This year blindsided me. Not with tragedy or revelation. Just a quiet, weird fact I had to sit with for a minute. For the first time ever, I made more money as a writer than from anything else in my life. How fucking wild is that?
I’ve been writing for nearly twenty-three years while always holding down a primary job. For most of that time I was an executive with various hotel consulting companies. A couple years ago I left the day job and started a consulting firm with my friend and business partner. I also built Unbound Writer with my partner, Jessica. All the while I kept writing books. Most of you know the story. My first three books never sold. The next ten did. And that tenth book, Tell Me What You Did, turned out to be my breakout.
A few weeks ago my agent sent a royalty check for five months of sales for that book. The number floored me. She also sent a royalty check for the German edition of my third book, Revelation. That check was for eighty-five cents. And I thought, well, doesn’t that just sum up the publishing business perfectly?
I also turned fifty-five this year. There’s something liberating about hitting your mid-fifties. You still have dreams and goals, but the old anxiety around them loosens its grip. You still want to make money, but it stops being the whole point. And you absolutely stop caring about what anyone outside your circle thinks. Reviews matter less at fifty; at fifty-five you’re not even reading them.
Mostly, you learn to let go. You start to see with real clarity that all of this is a game, so you might as well enjoy it. I find myself at this strange intersection where the career I’ve been clawing at for years finally pays me like it believes in me and I happen to be at the age where I can finally admit that I believe in me, too. I know book sales go up and down, and there’s no guarantee of another hit, but I’m okay with just controlling what I can, letting the other shit go, and enjoying the ride. It’s a weird kind of peace. A slightly haunted peace, sure, but peace all the same.
I am not suddenly floating above the world. I still worry. I still wake up wondering if I already wrote every good sentence I had in me. But the ground feels steadier now. Maybe because this is who I have always been and it is about time the numbers caught up.
If you’re working on something you love and wondering if it’s too late, it isn’t. Keep going. Get older. Get weirder. Let the world think whatever it wants. Then go make something that proves them all wrong.
New episodes of my podcast Making It Up are out! Over the past month, I chatted with:
Episode 207: Elena Taylor
Elena Taylor is a playwright turned crime novelist whose Eddie Shoes and Sheriff Bet Rivers series blend theatrical instincts with rich atmosphere. We talked about her shift from stage to page, how to build mood in a thriller, and what it takes to stop comparing yourself to every other writer in the room. We wrapped with a vivid, surprising story sparked by a line from Mailan Doquan’s Ceylon Sapphires.
Episode 206: Harry Hunsicker
Harry Hunsicker is the Shamus Award-nominated author of Still River and eight more crime thrillers, along with several acclaimed screenplays. We talked about mining your own bookshelves for ideas, the brutal honesty needed for query letters, and how it feels to land a Thriller Award nomination. We closed with a sharp, gripping story inspired by a line from Jennifer Chase’s Count Their Graves.
Episode 205: Aime Austin
Aime Austin writes the Casey Cort and Nicole Long legal thrillers, weaving courtroom tension with smart social commentary. We talked about her early work as a newspaper stringer, the fear of losing momentum when life gets loud, and how to keep reaching new readers as your audience ages. We ended with a dark, fast story built from a line in Tess Gerritson’s The Summer Guests.
Episode 204: Scott Graham
Scott Graham is the author of the long-running National Park Mystery Series and several award-winning nonfiction books. We talked about staying relevant between releases, reading widely to sharpen your own craft, and balancing the grimness of murder with a hopeful tone. We finished with an unpredictable story using a line from Matt Goldman’s The Murder Show.
All episodes are available on my website, my YouTube channel, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Had a great time talking with bestselling author Angie Kim during two packed sessions at the Broomfield Library Auditorium. She’s sharp, funny, and the kind of person you can talk with for hours. She’ll be on my podcast next summer, and I can’t wait to keep the conversation going.
Photo credit: Broomfield Library
REVIEWS
On the Page
The Only One Who Knows, Lisa M. Matlin (March 2026)
I love getting sneak peeks at upcoming releases. This beauty is launching early next year, and if you like your books properly dark and noirish, make sure to pre-order. Here’s my blurb for this fine thriller:
“When disgraced TV host Minnow Greenwood returns to her storm-battered hometown, the sea starts giving up its dead. In The Only One Who Knows, Lisa Matlin’s prose is as beautiful as it is brutal, cutting straight to the bone as Minnow unravels the secrets her family and her town have spent decades trying to bury. Minnow is a deeply flawed but fiercely resilient protagonist, so real she feels like she might bleed through the page. A gothic coastal noir about generational violence and the cyclical nature of predation, The Only One Who Knows is visceral, haunting, and impossible to look away from.”
On the Screen
The Beast In Me(Netflix 2025)
Jessica and I are about halfway through The Beast in Me on Netflix. It’s a clean, absorbing thriller about a grieving writer who moves into a new neighborhood and starts to suspect her powerful next-door neighbor might be a murderer. The setup is simple, but the show knows how to sit in tension without overplaying its hand.
Some plot turns are a little wild and a few character decisions make you wonder what anyone is thinking, but the overall pull of the story is strong. The pacing works. The atmosphere works. You stay curious about who is lying and who is just damaged.
Claire Danes is excellent as a fierce but wounded protagonist who refuses to back down. Matthew Rhys brings a steady chill to the screen and never slips into parody. The acting alone is worth the watch, and it gives the story more gravity than it might have had otherwise.
Photo of the Month
Built myself a new desk! I wanted more space, so I grabbed an unfinished barn-door kit, added pine planks to fill the deeper sections, stained and aged everything, then sealed it with an epoxy pour. The epoxy, sanding, and polishing took weeks, but the end result is worth every hour. I even set a small piece of family history inside: my dad’s 1958 high-school charm.
Update from my Kids
The kids came home for Thanksgiving! They were mostly happy to see the dog.
Update from my Pets
Our Thanksgiving turkey was a bit gamier than expected.
Humor of the Month sent to me by a friend
Don’t get it? Have your kids explain it to you. And then you still won’t get it.
Did you know that through my company, Unbound Writer, I work directly with writers at every stage of their journey? I offer one-on-one coaching, live seminars, retreats, and online courses, all focused on helping people tell the stories that matter to them. If you’re interested in exploring what I offer, you can visit my site (linked above) and set up a free consultation call to see if we’re a good fit. Working with writers has become one of the most meaningful parts of my career, so each month I’ll be sharing a testimonial from someone I’ve had the privilege of coaching.
“Many fiction writers are comfortable making up stories about imaginary people’s lives but uneasy about promoting their work in the real world. I know I was. When I met Carter at a writing event I was immediately struck by his seemingly effortless ability to connect with a group of readers he’d never met.
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…
