One of the questions every author gets asked is where their ideas come from. I’ve always found that question a little funny. It makes it sound like authors have some kind of superpower the rest of the world doesn’t. Which is garbage, of course. Everyone has ideas. All the damn time. The only difference is that an author will have some random thought, then voluntarily spend the next year writing 90,000 words about it. That’s not a gift. It’s tenacity mixed with a pathologically unresolved need for attention.
It all boils down to curiosity. You can’t be a writer without being curious. Writers don’t spend their days asking why? They’re too busy asking what if?
Take my upcoming novel, When They Find Me, for example. I don’t remember the exact day I got the idea or what I was doing at the time. I just remember finding myself thinking about home invasions for absolutely no reason. Which, now that I think about it, might actually be the difference between thriller writers and everyone else. We’re not just curious. We’re curious about dark shit.
So there I was, mentally breaking into a stranger’s house.
Then I started asking questions.
What if this wasn’t a random home invasion? What if someone had specifically targeted the people inside?
Okay, that’s interesting.
Then the better question showed up.
What if they had the wrong house?
Now I’m paying attention.
But the question that finally made me open a new document wasn’t about the people outside. It was about the person inside. Who lives in that house? What are they hiding? Why have they disappeared from whatever life they used to have? And what happens when the people kicking in the front door are the last people they expected to see?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t care nearly as much about the people breaking into the house as I did about the woman living inside it.
She wasn’t hiding because she was paranoid. She was hiding because she had a good fucking reason to hide.
She’d disappeared years earlier, changed her name, moved to a tiny mountain town in Colorado, homeschooled her daughter, kept to herself, and built an entire life around one assumption: someday the people from her past would find her. Until then, she’d do everything in her power to keep herself and her daughter safe.
She’d accepted that day was coming. She just didn’t know when.
So I trapped everyone with a blizzard two days before Christmas, because I loved the idea of holiday songs playing in the background as the horror set in.
The home invasion was never the story. The woman was. Everything else, the snowstorm, the strangers, the violence, the lies, all grew out of that one realization.
Looking back, that’s how almost every novel begins for me. Always with a question that’s interesting enough to keep asking. If I’m lucky, the questions eventually lead somewhere worth spending a year of my life.
If I’m really lucky, they turn into a book that readers can’t put down.
New episodes of my podcast Making It Up are out! Over the past month, I chatted with:
Episode 240: Ellery Adams
USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams joined me to talk about the fluidity of the horror genre, storytelling as a child, and setting a story in the 1980s. We wrapped up by making up a descriptive story inspired by Stolen Things.
Episode 239: Angie Kim
Edgar Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Angie Kim joined me to discuss immigrating from Korea as a preteen, using writing as a form of therapy, and how fictionalizing her personal experiences helped launch her writing career. We finished by making up an intriguing story inspired by The Year of Magical Thinking.
Episode 238: Lauren Nossett
Award-winning author Lauren Nossett joined me to talk about writing conferences like ThrillerFest, maintaining a fast pace in a thriller, and why she completely rewrote her most recent novel. We wrapped up by making up a dark story inspired by Dangerous Play.
Episode 237: Katrina Denza
Author Katrina Denza joined me to discuss New England, learning to fall in love with the writing process, and why some of the best creative breakthroughs happen while you’re doing something else entirely. We ended by making up a gripping story inspired by The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Episode 236: Tracy Clark
Award-winning author Tracy Clark joined me to talk about why writing is as much a business as it is an art, killing off characters at the right time, and developing the resilience to manage rejection. We finished by making up a suspenseful story inspired by You Have Gone Too Far.
All episodes are available on my website, my YouTube channel, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
REVIEWS
On the Page
The Anniversary, Alex Finlay (2026)
Full disclosure: Alex Finlay is a friend (you can see his blurb of my book above), and next spring we’ll be teaching together, along with Clémence Michallon, at the Unbound Writer Paris Retreat. Thankfully, I don’t have to fake my enthusiasm here because I absolutely loved this book.
What hooked me wasn’t just the mystery. It was the structure.
