Podcast appearances and mentions of Jeffery Deaver

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Nghe trọn nội dung sách nói Cây Thập Tự Ven Đường trên ứng dụng Voiz FM: https://voiz.vn/play/178/ Những Cây Thập Tự Ven Đường xuất hiện dọc theo các xa lộ ở Bán đảo Monterey không phải để tưởng niệm những nạn nhân tai nạn giao thông, mà là dấu hiệu báo trước thời điểm các vụ ám sát sắp diễn ra. Nạn nhân chính là những người đã đăng tải thông tin thiếu cẩn trọng hoặc để lộ quá nhiều dữ liệu cá nhân trên mạng xã hội.Đặc vụ Kathryn Dance cùng các đồng sự tại CBI được giao phụ trách vụ án. Với chuyên môn về ngôn ngữ cơ thể, cô nhanh chóng lần ra những manh mối quan trọng và phát hiện trung tâm của mọi nghi vấn dường như hướng về Travis Brigham – một thiếu niên mang nhiều tổn thương tâm lý. Động cơ ban đầu được cho là sự trả thù những kẻ từng nhục mạ cậu trên mạng. Nhưng càng điều tra sâu, sự thật càng trở nên phức tạp, khi Travis cũng chỉ là một mắt xích, một nạn nhân trong kế hoạch tinh vi của hung thủ thực sự.Tác phẩm đặt ra câu hỏi nhức nhối về an toàn cá nhân trong thời đại số, nơi một cú nhấp chuột có thể dẫn đến hậu quả chết người. Tại ứng dụng sách nói Voiz FM, sách nói Cây Thập Tự Ven Đường được đầu tư chất lượng âm thanh và thu âm chuyên nghiệp, tốt nhất để mang lại trải nghiệm nghe căng thẳng, kịch tính và cuốn hút cho bạn.--- Về Voiz FM: Voiz FM là ứng dụng sách nói podcast ra mắt thị trường công nghệ từ năm 2019. Với gần 2000 tựa sách độc quyền, Voiz FM hiện đang là nền tảng sách nói podcast bản quyền hàng đầu Việt Nam. Bạn có thể trải nghiệm miễn phí đa dạng nội dung tại Voiz FM từ sách nói, podcast đến truyện nói, sách tóm tắt và nội dung dành cho thiếu nhi. ---Voiz FM website: https://voiz.vn/ Theo dõi Facebook Voiz FM: https://www.facebook.com/VoizFM Tham khảo thêm các bài viết review, tổng hợp, gợi ý sách để lựa chọn sách nói dễ dàng hơn tại trang Blog Voiz FM: http://blog.voiz.vn/ ---Cảm ơn bạn đã ủng hộ Voiz FM. Nếu bạn yêu thích sách nói Cây Thập Tự Ven Đường và các nội dung sách nói podcast khác, hãy đăng ký kênh để nhận thông báo về những nội dung mới nhất của Voiz FM channel nhé. Ngoài ra, bạn có thể nghe BẢN FULL ĐỘC QUYỀN hàng chục ngàn nội dung Chất lượng cao khác tại ứng dụng Voiz FM.Tải ứng dụng Voiz FM: voiz.vn/download#voizfm #podcast #caythaptuven duong #jefferydeaver

Nghe trọn nội dung sách nói Giọt Lệ Quỷ trên ứng dụng Voiz FM: https://voiz.vn/play/203/ Đôi khi, kẻ ra tay giết người lại không phải là hung thủ thật sự. Giọt Lệ Quỷ sở hữu rất nhiều nút thắt bất ngờ – đúng với phong cách quen thuộc của Jeffery Deaver. Nhưng điểm hấp dẫn bậc nhất của cuốn sách nằm ở cách tác giả trao cho mỗi nhân vật một giọng nói riêng biệt, không ai giống ai. Đặc biệt nhất là giọng kể ngô nghê, đơn giản của hung thủ Digger – một sự đối lập đầy ám ảnh. Ở từng thời điểm, người đọc có thể chuyển từ kinh ngạc, giận dữ sang cảm giác thương cảm bất ngờ dành cho một “cỗ máy giết người” không tự nguyện, khi tác giả dần hé lộ toàn bộ hoàn cảnh đã đẩy hắn vào con đường tội lỗi. Giọt Lệ Quỷ vì thế không chỉ là một tiểu thuyết trinh thám gay cấn, mà còn là câu chuyện sâu sắc về thao túng, số phận và nhân tính. Tại ứng dụng sách nói Voiz FM, sách nói Giọt Lệ Quỷ được đầu tư chất lượng âm thanh và thu âm chuyên nghiệp, tốt nhất để mang lại trải nghiệm nghe hồi hộp và cuốn hút cho bạn.--- Về Voiz FM: Voiz FM là ứng dụng sách nói podcast ra mắt thị trường công nghệ từ năm 2019. Với gần 2000 tựa sách độc quyền, Voiz FM hiện đang là nền tảng sách nói podcast bản quyền hàng đầu Việt Nam. Bạn có thể trải nghiệm miễn phí đa dạng nội dung tại Voiz FM từ sách nói, podcast đến truyện nói, sách tóm tắt và nội dung dành cho thiếu nhi. ---Voiz FM website: https://voiz.vn/ Theo dõi Facebook Voiz FM: https://www.facebook.com/VoizFM Tham khảo thêm các bài viết review, tổng hợp, gợi ý sách để lựa chọn sách nói dễ dàng hơn tại trang Blog Voiz FM: http://blog.voiz.vn/ ---Cảm ơn bạn đã ủng hộ Voiz FM. Nếu bạn yêu thích sách nói Giọt Lệ Quỷ và các nội dung sách nói podcast khác, hãy đăng ký kênh để nhận thông báo về những nội dung mới nhất của Voiz FM channel nhé. Ngoài ra, bạn có thể nghe BẢN FULL ĐỘC QUYỀN hàng chục ngàn nội dung Chất lượng cao khác tại ứng dụng Voiz FM.Tải ứng dụng Voiz FM: voiz.vn/download#voizfm #podcast #giotlequy #jefferydeaver

