One of the questions I get asked a lot at events is a simple one:
Who are you reading right now?
Or sometimes: Which writers influenced you the most?
It’s a perfectly reasonable question. And every time someone asks it, I feel a tiny flash of stress. Maybe more than a tiny flash.
Because the honest answer is that I wasn’t a very good reader when I was young. In fact, I sucked at it.
I read what I had to read. High school assigned things like The Crucible. Or, god help me, Anna Karenina. Reading was homework. Reading was… work.
When I did read for fun, it tended to be things like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Or Bloom County cartoon books. Humor from Monty Python and Dave Barry. Nothing serious.
I did discover Stephen King pretty early, which in hindsight probably explains a lot about where my writing eventually went. I remember reading Pet Sematary when I was maybe thirteen and staying a week at my grandparents’ house. It scared the shit out of me. The book, not the visit.
But compared to many writers I meet today, I wasn’t the kid with my nose buried in books. I wasn’t the English major devouring novels in college. I was a hospitality major. Reading for pleasure during those years was pretty much nonexistent.
And yet somewhere along the way, something shifted.
In my twenties I moved to San Francisco. I was living alone and didn’t have much money, which meant entertainment options were limited. There was a used bookstore near my apartment, and I developed a very simple purchasing strategy: buy the fattest books I could find.
More pages meant more hours of entertainment for the same price.
That’s when I discovered books like the unabridged version of The Stand. I got into the massive James Clavell novels. Shōgun absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way. I devoured series by John Jakes and Robert Ludlum. I read every short story written by Poe, and then each of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I learned from Cormac McCarthy that sentences don’t even have to make sense to gut you, and The Road remains my favorite piece of fiction.
I started to realize that books could do something I hadn’t fully appreciated before. They could completely take over your life for a while.
I read consistently until I turned thirty-three, which is when I began writing. And a funny thing happened in the years after that: my tastes turned to nonfiction.
I love narrative history. Anything by Erik Larson or Ben Macintyre will get my attention immediately. I also gravitate toward books about corporate disasters, political intrigue, espionage, and the occasional brutally honest memoir. Give me a Douglas Brunt, a Michael Lewis, a Karen Abbott.
So when I’m in a room with other writers and the conversation turns to which thrillers everyone’s reading or which new novel just came out in the genre, I sometimes feel a little out of step.
A lot of writers are incredible readers of contemporary fiction. They’re deeply immersed in the current landscape of their genre. Many of them studied literature in college. They can trace clear lines between the writers who influenced them and the books they write today.
Yeah. Not me.
Of course I read fiction nearly every day. Mostly thrillers I’m blurbing that haven’t been released yet, or whatever happens to catch my interest. But I also spend a lot of time reading about history, psychology, scandals, espionage operations, and people making catastrophic decisions while convinced they’re the smartest person in the room.
And honestly, those books probably influence my writing more than fiction does.
Because stories are everywhere. They aren’t limited to novels. Some of the most unbelievable narratives you’ll ever encounter are buried in nonfiction accounts of real events.
The other thing I’ve learned over time is that there isn’t a correct reading background for becoming a writer.
Some writers grow up devouring books from the moment they can read. Others discover them later in life. Some stay almost entirely within their genre. Others bounce all over the place.
The common thread isn’t what you read. It’s that at some point you fall in love with storytelling.
For me, it happened slowly:
A used bookstore in San Francisco.
A massive Stephen King novel.
A thirteen-volume set of Edgar Allan Poe.
A growing realization that stories could create entire worlds inside your head.
Everything else came after that.
And I’m still reading.
Just maybe not the way people expect.
New episodes of my podcast Making It Up are out! Over the past month, I chatted with:
Episode 224: Clémence Michallon
Clémence Michallon is the author of the international bestselling thriller The Quiet Tenant and the follow-up novel Our Last Resort. She’s also an accomplished journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Time Magazine, and Cosmopolitan UK. We talked about forcing yourself to be bored to spark creativity, how journalism training shapes the way you approach storytelling, and why neither of us ever writes the words “The End.” We closed by making up a creepy story inspired by a line from Tana French’s The Searcher.
Episode 223: Joseph Finder
Joseph Finder is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen suspense novels and a true master of the modern thriller. His books have won the Strand Critics Award, the Barry Award, and the ITW Thriller Award, and two have been adapted into major motion pictures, including High Crimes and Paranoia. We talked about writing about what you want to learn, how the publishing landscape has become more difficult for debut authors, and what it’s like getting blurbed by Stephen King. We wrapped by making up a tense story inspired by a line from King’s Just After Sunset.
