Edward Hamlin is a fiction writer and composer of music for acoustic guitar. Edward’s NIGHT IN ERG CHEBBI was selected by Karen Russell as winner of the 2015 Iowa Short Fiction Award and went on to win the Colorado Book Award. Other honors have included a Nelson Algren Award, a Nelligan Prize, an NCW Short Story Prize, a Top of the Mountain Novel Prize and a Hawthornden Fellowship. His compositions for solo acoustic guitar have appeared on three CDs and on film. Among other things, Edward and Ca...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 159
Libby Cudmore is the author of Negative Girl and The Big Rewind , as well as the Wade & Jacks P.I. series in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Tough . Her short fiction has appeared in numerous places including The Dark, Smokelong Quarterly, Shotgun Honey, and more. She is the 2018 recipient of the Oregon Writer’s Colony prize, the 2023 Shamus award for best P.I short story, and the 2023 Black Orchid Novella award. She is the current co-host of the OST P...
Nov 14, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 158
Jen Ruiz is a lawyer turned full-time travel blogger. A multiple bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and national award-winning travel journalist, she has been featured in The Washington Post, Forbes, and ABC News. Jen has been named a Latina Travel Expert by Mitu and Top 40 Under 40 by the Naples Herald. She is the solo female traveler behind Jen on a Jet Plane. Among other things, Jen and Carter discuss Jen’s personal travel challenge she set for herself, how she utilizes “sensitivity readers” i...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 157
Gina DeMillo Wagner is an award-winning journalist and author. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Memoir Magazine, Modern Loss, Self, Outside, Writer’s Digest, and other publications. She is a Yaddo Fellow, a winner of the CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award, and her memoir was longlisted for the 2022 SFWP Literary prize. Gina has a master’s degree in journalism and is an instructor at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Among other things, Gina and Carter discuss how wri...
Nov 03, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 156
Barbara Feigin is an advertising executive and World War II refugee, having fled with her parents from Nazi Germany as a young child in 1940. She attended Whitman College, then completed a graduate program in business run jointly by Harvard Business School and Radcliffe Graduate School. She had a 30-year career in advertising, mostly with Grey Advertising, and in 2017 she was named one of the century’s Legendary Pioneers by Grey. Her memoir was released January 2024. Among other things, Barbara ...
Oct 25, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 155
Karen Dionne is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novels The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister , both published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the U.S. and in dozens of other countries. The Marsh King’s Daughter was named one of the best books of 2017 by iBooks and many other booksellers and reviewers, and released in 2023 by Lionsgate as a major motion picture. Among other things, Karen and Carter discuss why Karen returned t...
Oct 17, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 154
Lisa Gardner is a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist. Her internationally acclaimed novels have been published across 30 countries. She’s had four books become TV movies (At the Midnight Hour; The Perfect Husband; The Survivors Club; Hide). Her novel, The Neighbor, won Best Hardcover Novel from the International Thriller Writers, and the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle in France. She was also recognized with the Daphne du Maurier Award in 2000 for The Other Daughter. Finally, Lisa ...
Oct 10, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 153
Erin E. Adams is a first-generation Haitian American writer and theater artist. She received her BA with honors in literary arts from Brown University, her MFA in acting from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, and her MFA in dramatic writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is an award-winning playwright and actor, and also the author of One of You and Jackal . Among other things, Erin and Carter discuss the complications of accurately portraying a...
Oct 03, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 152
J.D. Barker (Jonathan Dylan Barker) is an international bestselling American author whose work has been broadly described as suspense thrillers, often incorporating elements of horror, crime, mystery, science fiction, and the supernatural. He has collaborated several times with James Patterson. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, sold in more than 150 countries, and optioned for both film and television. Among other things, J.D. and Carter discuss J.D.'s experience starting ...
Sep 26, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 151
Lauren Thoman writes speculative fiction for teens and adults. Her debut novel, I'll Stop the World , was selected for publication in 2023 by six-time Emmy nominee Mindy Kaling through her eponymous imprint, Mindy's Book Studio. Lauren's pop culture writing has also appeared in numerous online outlets including Parade and Vulture . Her second novel, You Shouldn’t Be Here , was released in July 2024. Among other things, Lauren and Carter discuss the pros and cons of attending writing conferences,...