Narrator Mia Hutchinson-Shaw joins AudioFile's Michele Cobb to discuss narrating Annie Mare and Ruthie Knox's cozy mystery HOMEMAKER. We follow along with protagonist Prairie Hawk Nightingale, a homemaker extraordinaire, on her quest to solve the disappearance of her former friend. Hutchinson-Shaw shares what it's like to narrate this delightful cast of characters, why she likes cozy mysteries, and how she got into acting and narration. Read AudioFile's review of the audiobook: Published by Brilliance Audio AudioFile's 2025 Best Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks are: THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessie Garcia, read by Andrew Eiden, Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick, Fred Berman, Gail Shalan, Hillary Huber, Jennifer Pickens, John Pirhalla, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Kirby Heyborne, Tim Campbell HOMEMAKER by Annie Mare, Ruthie Knox, read by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw NEVER FLINCH by Stephen King, read by Jessie Mueller, Stephen King  SOUTH OF NOWHERE by Jeffery Deaver, read by Kaleo Griffith THE SUMMER GUESTS by Tess Gerritsen, read by Hillary Huber A TRUE VERDICT by Robert Rotstein, read by Sean Pratt, Phil Thron, Kelli Tager, Sophie Amoss, Natalie Naudus, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Hillary Huber, Mark Bramhall, Robin Miles, Alex Boyles, Roxanne Hernandez, Eunice Wong, Deanna Anthony, Graham Halstead Explore the full list of 2025 Best Audiobooks on our website. Support for our podcast comes from Dreamscape, an award-winning audiobook publisher with a catalog that includes authors L.J. Shen, Freida McFadden, and Katee Robert. Discover your next great listen at dreamscapepublishing.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, JP Rindfleisch, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Smashwords, Edelweiss, and the word of the year. Then, stick around for a chat with Mark Tavani!Mark Tavani started his publishing career in 2000 with Ballantine Books and spent over 23 years with Penguin Random House, Bantam, Del Rey, and G.P. Putnam's Sons. He edited bestsellers and award-winners across numerous categories of fiction and nonfiction, including books by Jim Abbott, Steve Berry, C.J. Box, Robert Crais, Justin Cronin, Clive and Dirk Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, George Dohrmann, Lisa Gardner, Jack McCallum, Lisa Scottoline, Bill Simmons, and R.L. Stine. He represents both fiction and nonfiction.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Barbara Peters in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

Strand editor Andrew Gulli discusses the new anthology celebrating 25 years of The Strand Magazine. Joining him are contributors Jeffery Deaver and Walter Mosley.

In THE GRAVE ARTIST, a wedding reception is coming to a close in the Hollywood Hills when the blissful day is shattered by the death of the groom. Though the incident appears to be an accident, Carmen Sanchez and Jake Heron discover that the tragedy is the third in a series of similar deaths and conclude something far more sinister is at play. The two uncover chilling evidence pointing to a serial killer who has taken evil to the next level. Dubbed the Honeymoon Killer, he isn't interested solely in his victims but in creating a macabre masterpiece focused on the survivors and reveling in their grief. And now his dark obsession has turned to Carmen and Jake themselves. The Honeymoon Killer has decided they are the perfect next target. Time is running out as a deadly game between predator and prey begins.ABOUT THE AUTHORSJeffery Deaver is the award-winning #1 international and New York Times bestselling author of the Lincoln Rhyme, Colter Shaw and Kathryn Dance series, among many others. Deaver's work includes fifty novels, more than one hundred short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. A former journalist, folk singer, and attorney, he was born outside Chicago and has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University. He was recently named a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard and Mickey Spillane. Jeffery Deaver lives in North Carolina and the D.C. area.www.jefferydeaver.comIsabella Maldonado is the award-winning international and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Nina Guerrera, Daniela Vega and Veranda Cruz series. She was recently nominated for an Edgar Award and an International Thriller Award. Her books are published in twenty-four languages. Maldonado wore a gun and badge in real life before turning to crime writing. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in her police department, she retired as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During more than two decades on the force, her assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing. Isabella Maldonado lives in Phoenix and Lakeside, both in Arizona. www.isabellamaldonado.com#jeffreydeaver #isabellamaldonando Instagram: @officialjefferydeaver & @authorisabellaFacebook: @jefferydeaver & @authorisabellaThreads: @officialjefferydeaver & @authorisabellaX: @JefferyDeaver & @isabellambooksTikTok: @authorisabellamaldonado

