“I got 26 rejections, and I’d kind of given up. Then Simon & Schuster gave me a three-book deal. And I thought, oh, this is awesome—then, oh shit, I have to write the other two.” – Bryan Gruley

Bryan Gruley is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of the forthcoming thriller BITTERFROST. Gruley is also the author of the Starvation Lake trilogy, the first book of which was nominated for an Edgar Award and won Anthony, Barry, and Strand awards. A journalist for over forty years, Gruley shared in The Wall Street Journal’s Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has won numerous awards for his nonfiction.

Among other things, Bryan and Carter discuss designing merchandise for your novels, having “something to say” in your writing, and building suspense by creating questions and leaving them unanswered. At the end of their conversation, they make up an intense story using a line from Karin Slaughter’s This Is Why We Lied.

“Writing it was like chipping away at a mountain with a pair of nail scissors.” —Ellen Birkett Morris

Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Beware the Tall Grass, winner of the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence. She is also the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award and finalist for the Clara Johnson, IAN and Best Book awards. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Saturday Evening Post, among other journals. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for short fiction, and a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council.

Among other things, Ellen and Carter discuss the transition from writing poetry to novels, supporting other writers within the writing community, and maximizing dramatic potential in individual scenes. At the end of their conversation, they make up a descriptive story using a line from Ayn Rand’s We the Living.

“Not that my work is superior to Rear Window, but I thought—what’s more interesting than a broken leg? A broken mind.” —A.J. Finn

A. J. Finn is the author of The Woman in the Window, the #1 internationally-bestselling phenomenon published in more than forty languages and adapted for the screen as a film starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Julianne Moore. His second novel, End of Story, was released in February 2024.

Among other things, A. J. and Carter discuss how previously working in publishing influenced A. J.’s writing journey, reasons behind adopting a pseudonym, and A. J.’s experience being at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. At the end of their conversation, they make up a mysterious story using a line from Jeffrey Konvitz’s The Circus of Satan.