is worth the daring. Is it worth...

Suit Up! With T.D. Severin and his debut medical thriller Deadly Vision. Fighting for his medical career and eventually his life, Deadly Vision tells the tale of Dr. Taylor Abrahms' battle against overwhelming odds, political machinations, sabotage and murder, to bring Virtual Heart Surgery to reality and save the life of someone he loves. We'll be talking with Todd about his writing process, virt...

Laugh. Lunge. Suit Up! #suitupphilosophy What makes a swashbuckler? It's one of those conversations which gets into semantics and specifics. However, the purer you try to define it, the less meaning you gain from the idea. Swashbuckling is an attitude. One which is seen from characters like Robin Hood, Zorro, or Indiana Jones. They are from different places, different times, and different goals, b...

In over a hundred years of Sherlock Holmes storytelling, there have been countless continuations and pastiches of his narrative. Paul Bishop has edited  52 Weeks of Sherlock Holmes Novels: Traditional Favorites and Exciting New Discoveries Join our conversation where we discuss the enduring nature of the world's greatest detective, the legacy of pastiche authors, James Bond, the shadow of Sherlock...

The journey is calling. Will you pick up? It's almost a cliche of writing to say there's a call to adventure. Casually, it sounds simple. Ask and answer. Adventure is rarely so kind. Adventure doesn't ask, it demands. It pulls you from the safety of your known world and hurls you into a journey from which you cannot escape unharmed or unchanged. The choice to embrace the change it offers is yours....

Tune in for  Doubleshot by Raymond Benson, the second book of the Union Trilogy. We're joined by Blake Powers (Bond Life Chicago) to discuss the highs and lows of the book, the characterization of Bond, Hemingway style bull fighting, twinning and much more! Pick up Doubleshot - https://a.co/d/ege7wFF Order my pulp treasure hunt novel,  One Man's Treasure  https://a.co/d/i19YMn7 Order my 1920's Avi...

Gene Koon joins the show to talk about his debut thriller Another Try . Wine and bullets.  Another Try is a sharp political thriller, intertwining hidden agendas and looming danger as Garris Kelley navigates through a vineyard of trouble that entangles both a covert plot and political echelons. On this episode, we discuss Gene's experiences in The Hague, writing Another Try , prose styles, aviatio...

Give characters a mountain. A goal of imposing breadth and magnitude to loom over the course of the story. This ambition gives readers and characters a direction. The way characters choose to respond tells you about them. Are they excited or avoidant? The mountain remains. By desire or dire necessity, at the base of the mountain the character is forced to climb.  The climb takes effort. Pushing th...

Welcome to Cottonmouth, the town of misfit spies. What does the US government do with spies and special operators when they pass their expiration date? They retire them to a small town deep in the Piney Woods of East Texas, where they're certain to cause no trouble. A collection of broken spies, former double agents, and retired operators lives in secrecy, under the watchful eye of the government...

Someone you think you can trust, is just, another way to die. On the Lighting The Pipes Podcast, when the hosts review James Bond stories, they have a category for Allies and Adversaries. Depending on the story, they are frequently one and the same. Spy work is all a matter of relationships. It's why networking is a part of the vocabulary. It's why trusting the wrong person can lead to disaster. T...

Ryan Pote joins the show to talk about his debut novel Blood and Treasure . We'll discuss how Ryan's background, his writing habits, creating Ethan Cain, Blood and Treasure and much more! The winner of The Great Circle Giveaway will also be announced at the end of the episode! Pick up a copy of  Blood and Treasure https://a.co/d/h4iyKVz Pick up pulp treasure hunt novel, One Man's Treasure  https:/...

Plan and execute. A simple combination? Most do one or the other, but rarely succeed at balancing the needs of both. My favorite dynamic to create a character is to lean on one idea versus the other. Too much time planning and execution may be delayed to dangerous consequences. Rushing to execute may leave too little time to know what to do. Leaping into a situation without having a sound strategy...

Renegade Immortality is a tactical adventure. Following the deaths of his wife and daughter, special ops agent Cody Willis struggles to cope with his overwhelming grief. But when his sister is kidnapped and forced to lead a top-secret job as the head of a research team in Peru, Cody will race across the world in order to save one of the last people he thinks he has left. Christopher Clay joins the...

Heroes are made for conflict. Conflict makes heroes. Avoid stupid conflicts. Avoid the things which take time and attention, but don't bring good or glory. Stories only work with conflict. The better the conflict, the better the hero who faces them. It forces the character of a protagonist to the surface. Weak conflicts create weak stories. Boring. Dull. Do not finish. Crafting the perfect conflic...

With Rob Hart and The Medusa Protocol On today's episode, we are joined by best selling author, Rob Hart to talk about  The Medusa Protocol the much anticipated follow up to  Assassins Anonymous . We'll discuss: Kung Fu and Musicals Writing action scenes Establishing authority with the reader Using social media And much more! Order  The Medusa Protocol https://a.co/d/9S1ALdK Order my pulp treasure...

Race. Rest. Suit Up! #suitupphilosophy "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run." Kipling's admonition is why we race. We run against the ticking clock. Trying to avoid being crushed beneath the weight of time. Going the distance in our field of play. We extend all our efforts to accomplish our goals within the limited time we are given each day. It's foolis...

We sit down with Jonathan Rogers, the director of  The Mirror of Amun-Ra a short pulp-adventure film introducing a new hero: Cleopatra Pryce. On this episode, we talk: The challenges of filmmaking Creating Cleopatra Pryce Choosing an artifact Where Jonathan got his awesome fedora Intial thoughts on Dial of Destiny and much more! Watch The Mirror of Amun-Ra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECqILeZK-...