We're joined by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado for a fun chat all about their new book The Grave Artist, their prodigious output, and upping the serial killer game. We also recommend: The Lottery Ticket by CJ Williams, How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates, and The King of Video Poker by Paolo Iacovelli.  … Continue reading Ep. 304 Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado Can’t Stop Writing

This week, I got to talk with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their second in their Sanchez & Heron series The Grave Artists. We dive into how they create a Serial Killer 2.0, the positive and negative uses of technology, and how they write together.The Grave Artist SynopsisA wedding reception is coming to a close in the Hollywood Hills when the blissful day is shattered by the death of one of the newlyweds. Though the incident appears to be an accident, Homeland Security Investigations agent Carmen Sanchez and her partner, security expert Jake Heron, discover that the tragedy is the third in a series of similar deaths and conclude something far more sinister is at play.The two uncover chilling evidence pointing to a serial killer who has taken evil to the next level. Dubbed the Honeymoon Killer, this man isn't interested in his victims but in creating his own macabre masterpiece from their graves--focused on the survivors and reveling in their grief. And now his dark obsession has turned to Carmen and Jake...The Honeymoon Killer has decided they are the perfect next target. Take one out and delight as the other crumbles. Time is running out as a deadly game between predator and prey begins. Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

Barbara Peters in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

No. 1 Internationally and New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver AND Wall Street Journal bestselling author Isabella Maldonado join BOOKSTORM Podcast to discuss The Grave Artist! We follow Sanchez & Heron in this popular series - and what a ride! This is not your typical serial killer. The Honeymoon Killer is trying to express himself in a unique way. We talk all about nature versus nurture and whether people are born bad ... are we all a blank slate when we're born or do traumatic experiences change everything? We discuss fraught sibling relationships, especially when one sibling is also a parent. And wait until you hear what these two writers are up to next! Shows! Justin Hartley! Multiple books & installments! So much to discuss - join us!You can find more of your favorite bestselling authors at BOOKSTORM Podcast! We're also on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube!

Today in the interrogation chair, it's debut author Gene Koon with his book, ANOTHER TRY. Find out why Jeffery Deaver said, "I love this novel!" and why Michael Connelly called it, "Wonderful." Hear about Gene's work in The Hague working on the Slobodan Milošević trial and how he grew up with an airplane wing in his bedroom. Welcome, to The Dossier Podcast! genekoon.com | thewritersdossier.com | Voice credit: Hillary Huber

Today in the interrogation chair, it's debut author Gene Koon with his book, ANOTHER TRY. Find out why Jeffery Deaver said, "I love this novel!" and why Michael Connelly called it, "Wonderful." Hear about Gene's work in The Hague working on the Slobodan Milošević trial and how he grew up with an airplane wing in his bedroom. Welcome, to The Dossier Podcast! genekoon.com | thewritersdossier.com | Voice credit: Hillary Huber

The New York Times bestselling master of suspense, Jeffery Deaver, returns to his beloved series, adapted for TV in CBS's Tracker, starring Justin Hartley. Reward seeker Colter Shaw races against the clock in SOUTH OF NOWHERE (G.P. Putnam's Son's; On-Sale: May 6, 2025), to save a flooding town from a full-fledged disaster, where the culprit lurks in the plain sight.When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive. But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter's urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it?Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.Fans of the hit CBS show Tracker and Deaver fans alike will thrill to a fifth Shaw adventure and SOUTH OF NOWHERE will not disappoint.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