The novel unfolds over ten years, but we only spend one day each year with the characters: May 1. Then Alex jumps ahead another year and trusts the reader to figure out everything that happened in between. As a writer, I found that fascinating. It’s such a gutsy way to tell a story, and by the second or third time jump I realized I was completely sold. Instead of feeling like I was missing pieces, it felt like I was flipping through a photo album, catching these characters at the moments that defined them.
And somehow, despite all those leaps through time, Quinn and Jules become incredibly rich, fully realized characters. Alex somehow makes every jump feel effortless. Whether Quinn’s in the military, Jules is building a career in fashion, or years have gone by, it never feels like you’ve missed anything. There wasn’t a single point where I thought, “Wait…I wish I’d seen what happened during that year.” That’s a testament to how well the book is put together.
As a fellow thriller writer, I have a ton of respect for authors who take big creative swings instead of playing it safe. Alex absolutely nails it here. The Anniversary is ambitious, emotional, brilliantly structured, and one of my favorite thrillers I’ve read this year. I can’t recommend it enough.
On the Screen
Legends (Netflix, 2026)
If you’re looking for a smart, grounded thriller, put Legends on your list.
Based on a true story, the series follows a group of ordinary British customs officers who are recruited to go undercover and infiltrate dangerous drug organizations. On paper, it sounds like a premise that could get ridiculous in a hurry. It never does.
What I appreciated most is that the show never treats these recruits like they’re suddenly Jason Bourne. They’re talented people with potential, but they’re also painfully aware of how far in over their heads they are. The training speeds up their development, but they’re constantly improvising, making mistakes, and wondering if they’re about to get themselves killed. That’s what makes the suspense work.
Steve Coogan is terrific, and the entire series feels authentic from beginning to end. As a thriller writer, I love stories that earn their tension instead of manufacturing it, and Legends does exactly that. It’s one of the better thriller series I’ve watched this year.
Photo of the Month
It was a bittersweet month. We traveled back east for my sister’s celebration of life, and while the reason for the trip was heartbreaking, it turned into a beautiful reminder of how many lives she touched. More than a hundred people came to celebrate her, I reconnected with family I hadn’t seen in years, and we spent the day sharing stories that somehow managed to make us laugh as often as we cried.
Of all the photos I took, this is one of my favorites.
Meet Penny, my sister’s delightfully plump corgi. I got to spend a little time with her over the weekend, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was missing my sister as much as the rest of us. Thankfully, she’s being incredibly well cared for, and she seemed genuinely happy to greet the steady stream of family and friends who came by to celebrate my sister’s life. I think my sister would’ve liked knowing Penny was surrounded by so much love, too.
Update from my Kids
One of those little parenting milestones happened this past month. Ili and Sawyer decided they needed some sibling time, so they coordinated their schedules, booked their own flights, and met up in Savannah for a few days (Ili flew from Detroit and Sawyer from Baton Rouge).
It was one of those moments that makes you realize your kids aren’t really kids anymore. They had an idea, made a plan, and pulled it off without asking their parents for travel-planning help (not gonna lie: they did ask for money). As strange as that felt, it also made me proud.
I’m glad they still enjoy spending time together. And if they happen to make this a tradition, I certainly won’t complain.
Update from my Pets
And now, your moment of zen.
Humor of the Month sent to me by a friend
A quick Paris retreat update…
We’re still about 10 months away, and somehow we’re already down to 5 spots remaining.
When we started planning this retreat, the goal wasn’t to put on another conference. We wanted to create the kind of experience we’d actually want to attend. Small enough that everyone gets to know each other. Plenty of time to write, ask questions, talk publishing, and discuss what it means to have a career in writing.
I’ll be there along with Alex Finlay and Clémence Michallon, and we’ll also be joined by Riley Sager for a special conversation and Abby Dunn (Crime by the Book) to talk about reaching readers and building a career in today’s publishing world.
If Paris has been on your radar, now’s a good time to take a look. I’m not trying to create artificial urgency. I just know I’d be disappointed if someone waited too long and found out we’d filled the retreat.
May 3-6, 2027.
Paris.
🔗 https://www.unboundwriter.com/paris-writing-retreat
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…