Sep 19, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 150
Elka Ray is a Canadian/UK author, and a former journalist and travel writer, who writes fiction for adults and children. She is the author of the romantic mysteries Divorce is Murder , Killer Coin , and Hanoi Jane , and is also the author of her newest Women’s Noir, A Friend Indeed . She has also written a collection of short crime and ghost stories set in Southeast Asia, What You Don’t Know . Among other things, Elka and Carter discuss moving to unfamiliar places when young, balancing resolutio...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 149
Award-winning novelist, writing coach, and manuscript editor John DeDakis is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of six mystery-suspense-thriller novels. John is a former White House correspondent and regularly leads writing workshops at literary centers and writers’ conferences. He is also the host of the video podcast “One-to-One with John DeDakis”. Among other things, John and Carter discuss John’s career in politics and journalism, how forme...
Sep 06, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 148
Lori Roy is an award-winning novelist. Her debut novel, Bent Road , was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Until She Comes Home was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. Let Me Die in His Footsteps was named one of the best fifteen mystery novels of 2015 by Oline Cogdill and received the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, making Roy the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best Fi...
Aug 30, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 147
Mary Bly, writing under the pen name Eloisa James, is a tenured Shakespeare professor at Fordham University who also writes best-selling Regency and Georgian romance novels. Her novels are published in 30 countries and have sold approximately 7 million copies worldwide. She also wrote a bestselling memoir about the year her family spent in France, Paris in Love . Among other things, Mary and Carter discuss how Mary’s work in academia influenced her to write under a different name, breaking into ...
Aug 22, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 146
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, the Mercy Kilpatrick novels, and the Columbia River novels. She's a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. Melinda Leigh is a #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author. Her debut novel, SHE CAN RUN, was nominated for Best F...
Aug 16, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 145
Erica Wright is the author of eight novels, including her newest novel Hollow Bones , a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure . Her essay collection Snake was released as part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. Her mystery Famous in Cedarville received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. She is the author of five other books, including a couple poetry collections. Her poems have appeared in Blackbird, Denver Quarterly, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. She was the...
Aug 09, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 144
Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. He has served two terms as president of Mystery Writers of America, and was recently named a Grand Master of MWA. He is the author of more than forty novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, and a lyricist of a country-western album. Isabella Maldonado is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, eventually retiring as the Commander of Special Inv...
Aug 03, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 143
Marc Guggenheim is an Emmy-award winning screenwriter, television producer, comic book writer, and novelist. He is best known as the creator of the television series Eli Stone (2008–2009), Arr o w (2012–2020), and Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022), executive producer of the animated series Tales of Arcadia (2016–2021), as well as the writer of the films Green Lantern and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters . His recent novel, In Any Lifetime , was just released in July. Among other things, Marc and Car...
Jul 25, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Mary Adkins is the author of the novels When You Read This (Indie Next Pick, “Best Book of 2019” by Good Housekeeping and Real Simple ), Privilege (Today.com “Best Summer Read”), and Palm Beach ( New York Post “Best Book of 2021”). Her books have been published in 13 countries, and her essays and reporting have appeared in the New York Times , The Atlantic , Slate , and more. A graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University, she teaches storytelling for The Moth worldwide and supports aspiring ...
Jul 18, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 141
Dean Monti has worked creatively in a variety of mediums including short stories, plays, novels, journalism, and screenwriting. His latest novel, The Monosexual, will be published July 2024. He is also the author of several one-act plays and has had his works premiered in Chicago, and was a finalist in a national playwriting competition. He taught creative writing and novel writing classes at Columbia College in Chicago and College of DuPage. He is currently working on new novels and recently ad...