AudioFile's Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed discuss this gripping audiobook. Colter Shaw—tracker and survivalist—is hired to locate a missing family trapped after a levee collapses during a catastrophic storm. As he searches, Shaw uncovers a sinister plot that suggests the disaster may not have been entirely natural. Narrator Kaleo Griffith delivers a masterful performance, giving each character a distinct and memorable voice. With layered characters brought to life with escalating tension and outstanding narration, this latest installment in the series is a taut thriller that showcases Jeffery Deaver's storytelling and Griffith's exceptional vocal range.  Read our review of the audiobook at our website Published by Harper Audio Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile's website   Support for Behind the Mic comes from Hachette Audio and NIGHT WATCHER, by Daphne Woolsoncroft (of the Going West podcast), who read an audio-exclusive author's note before the stunning dual-narration by Will Collyer and Helen Laser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, JP Rindfleisch, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about influencers, AI, and BookBub. Then, stick around for a chat with Andrew Gulli!Andrew Gulli's The Strand Magazine: The Strand Mystery Magazine is a quarterly which offers the best of both worlds—publishing previously unpublished works by literary masters such as John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway,  Rod Serling,  Louisa May Alcott, Shirley Jackson, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler , Tennessee Williams, and H.G.Wells . The Strand Magazine also features new works by today's bestselling authors including Alexander McCall Smith, R.L. Stine, Michael Connelly, Faye Kellerman, Craig Johnson, Ruth Ware, Joseph Finder, and Jeffery Deaver, as well as engaging interviews. Our reviews section looks at the latest mystery/thriller offerings, Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and anthologies, in addition to audiobooks and DVDs. The Strand Mystery Magazine has been featured several times in The New York Times, NPR, PBS, USA Today, and the Associated Press.Our current issue features Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, C.J. Box, Denise Mina and John Floyd. We also have an interview with Amor Towles.

The New York Times bestselling master of suspense, Jeffery Deaver, returns to his beloved series, adapted for TV in CBS's Tracker, starring Justin Hartley. Reward seeker Colter Shaw races against the clock in SOUTH OF NOWHERE (G.P. Putnam's Son's; On-Sale: May 6, 2025), to save a flooding town from a full-fledged disaster, where the culprit lurks in the plain sight.When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive. But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter's urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it?Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.Fans of the hit CBS show Tracker and Deaver fans alike will thrill to a fifth Shaw adventure and SOUTH OF NOWHERE will not disappoint.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Join host Victoria Carthew as she speaks with New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver about his latest Colter Shaw thriller, “South of Nowhere”.A small town in Northern California is at risk of being destroyed by a failing levee, and Colter Shaw has been hired to locate a family swept away by the raging water, with just mere hours to survive.But is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes or is someone sabotaging it? With the help of his sister, Dorion, the duo must save the citizens before the old town washes out at the hands of a secret conspirer.Purchase “South of Nowhere” from your local QBD Books store or online today: https://www.qbd.com.au/south-of-nowhere/jeffery-deaver/9780008665968/Follow along with QBD Books here: QBD Books on Facebook: www.facebook.com/qbdbooks QBD Books on Instagram: www.instagram.com/qbdbooks QBD Books on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@qbdbooksaustralia

Frankie is weathering the storm with the legendary Jeffery Deaver, author of South of Nowhere, to learn about creating iconic characters, his writing formula, the value of his "give me a break" standard, his connection to the UK and prospective punning over a pint!South of Nowhere is out NOW. Order your copy here.Follow Jeffery at @officialjefferydeaver or visit his website at www.jefferydeaver.com. Want to talk books? Email us at readandburiedpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram and Threads: @readandburiedpodcastFollow us on Twitter: @readburiedpodFollow us on Bluesky: @readandburiedpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we chat to thriller writing legend Jeffery Deaver about his new book, SOUTH OF NOWHERE, featuring Colter Shaw, a 'rewardist'.

Patrick Millikin in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Alex Finlay

Edgar Award nominee and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Isabella Maldonado wore a gun and badge in real life before turning to crime writing. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in her police department, she retired as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During more than two decades on the force, her assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing, which includes the Agent Nina Guerrera series, Agent Daniela Vega series, Detective Veranda Cruz series, and Sanchez & Heron series (co-authored with Jeffery Deaver). Her books are published in 24 languages and sold in 52 countries.Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/authorisabella Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorisabella/ Threads Handle: https://www.threads.net/@authorisabella Other Social Media: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorisabellamaldonado Website: www.isabellamaldonado.com*****************About SinCSisters in Crime (SinC) was founded in 1986 to promote the ongoing advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers. Through advocacy, programming and leadership, SinC empowers and supports all crime writers regardless of genre or place on their career trajectory.www.SistersinCrime.orgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sincnational/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sincnational.bsky.socialThreads: https://www.threads.net/@sincnationalFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/sistersincrimeTikTok:: https://www.tiktok.com/@sincnationalThe SinC Writers' Podcast is produced by Julian Crocamo https://www.juliancrocamo.com/

