The Open Mic: Writers in Their Own Words

My guest this week is another great debut author, J.D. O'Brien, who's great new book Zig Zag is a a rollicking tale of a weed dispensary robbery gone wrong has been called equal parts Elmore Leonard and Charles Portis - with Larry McMurtry's cowboy hat along for the ride.

My guest today is the very talented and definitely eclectic writer Alan Orloff, whose new book Sanctuary Motel should be out by the time you are watching or listening to this show. I’ve read it, and it is a fun, rollicking ride with a really memorable character with the great name of Mess. Alan is the author of a wide range of works, from YA to dark noir, and is the author of more than 40 publishe...

My guest today is author Richard Meredith, who has used his love and knowledge of the sea to form the backbone of a series of very well received standalone thrillers. His latest, Maskirovka, came out in 2022 and deals with something we’re sadly all too familiar with – Russian meddling in American politics and beyond. The novel received a Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews and made its list of 100...

My guest today is an exciting new talent whose debut novel Play the Fool came out in March. It is a really good read: a twisting, turning mystery with a great amount of humor and a protagonist who is a very likable in spite of being a total train wreck. It also has a wealth of something you don’t see in many mysteries – a running theme of Tarot cards. Please welcome Lina Chern to the Open Mic!

My guest today is an award-winning author and journalist Mark Pawlosky, whose career as a reporter and media executive has taken him all over the world. These days he is a full time author and the man behind the really cool Nick Byron thriller series, which debuted in 2022. That book, Hack, introduces us to Byron, an ambitious investigative reporter trying to come back from a bad career setback wh...

My guest today is the bestselling author of multiple crime fiction series as well as a number of standalone works. He’s won enough awards for those books to fill a showcase or three, and rightfully so. His latest book – Reckoning, the third in the Ty Dawson series – just came out. I’m reading the first in the series and I can tell you nobody does modern western fiction better than Baron Birtcher....

My guest today is the very talented and multifaceted Susan Walter, whose new book Lie By The Pool comes out the day we are recording this show – September 12th. We’re going to talk about that book as well as her previous novels and the movie she wrote and directed that starred a few of the biggest names in Hollywood.

A great review from an established source like Kirkus or Publishers Weekly can really boost a writer's chances of success. My guest today, Katrina Niidas Holm, is a longtime book reviewer for both of those publications, as well as the likes of Crimespree Magazine, Mystery Scene, and others. We talk about how she came to be a reviewer, whether there are any secrets to getting a Kirkus review a...

My guest today, Lowell Cauffiel, has a stellar background as an investigative journalist, true crime author, crime novelist, screenwriter, producer, and he’s even the founder of a nonprofit. You get the picture – he’s a very busy guy! Which is why I really appreciate him joining us to talk about his new novel, Below the Line, which “skewers Hollywood from an insider’s point of view in a deliciousl...

Bouchercon is one of the biggest conferences in the world for fans of mysteries, thrillers and general crime fiction. This year's event is in San Diego from August 30th through September 3rd. My guest today, writer Kim Keeline, is chair of the volunteer committee that organizes the event, and to say it is a monumental task is an understatement. On today's show we talk all about this year...

Today is a special show in that rather than focusing on a specific guest and their work, we’re going to talk about a trend – the fast growing use of AI tools like ChatGPT in writing. Now for some folks, this is absolute heresy while for others it is simply embracing new tools to enhance our own natural creativity. There are definitely small armies on each side of the issue, so today I have asked a...

My guest today is thriller and psychological suspense author Laurie Stevens. Laurie is the author of the award-winning Gabriel McCray thriller series, which features the tortured Los Angeles police detective Gabriel McCray as he deals with cases that challenge him both physically and mentally. That is admittedly a benign description but we’ll get into the series a bit more in a moment, as well as...