Jul 04, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 140
Victoria Helen Stone, author of the runaway best seller Jane Doe , writes critically acclaimed novels of dark intrigue and emotional suspense. Aside from Follow Her Down , At The Quiet Edge , The Last One Home, Problem Child, and other chart-topping novels, she also published twenty-nine books as USA Today bestselling author Victoria Dahl and won the prestigious American Library Association Reading List award for best genre fiction. Among other things, Victoria and Carter discuss how family secr...
Jun 27, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 139
Aimie Runyan is a multi-published and bestselling author of historical and contemporary fiction. She has been nominated for a Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year Award, a Historical Novel Society’s Editor’s Choice selection, and a four-time finalist for the Colorado Book Awards. She is an adjunct instructor for the Drexel University MFA in Creative Writing program. Among other things, Aimie and Carter discuss using empathy to create compelling characters, what exactly defines genre...
Jun 21, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 138
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. In May 2024 she released the second novel in her Billie Levine series, Devil in Profile , which follows the novel Death of a Dancing Queen . A former librarian, she is currently an instructor at SUNY Orange County Community College and the chapter liaison for Sisters in Crime. Among other things, Kimberly and Carter ...
Jun 13, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 137
Matt Scott is the author of the Surviving the Lion’s Den thriller trilogy which debuted in 2021. Matt earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Hampden-Sydney College. During his subsequent studies, Matt became fascinated by the CIA and read dozens of books related to Middle East politics, spy craft, the CIA’s war against terrorism, and double agents. Matt’s latest action-packed political thriller is The Ayatollah Takedown . His two previous novels in the series include ...
Jun 06, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 136
Louise Doughty is the author of ten novels, most recently A Bird in Winter . Her previous books include Platform Seven , filmed for ITVX; Black Water , a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; the bestseller Apple Tree Yard , adapted for BBC One; and Whatever You Love , nominated for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for fiction. She has been nominated for many other prizes and has helped with creating and writing the hit BBC drama Crossfire . Her work has been translated into thirty...
May 25, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 135
This week's Making It Up is extra-special as it features Tim Booth, lead singer and lyricist of James, a British band who has been performing for over 40 years and has sold more than 25 million albums globally (James is also Carter’s absolute favorite band, making Tim one of his personal heroes). You may have seen quotes from James songs as epigraphs in many of Carter’s novels, which is how he got to know Tim. After a decade in the making, Tim's brilliant debut novel, When I Died For the First T...
May 15, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Christopher Reich is the New York Times bestselling author of The Take , Numbered Account , Rules of Deception , Rules of Vengeance , Rules of Betrayal , and many other thrillers. His novel The Patriots Club won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Novel in 2006. He is also the author of the Simon Riske series, an international spy thriller series, and his newest novel Matterhorn was just released in April 2024. Among other things, Christopher and Carter discuss writing in first per...
May 10, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 133
Danny Cherry Jr., a Customer Service Representative with an MBA, and he writes political and personal essays; novels; narrative nonfiction; and short stories. He has written for Buzzfeed News, Politico, The Daily Beast, and more; and fiction for Apex Magazine, Fiyah Lit Mag, amongst others. His first novel, The Pike Boys, came out in January 2024 and is a 1920s organized crime drama set in New Orleans. His story “Brief Life Story of Lila” was added to the Locus Magazine recommended reading list ...
May 04, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 132
Peter Blauner is the author of nine novels, including Slow Motion Riot , winner of an Edgar Allan Poe award for best first novel from Mystery Writers of America, and The Intruder , a New York Times bestseller and a bestseller overseas. He began his career as a journalist for New York magazine in the 1980s and segued into writing fiction in the 1990s. He has been a staff writer for several television shows, including Law & Order: SVU and Blue Bloods . His new novel, Picture in the Sand , whic...
Apr 28, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 131
Caroline Cleveland credits growing up in the rural South and its quieter way of life for her lifelong passion for books and storytelling. Her dedication to the written word led her to law school at the University of South Carolina, where she earned her degree in 1991. She is certified by the South Carolina Supreme Court as a specialist in labor and employment law and is the founding partner of Cleveland & Conley, LLC. Her debut novel, When Cicadas Cry , about a high-profile murder case in a ...
Apr 19, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 130
