By the time you’re reading this, Jess and I will have embarked on an epic month-long road trip from Colorado to Maine (and back). As of today, we should be leaving South Bend, IN and headed to Mayville, NY. Oh, and we’re taking the fucking dogs.
The reason we’re going is her son, Henry, who will be starting school at the University of Maine. He’ll fly out separately with his dad for move-in day and Jess and I will meet them out there, if all goes according to schedule. Henry going away to college (and myself already an empty-nester) gave us a pretty good excuse to do something we’ve talked about for a while.
Disappear for a month.
Not disappear in any meaningful sense. We’ll still be working. I’ll still be writing. There will be emails and Zoom calls and podcasts and deadlines and all the other things that follow you wherever there’s Wi-Fi. But instead of flying to Maine for a few days and coming home, we’re driving. We’re taking the dogs. And after Henry is settled, we’re going to spend the better part of a month bouncing around New England, mostly staying in Airbnbs in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
We’ve intentionally picked places that are a little more remote. Houses with land. Trees. Space for the dogs to run around and collect ticks. Places where we can work during the day, explore when we want to, and get some sense of what it might feel like if this weren’t a vacation.
Jess and I have kicked around the idea that someday we might build a house somewhere in New England. Maybe move there permanently, or maybe have another place to call home. This trip is our first chance to test the fantasy against reality.
And I’m excited. And a little scared.
Because, well, for one thing, we’re taking these fucking dogs. And fantasies don’t require a car-roof box or pet medications or training collars or figuring out where everyone is going to sleep soundly in a hotel room after nine hours in the car. They don’t require packing everything you need to work for a month, wondering what you’ve forgotten, or discovering somewhere in Iowa that one of the dogs has decided she’s done with road trips.
The romantic version is Jess and me drinking coffee on the porch of a house in the Maine woods while the dogs wander around the property. The other version is rain, mosquitoes, shitty Wi-Fi and two dogs barking at something neither of us can see. Do you know how creepy New England is? What if there are bats that swoop into our hair, or small-town serial killers looking for out-of-state license plates?
No matter what, it’ll be an adventure. Follow our travels on Instagram at @carterwilsonauthor.By the time you’re reading this, Jess and I will have embarked on an epic month-long road trip from Colorado to Maine (and back). As of today, we should be leaving South Bend, IN and headed to Mayville, NY. Oh, and we’re taking the fucking dogs.
The reason we’re going is her son, Henry, who will be starting school at the University of Maine. He’ll fly out separately with his dad for move-in day and Jess and I will meet them out there, if all goes according to schedule. Henry going away to college (and myself already an empty-nester) gave us a pretty good excuse to do something we’ve talked about for a while.
Disappear for a month.
Not disappear in any meaningful sense. We’ll still be working. I’ll still be writing. There will be emails and Zoom calls and podcasts and deadlines and all the other things that follow you wherever there’s Wi-Fi. But instead of flying to Maine for a few days and coming home, we’re driving. We’re taking the dogs. And after Henry is settled, we’re going to spend the better part of a month bouncing around New England, mostly staying in Airbnbs in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
We’ve intentionally picked places that are a little more remote. Houses with land. Trees. Space for the dogs to run around and collect ticks. Places where we can work during the day, explore when we want to, and get some sense of what it might feel like if this weren’t a vacation.
Jess and I have kicked around the idea that someday we might build a house somewhere in New England. Maybe move there permanently, or maybe have another place to call home. This trip is our first chance to test the fantasy against reality.
And I’m excited. And a little scared.
Because, well, for one thing, we’re taking these fucking dogs. And fantasies don’t require a car-roof box or pet medications or training collars or figuring out where everyone is going to sleep soundly in a hotel room after nine hours in the car. They don’t require packing everything you need to work for a month, wondering what you’ve forgotten, or discovering somewhere in Iowa that one of the dogs has decided she’s done with road trips.
The romantic version is Jess and me drinking coffee on the porch of a house in the Maine woods while the dogs wander around the property. The other version is rain, mosquitoes, shitty Wi-Fi and two dogs barking at something neither of us can see. Do you know how creepy New England is? What if there are bats that swoop into our hair, or small-town serial killers looking for out-of-state license plates?
No matter what, it’ll be an adventure. Follow our travels on Instagram at @carterwilsonauthor.
Can we stop for pup cups?
We’re officially less than three months from the November 10 release of When They Find Me, and I’m getting ridiculously excited. The early buzz and reviews have been fantastic, and I love seeing people call this one a “locked cabin thriller.” The entire story unfolds over five hours in a remote Colorado mountain cabin during a debilitating blizzard, and things go very, very wrong.
I’ve been waiting a long time to unleash this book on the world. We’re almost there.
New episodes of my podcast Making It Up are out! Over the past month, I chatted with:
Episode 245: Steve Cavanagh
Multi-million bestselling author Steve Cavanagh joined me to talk about the unpredictability of publishing, the power of word-of-mouth press, and how book covers contribute to an author’s brand. We wrapped up by making up a suspenseful story inspired by Harlan Coben’s The Woods.