Nghe trọn nội dung sách nói Sát Nhân Mạng trên ứng dụng Voiz FM: https://voiz.vn/play/4490/ Tiểu thuyết “Sát nhân mạng” của Jeffery Deaver khai thác một chủ đề mới về và thế giới máy tính, những thứ vô cùng gắn bó với cuộc sống hiện đại. Câu chuyện xuất phát từ ý niệm rất giản đơn: Sẽ đáng sợ thế nào nếu ai đó có thể biết mọi điều về cuộc sống của chúng ta - những điều chúng ta nghĩ là bí mật của riêng mình, và sử dụng chính những thông tin ấy để sát hại chúng ta. Nỗi cô đơn và sự ruồng bỏ suốt thuở thiếu thời đã biến Phate thành một kẻ máu lạnh. Hắn chui vào vỏ bọc của mình trong thế giới máy tính, và tin rằng thế giới thực chỉ là một trò chơi nhập vai, nơi hắn giết người như một nhân vật trong trò chơi để giành điểm số. Mỗi trang sách là một cuộc rượt đuổi đầy cam go trên thế giới máy tính và cả ngoài đời thực. Cứ mỗi lần tưởng chừng đã tóm được tay sát nhân hàng loạt, thì hắn lại vụt khỏi tầm tay. Những tình huống bất ngờ đan xen trên từng trang sách khi không biết ai là gián điệp tiếp tay cho kẻ giết người, và nhân dạng thực sự của tên sát nhân Phate ra sao…người tốt và kẻ xấu đều muốn giành chiến thắng trong trò chơi chiến thuật máy tính ngoài đời thực. Tại ứng dụng sách nói Voiz FM, sách nói Sát Nhân Mạng được đầu tư chất lượng âm thanh và thu âm chuyên nghiệp, tốt nhất để mang lại trải nghiệm nghe tuyệt vời cho bạn. --- Về Voiz FM: Voiz FM là ứng dụng sách nói podcast ra mắt thị trường công nghệ từ năm 2019. Với gần 2000 tựa sách độc quyền, Voiz FM hiện đang là nền tảng sách nói podcast bản quyền hàng đầu Việt Nam. Bạn có thể trải nghiệm miễn phí đa dạng nội dung tại Voiz FM từ sách nói, podcast đến truyện nói, sách tóm tắt và nội dung dành cho thiếu nhi. --- Voiz FM website: https://voiz.vn/ Theo dõi Facebook Voiz FM: https://www.facebook.com/VoizFM Tham khảo thêm các bài viết review, tổng hợp, gợi ý sách để lựa chọn sách nói dễ dàng hơn tại trang Blog Voiz FM: http://blog.voiz.vn/ --- Cảm ơn bạn đã ủng hộ Voiz FM. Nếu bạn yêu thích sách nói Sát Nhân Mạng và các nội dung sách nói podcast khác, hãy đăng ký kênh để nhận thông báo về những nội dung mới nhất của Voiz FM channel nhé. Ngoài ra, bạn có thể nghe BẢN FULL ĐỘC QUYỀN hàng chục ngàn nội dung Chất lượng cao khác tại ứng dụng Voiz FM. Tải ứng dụng Voiz FM: voiz.vn/download #voizfm #sáchnói #podcast #sáchnóiSátNhânMạng #JefferyDeaver

This action-packed thriller from Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado is performed with skill by André Santana and Aida Reluzco. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Robin Whitten discuss this fast-paced, nonstop audiobook filled with twists, turns, and well-developed characters, good and evil. The seamless narration enhances the suspense, making this an engaging listen. Fans will eagerly await the next installment in this new series. Read our review of the audiobook at our website. Published by Brilliance Audio.  Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile's website.      Support for AudioFile's Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Max Lucado, Kathie Lee Gifford, Bob Goff, Lysa TerKeurst, and many more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time for Halloween, we're diving into a new thriller called "Fatal Intrusion." It's the first book in a new series by authors Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado. After a series of murders in Southern California, a Homeland Security agent needs the help of professor in catching a serial killer. Deaver is an international bestselling author who has written more than 40 books, including  "The Bone Collector." Maldonado is also a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She graduated from the FBI National Academy and was the first Latina to become a captain within the Fairfax County Police Department near Washington, D.C. Deaver and Maldonado talk about what it's like to co-write a book, how they worked together, and much more. 

Host Cyrus Webb welcomes authors Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado to Conversations LIVE to discuss their new book FATAL INTRUSION. 

Barbara Peters in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

This week, I got to talk with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their new action thriller Fatal Intrusion.  We dive into their joint writing process, the inception of the story, and creating a killer obsessed with spiders.Fatal Intrusion SynopsisCarmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. But when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator.With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she's cashing in. They team up to catch the assailant, who, mystifyingly, has no discernable motive and fits no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives this chillingly efficient tactician his nickname: Spider.Over the next seventy-two hours, Sanchez and Heron find themselves in the midst of a lethal chess match with the killer as they race to stop the carnage. As the victims mount, so do the risks. Because this spider's web of intrigue is more sinister—and goes far deeper—than anyone could possibly anticipate.