Episode 222: Gregg Hurwitz
Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of twenty-seven thrillers, including the hugely popular Orphan X series. In addition to novels, Gregg has written screenplays, television scripts, comics for DC and Marvel, and even helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup. We talked about writing as a compulsion, Gregg’s experience getting published while still in college, and learning which feedback to trust when working on a manuscript. We ended by making up a suspenseful story inspired by a line from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
Episode 221: Wendy Walker
Wendy Walker is the bestselling author of psychological thrillers including Don’t Look for Me, The Night Before, and All Is Not Forgotten. Her newest book, Blade, draws on her past as a competitive figure skater and marks a major creative shift in her career. We talked about finally writing the story that’s been living in your head for years, how immersive storytelling is changing the audiobook world, and why hiring help as an author isn’t a luxury but a strategy. We closed by making up a very strange story about furries using a sentence from a Karin Slaughter novel.
All episodes are available on my website, my YouTube channel, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Here’s a snapshot where you can find me! Check my website calendar for the links and latest updates. All listed times are local.
This was a fun one.
Part one of a two-part event had me leading a panel with some of Colorado’s best writers: Mark Stevens, Kristin Koval, Mario Acevedo, Jon Bassoff, and Cynthia Swanson. Smart, generous, funny. Some a bit deranged.
Then I had the chance to sit down with #1 New York Times bestselling suspense author and my friend, Lisa Gardner. We talked craft, career, and how she stays at the top of her game after 30 years and 30 books.
Huge thanks to Sean Eads and the Jefferson County Library system for putting together such thoughtful programming and for reminding everyone books matter. And they made wonderful detective badges for all of us! And thanks to Rebecca Rowley and Jessica Bonosoro for the great pics.
REVIEWS
On the Page
Close Call, Elise Hart Kipness (2025)
Have I not talked about this book here yet? Shame on me. Elise is a good friend and one of those writers who really understands how to build tension and keep a mystery intensifying page by page.
Close Call is the third entry in her Kate Green mystery/suspense series following Lights Out and Dangerous Play. Elise spent years covering professional sports as a journalist, and that experience gives the story a really authentic backdrop in the world of sports media and professional tennis. It’s always fun seeing how another thriller writer builds suspense, and Elise keeps tightening the screws as the mystery unfolds. By the time Kate realizes how dangerous the story really is, she’s already too deep to walk away.
On the Screen
Steal (Prime Video)
I’ve said this before, but one of the reasons I love British series is that they respect your time. Six episodes and they’re done. No wandering second seasons where nothing happens, just a tight story that gets in, does its thing, and gets out.
Steal is a slick little crime thriller that starts with a robbery at a London pension investment firm that turns out to be far more complicated than it first appears. Sophie Turner plays Zara Dunne, a seemingly ordinary trade processor who may or may not be involved in the £4 billion heist at the center of the story, and she’s terrific. She manages to make Zara feel both vulnerable and calculating at the same time, which keeps you guessing about her motivations almost the entire series.
The show does a great job building tension as the investigation unfolds and layers of the conspiracy start to reveal themselves, especially with Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as the increasingly desperate detective chasing the truth. Toward the end, though, things take a pretty sharp turn toward the improbable as the scale of the plot balloons in ways that stretch credibility. Still, it’s a gripping six-episode ride and exactly the kind of tight British thriller I wish more American shows would emulate.
Photo of the Month
In the green room at the Lisa Gardner book event. Left to right: Kristin Koval, Cynthia Swanson, Mark Stevens, Mario Acevedo, Lisa Gardner, me, Jon Bassoff.
Photo credit: Rebecca Rowley
Update from my Kids
Last summer my son bought his first car, a 2015 Hyundai Tucson with about 110,000 miles on it. It was reasonably priced from a dealer, and before he bought it we had it independently inspected by a mechanic who said it was in great shape. He drove it from Colorado to Louisiana for school, then back home for Christmas, and then all the way back to Louisiana again without a single issue.
Which, apparently, was the car’s final act of loyalty.
The moment he arrived back on campus the second time, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. Warning lights everywhere. Icons he’d never seen before. Then the car started shaking anytime it went over about 25 miles per hour. Which is generally not what you want your car doing.
Early indications suggest some kind of catastrophic engine problem. The car has now been towed to a mechanic and we’re waiting to hear what the damage might be. The tough part is that whatever the number ends up being, it’s money he definitely doesn’t have.
So if anyone has a spare functioning engine for a Hyundai Tucson lying around, please let us know. Otherwise we may be entering the exciting new phase of the story where my son learns the true meaning of the phrase “shit happens.”
In better times.
Update from my Pets
I, on the other hand, got a brand spanking new car (2026 Honda CR-V Hybrid) and all Scully wants to do is go for a ride.
Humor of the Month sent to me by a friend
We are getting closer and closer to scheduling an amazing Unbound Writer retreat in Paris! We were hoping for this fall, but due to scheduling conflicts we’re now looking at next spring.
Unbound Writer Paris will be a boutique, high-level retreat for mystery and suspense writers, led by myself alongside bestselling authors Alex Finlay and Clémence Michallon (and likely one additional bestselling suspense author). Over four immersive days in the heart of Paris, you’ll write, workshop your pages, and sharpen tension, pacing, and character psychology. The experience also includes curated literary outings in Paris, blending serious craft work with the city’s rich storytelling history.
This will be limited to about 20 participants so be sure to join our interest form to be the first to know when registration opens!
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…