Episode 244: Eriq La Salle
Award-winning actor, director, producer, and author Eriq La Salle joined me to discuss entering the writing world after an already successful career in Hollywood, feeling like a “real” writer when you self-publish, and the common thread of storytelling across everything he does. We finished by making up a fascinating story inspired by Lisa Gardner’s Kiss Her Goodbye.
Episode 243: Andromeda Romano-Lax
Award-winning author Andromeda Romano-Lax joined me to talk about the importance of stamina in a writing career, how thinking about the audience can sometimes hinder your writing, and experimenting with different genres. We wrapped up by making up a twisted story inspired by Stephen King’s Just After Sunset.
Episode 242: Corinne Sullivan
Author and Cosmopolitan senior news editor Corinne Sullivan joined me to discuss what working in entertainment journalism has taught her about writing, learning to trust your readers, and how too much description can slow down a story. We finished by making up a suspenseful story inspired by BJ Magnani’s We’ll Always Have Poison.
Episode 241: Rachael Ramas
Author Rachael Ramas joined me to talk about writing from different points of view, preparing for her first book tour, and the challenge of promoting yourself when self-promotion doesn’t come naturally. We wrapped up by making up an intense story inspired by Matthew Sullivan’s Midnight in Soap Lake.
All episodes are available on my website, my YouTube channel, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
I had a fantastic time celebrating 100 days to Halloween in Dallas at a huge event put on by the Half Price Books flagship store. I was joined by fellow thriller/horror authors Mallory Arnold, Brian McAuley, Chelsea Conradt, and Chelsea Iversen, and our panel was moderated by the amazing Abby Dunn of Crime by the Book.
REVIEWS
On the Page
The Butcher Legacy, Alaina Urquhart (2026)
If you’re a true-crime podcast fan, you probably already know Alaina Urquhart as one of the co-hosts of Morbid. She’s also an autopsy technician by trade, which gives her Dr. Wren Muller thriller series some pretty natural bona fides. I got a sneak peek at the third book, The Butcher Legacy, which comes out this month, and it dives right back into Wren’s world of morgues, serial killers, and some seriously messed-up people. This one gets dark and gruesome, with a story that moves between New Orleans and Massachusetts and keeps expanding the mythology Urquhart has built over the first two books. If you like your thrillers bloody and firmly planted on the darker end of the spectrum, this series is worth checking out.
On the Screen
Counterpart (Starz/Apple, 2017-2019)
I’m late to this one, but I’m watching Counterpart on Apple TV, and I’ll pretty much watch anything with J.K. Simmons. This is a sci-fi espionage thriller in which Simmons plays Howard Silk, a low-level employee at a secretive Berlin agency who discovers his organization is guarding a passage to a parallel world, one populated by alternate versions of everyone, including himself.
I love it, but fair warning: give it time. It took me four or five episodes before I felt like I had fully wrapped my head around what the hell was happening. Once it clicks, though, it’s smart, strange, and completely absorbing. And getting two versions of J.K. Simmons certainly doesn’t hurt. Man, that dude is an incredible actor.
Photo of the Month
There’s going to be an upcoming promotion for my book Tell Me What You Did, and it involved me signing 300 copies of the title. Was it tedious? Yes. Am I grateful to be in the
Update from my Kids
They were home! Each kiddo came home for a week this summer, overlapping by about five days. And it marked the first time in two years we went to a movie in an actual theater (The Odyssey). We all got to hang out and my kids got a chance to see Henry before he goes off to school himself.
Farewell to a Friend
We had to say goodbye to Guff in early August. He was nearly 13 and had chronic stomach issues that ultimately proved impossible to overcome. Saying farewell to him was incredibly hard, and I have a huge hole in my heart where he was.
I got Guff as an eight-week-old kitten as a Christmas gift for my kids, but make no mistake, this was my cat. He overlapped with my last dog, Poe, for a couple of years, then ruled the house as the only pet until Scully came along four years ago.
Guff was a beautiful Bengal with a natural thirst for blood. If you ran from him, that was your mistake. He was loud, feisty, occasionally loving, and never boring. He could fetch, would come when called, and chased toys with a ferocity unlike any cat I’ve ever had. Yes, he could be incredibly annoying, but I’ve never cried harder saying goodbye to a cat.
I’m gonna miss that little fucker.
Humor of the Month
This is NOT Guff but as long as we’re on the subject of cats…
One-on-One Coaching
Sometimes you don’t need another class or another craft book. You need someone to look at your writing career, your manuscript, or whatever is keeping you stuck and help you figure out what comes next.
Through Unbound Writer, I offer one-on-one coaching for writers at any stage of the process. We can talk craft, publishing, career strategy, motivation, marketing, or the particular problem you can’t seem to solve on your own. Every session is built around where you are and what you need.
If you’re looking for some direction, accountability, or simply another writer in your corner who will give you an honest opinion, I’d love to work with you.
www.unboundwriter.com
That’s it for now!
Just a reminder to subscribe to my newsletter for more content and access to contests and giveaways. Oh, and if you follow me on social media you’ll see a lot more pictures of my goddamn pets. Until next month…