Books by Jeffery Deaver Books by Isabella Maldonado Show Notes & Transcript Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado Interview (Episode 205) In the world of thriller novels, few names command as much respect as Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado. Recently, these two powerhouse authors joined forces to create “Fatal Intrusion,” a gripping new novel set to... The post MTTA 205: Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado appeared first on Meet the Thriller Author.

Jeffery Deaver is the award-winning #1 international and New York Times bestselling author of the Lincoln Rhyme, Colter Shaw and Kathryn Dance series, among many others. Deaver's work includes forty-seven novels, one hundred short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages.  Isabella Maldonado is the award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Nina Guerrera, Daniela Vega and Veranda Cruz series. Her books are published in twenty-four languages.  Their co-authored book, FATAL INTRUSION, is the launch of a new series featuring Homeland Security agent Carmen Sanchez and Professor Jake Heron. 

When an army-vet-turned-safecracker is forcibly recruited to be part of a dangerous heist, she'll need all her skills to get out alive in this fast-paced thriller perfect for fans of Jeffery Deaver and P. J. Tracy.Nearly a decade after getting chased out of the Army for fighting back against abuse, Monna Locke's skill and discretion have made her the go-to safecracker for Los Angeles clients who need vaults opened and no questions asked. When a lawyer hires her to retrieve a box from his client's mansion, it seems like an easy payday—until she opens the safe and is immediately attacked by heavily-armed men.Locke barely escapes and returns to her isolated cabin only to find the client waiting in her home, threatening what she holds most dear: her son, Evan. After being knocked unconscious, she wakes up across the country, trapped in her own personal nightmare: she and Evan will be held captive until she helps a seedy crew pull off a seemingly impossible heist.Forced to practice breaking into the most impenetrable safe ever designed, Locke bides her time and eyes her escape routes. She knows there's no way to finish the job she's been forced into, but it's either crack the lock, or lose everything.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"El coleccionista de huesos" es una novela de suspenso escrita por Jeffery Deaver. La historia gira en torno a un asesino en serie conocido como "El coleccionista de huesos", quien comete crímenes horribles y deja pistas en forma de huesos humanos. El protagonista, Lincoln Rhyme, es un ex criminólogo forense de la policía de Nueva York que quedó paralizado del cuello para abajo tras un accidente.A pesar de su discapacidad, Rhyme es llamado a investigar el caso debido a su notable capacidad para analizar pruebas y su experiencia en criminología. Trabaja en equipo con la oficial de policía Amelia Sachs, quien actúa como sus "ojos y oídos" en la escena del crimen. Juntos, deben descifrar las pistas dejadas por el asesino para detenerlo antes de que vuelva a matar.La novela explora temas de suspense, crimen y la lucha personal de Rhyme con su discapacidad y su deseo de atrapar al asesino. Es conocida por su detallada descripción de procedimientos forenses y su intrincada trama llena de giros y sorpresas.Sería de mucha ayuda si compartes este episodio y te suscribes a nuestro canal de pódcast.Adquiere el libro: En AmazonRecuerda que si gustas apoyarnos en nuestras lecturas y reseñas, lo puedes realizar mediante ☕️ Paypal o a través de nuestras redes sociales o correo electrónico.También te agradeceríamos

Buy the audiobook: bookpass.com | Listen in your podcast app—in just two clicks. No new app to install.Following Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton Started Another Masterpiece—James Patterson Just Finished ItThe biggest thriller of the year: A history-making eruption is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the US military is far more terrifying than any volcano.“Eruption is an epic thriller…fast-paced and deeply considered…a cinematic story rooted in science and infused with plenty of heart, tackling big themes like love and loss.”–Time“Breathtaking and brilliant! Eruption gives us everything we want in a thriller: huge scale, huge stakes, fascinating details and characters so real we feel we've known them all our lives. Bravo!”—Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector and creator of the Colter Shaw character on CBS's Tracker"The first summer blockbuster masterpiece… as thrilling and jaw-dropping as Jurassic Park."—Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Cartel and City on FireThe master of the techno-blockbuster joins forces with the master of the modern thriller to create the most anticipated mega bestseller in years. Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he'd been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world's most popular storyteller.***Learn more: bookpass.com DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

Week of 2/4/24 at the Library - Scott Brunka | Hosts Dylan Posa and Barb Leitschuh go over upcoming events, talk to City Manager Scott Brunka, and for "Barb The Bookie" recommend 'The Never Game' by Jeffery Deaver.