My guest today is really a special visitor in that I have only had one other political author on the show, and that was all the way back when we were only a blog. The reasons for that are many, most notably that this show is dedicated – with very few exceptions – to fiction writers, specifically crime fiction or mysteries and thrillers. I’m making an exception today because my guest has done somet...

My guest today is a great guy and an old friend of the show, but more than that he’s an acclaimed crime fiction author, the man behind the Jay Porter series as well as eight standalone novels, including his latest Say My Name, which comes out on June 6th. I am of course talking about the great Joe Clifford. WARNING - This video contains some language and topics, including homelessness and drug use...

My regular Open Mic audience knows that over the years most of the writers who have appeared here have been mystery or thriller or crime fiction authors, though every now and again I bust out with a nonfiction author – memoir, or biography, or perhaps a journalist like myself- and I’ve even had playwrights and a few songwriters. But today will be the first time I have ever been joined by a poet. A...

Aspiring writers are often told to write what you know or what you are passionate about. My guest today, Leslie Budewitz, has definitely followed that advice by marrying her love of cooking and writing to craft a wonderfully eclectic career writing two successful cozy mystery series, a pair of traditional suspense thrillers (which she does under her pen name Alicia Beckman), writing and contributi...

My guest today is a truly prolific and versatile author with more than 50 novels to his credit. He writes in several genres, including romance, adventure, some erotica and definitely mystery. I did say he was versatile, right? His series include the Golden Retriever mysteries, the Mahu investigations and the Angus Green thrillers, among others. And best of all, for me anyway, is he contributed a l...

My guest today is the author of three comedic mystery novels starring one of the most original characters I have encountered in recent years – former pro wrestler turned private eye Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead. I met him recently at the Left Coast Crime conference in Tucson, and I was taken by a few things: one, he’s an engaging guy with a knack for very cool promotional swag and 2) most important,...

I discovered the work of today’s guest at the Left Coast Crime conference in Tucson in March. He was on a panel I was moderating, and I set up a meeting with the folks on this panel beforehand to get acquainted. I’m really glad I did because I quickly learned that Gary Kreigh is not only an excellent mystery author but also a really good guy with a lot to share with others about the craft and busi...

My guest today is one of the most highly regarded crime thriller writers in the world today. The books in his Van Shaw thriller series have won pretty much all the major awards, received numerous starred reviews and been published in scores of languages around the world. You get the gist – dude can write a bit. And best of all, he’s a really nice guy to boot. I’m of course talking about the very t...

My guest today is former TV writer turned crime thriller novelist Matt Witten. After years writing for shows like House, Homicide and Pretty Little Liars, Matt turned his attention to crime novels during COVID. Turns out he's pretty good at this format, but then why would you expect anything different from a guy who has done plays, short stories, cozy mysteries as well as the TV gig.

My guest today is the author of two thriller series – the Jordan Stone thrillers and her latest creation, the Nico Moretti thrillers. I had the pleasure of getting to know her a bit at recent writer’s conference, and I can say that not only is she a great writer, she’s also a very fun and supportive person to be around. Please welcome Karen Dodd to the Open Mic. 

My guest today has been called “a writer’s writer” because of the beautiful fluidity of her prose, which is a fancy way of saying that she writes really smart, cool stuff that makes other writers say, damn I wish I could write like her. She is the author of three highly acclaimed thrillers – Three Graves Full, Monday’s Lie, and The Hidden Things – all of which have earned her frequent comparisons...

My guest today is crime thriller writer David Putnam, author of 13 books, including 10 in the acclaimed, award-winning Bruno Johnson series. Dave was a police officer for decades in Southern California and Hawaii, but has been fascinated with writing for a lot longer even than that. I had the opportunity to spend a little time chatting with him recently at the Left Coast Crime writers conference i...

My guest today is the outstanding crime fiction author Rich Zahradnik , whose latest book The Bone Records has one of the most interesting and unique premises I’ve seen: the connection between bone records - songs burned onto x-rays – and the murder of the protagonist’s father.