Recorded live at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2023. Jeffery Deaver is the author of 42 novels, sold in 150 countries and translated into over 25 languages. He has sold over 150 million books worldwide. All very impressive but the numbers barely begin to tell the story of a storied career. Deaver is a maestro of suspense with precious few equals. From his debut Manhattan is My Beat through The Bone Collector to his latest, Hunting Time, he has created a succession of expertly plotted novels, each gripping and ingenious, each racing along fuelled by pace, originality, invention and heart. He has given his legion of readers a series of memorable protagonists including Lincoln Rhyme, Kathryn Dance and Colter Shaw. Each leap from the page, crafted at the fingertips of a master storyteller. Jeffery Deaver is interviewed by broadcaster and author Mark Lawson. Podcast music by Joseph McDade.

Barbara Peters in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

Mark Tavani started his publishing career in 2000 with Ballantine Books and spent more than 23 years with Penguin Random House, Bantam, Del Rey, and G.P. Putnam's Sons. He edited bestsellers and award-winners across numerous categories of fiction and nonfiction, including books by Jim Abbott, Steve Berry, C.J. Box, Justin Cronin, Clive and Dirk Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Jack McCallum, Lisa Scottoline, Bill Simmons, and R.L. Stine. He recently joined the David Black Literary Agency, where he represents both fiction and nonfiction. Mark has a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He is an adjunct professor with NYU's School of Professional Studies and lives with his wife, his daughters, and a headstrong dog in Rutherford, New Jersey.  Mark Tavani joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about what he's looking for, the dreaded comps, the category of bookclub fiction, submitting memoir, ageism in publishing (or not), why MFAs and the literary community involvement are important, how to know if an agent is the right fit for you, and so much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on November 17, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Acclaimed online personality and author Sara Divello shares her insights into writing “true crime fiction,” what it means, the challenges of capturing the essence of a story and being faithful to it while also telling it in an engaging way. Sara DiVello is a true crime novelist and the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular interactive Facebook group. For her weekly Mystery and Thriller Mavens live events, she has interviewed more than 300 authors, ranging from the bestselling and world-renowned (Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tamron Hall, Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware, Lisa Unger, and many more) to the buzziest debuts.  While creative and active on her own social media platforms, DiVello also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Sara has appeared on CBS, ABC, and CNBC, as well as in the New York Times, Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, and more. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Day, among others. 

Today on Killer Women Podcast, our guest is Sara DiVello. Sara is a true crime writer and the author of Broadway Butterfly: A Thriller, named an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of Summer and an AARP Hot Summer Read. She is also the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author series and interactive Facebook group. For her weekly Mystery and Thriller Mavens live events, she has interviewed more than 300 authors, ranging from the bestselling and world-renowned (Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tamron Hall, Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware, Lisa Unger, and many more) to the buzziest debuts. While creative and active on her own social media platforms, DiVello also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Day, among others. In her spare time, she loves to teach yoga, cook (and eat!), garden, and go for leisurely walks with her husband and their beloved rescue mutt, Peluda. Killer Women is copyrighted by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network #podcast #author #interview #authors #KillerWomen #KillerWomenPodcast #authorsontheair #podcast #podcaster #killerwomen #killerwomenpodcast #authors #authorsofig #authorsofinstagram #authorinterview #writingcommunity #authorsontheair #suspensebooks #authorssupportingauthors #thrillerbooks #suspense #wip #writers #writersinspiration #books #bookrecommendations #bookaddict #bookaddicted #bookaddiction #bibliophile #read #amreading #lovetoread #daniellegirard #daniellegirardbooks #saradivello

Today on Killer Women Podcast, our guest is Sara DiVello. Sara is a true crime writer and the author of Broadway Butterfly: A Thriller, named an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of Summer and an AARP Hot Summer Read. She is also the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author series and interactive Facebook group. For her weekly Mystery and Thriller Mavens live events, she has interviewed more than 300 authors, ranging from the bestselling and world-renowned (Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tamron Hall, Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware, Lisa Unger, and many more) to the buzziest debuts. While creative and active on her own social media platforms, DiVello also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Day, among others. In her spare time, she loves to teach yoga, cook (and eat!), garden, and go for leisurely walks with her husband and their beloved rescue mutt, Peluda. Killer Women is copyrighted by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network #podcast #author #interview #authors #KillerWomen #KillerWomenPodcast #authorsontheair #podcast #podcaster #killerwomen #killerwomenpodcast #authors #authorsofig #authorsofinstagram #authorinterview #writingcommunity #authorsontheair #suspensebooks #authorssupportingauthors #thrillerbooks #suspense #wip #writers #writersinspiration #books #bookrecommendations #bookaddict #bookaddicted #bookaddiction #bibliophile #read #amreading #lovetoread #daniellegirard #daniellegirardbooks #saradivello

What can one say about John David Mann? He has mastered, well he wouldn't say that, but I would, writing non-fiction, parable and fiction writing. He has also shown us how a marriage can be lived fully and be written about, how to start your own school, and how to run a business with over 100,000 people. And those are just a few of his achievements to date. My favorite is that he has launched almost every book he has written or co-authored on my show since 2015. Yup, that one is special to me because his words lift my spirits, awaken my brain and bring me joy. Well not just to me but to over 3 million people in 38 languages. Blind Fear is John's latest novel with Brandon Webb and it does not disappoint. Today we talked about what his latest novel means, how he manages to take a more 'Hitchcockian" approach to writing than many others (my choice of words as you will hear), and how crime writing taught him to fall in love with the world.  These aren't the usual questions John gets asked, and his answers may surprise you.  Take a listen as we dive deep with John David Mann on life, fiction, writing mastery mentoring and a few other things. John David Mann has been creating careers since he was a teenager. Before turning to business and journalism, he forged a successful career as a concert cellist and prize-winning composer. At fifteen he won the prestigious BMI Awards to Student Composers and received the award at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, where he met such twentieth-century-music luminaries as William Schumann and Leopold Stokowski. He apprenticed as a choral conductor under his father, Dr. Alfred Mann, which gave him the chance to meet more legendary figures of classical music, including Randall Thompson, Leonard Bernstein, Boris Goldovsky, Robert Shaw, and George Crumb. His musical compositions were performed throughout the U.S. and his musical score for Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (written at age thirteen) was performed as part of a theatrical production of the play at the stone amphitheater in Epidaurus, Greece—the very one, in fact, where the play was originally premiered a few thousand years earlier. At age seventeen, he and a few friends started their own high school in New Jersey (called Changes, Inc.). “Alternative” though they were, his school successfully placed its students in such universities as Harvard and Yale. After graduating, he joined the school's faculty. In the years since he has taught children in affluent Boston suburbs, Indiana farms, and the poorest neighborhoods on the outskirts of Philadelphia. John never planned to go into business; it just seemed to keep working out that way. He has founded one school, one food distribution business, one graphic design business, and two publishing companies. John's diverse career has made him a thought leader in several different industries. In 1986 he founded and wrote for Solstice, a journal on health, nutrition, and environmental issues. His series on the climate crisis, “Whither the Trees?” (yes, he was writing about this back in the eighties), was selected for national reprint in 1989 in Utne Reader for a readership of over one hundred thousand. In 1992 John helped write and produce the underground bestseller The Greatest Networker in the World, by John Milton Fogg, which became the defining book in its industry. During the 1990s, John built a multimillion-dollar sales/distribution organization of over a hundred thousand people. He was cofounder and senior editor of the legendary Upline journal and editor in chief of Networking Times. As a public speaker he has addressed audiences of thousands. John is an award-winning author whose writings have earned the Axiom Business Book Award (Gold Medal, for The Go-Giver), the Nautilus Award (for A Deadly Misunderstanding), and Taiwan's Golden Book Award for Innovation (for You Call the Shots). The Go-Giver was also honored with the Living Now Book Awards “Evergreen Medal” in 2017 for its “contributions to positive global change,” and cited on Inc.'s “Most Motivational Books Ever Written” and HubSpot's “20 Most Highly Rated Sales Books of All Time”; The Go-Giver Leader was listed on Entrepreneur magazine's “10 Books Every Leader Should Read” and Forbes magazine's “8 Books Every Young Leaders Should Read.” His 2012 Take the Lead (with Betsy Myers) was named Best Leadership Book of 2011 by Tom Peters and the Washington Post. His first novel, Steel Fear (2021, with former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb), was hailed by Lee Child as “an instant classic, maybe an instant legend” and nominated for a Barry Award. Jeffery Deaver called the sequel, Cold Fear (2022), “one of the best crime novels of the year.” You can read his thoughts on entering the world of crime fiction at JohnDavidMann.com His books are published in 38 languages and have sold more than 3 million copies. John coauthored the international bestselling classic The Go-Giver (with Bob Burg), the New York Times bestsellers The Latte Factor (with David Bach), The Red Circle (with Brandon Webb), and Flash Foresight (with Daniel Burrus), and The Answer (ghost-written for John Assaraf and Murray Smith) and the national bestsellers The Slight Edge (with Jeff Olson), Among Heroes (with Brandon Webb), Out of the Maze (with Spencer Johnson) and Real Leadership (with John Addison). He has written for American Executive, CNBC, CrimeReads, Financial Times, Forbes.com, Huffington Post, Ivey Business Journal, Leader to Leader, Leadership Excellence, Master Salesmanship, Strategy & Leadership, and Wired. You can find his writings on Huffington Post here. He is married to Ana Gabriel Mann (check out their wedding photos and vows), his coauthor on The Go-Giver Marriage, and considers himself the luckiest mann in the world.

The real life prosecutor who inspired a hit TV series. Linda Fairstein helped establish the first sex crimes unit in the Manhattan district attorney's office in the 1980s. Her work inspired "Llaw & Order SVU.". I in this 1996 interview, we talk about Linda Fairsein's first crime novel, a mystery introducing the character of Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. Get Final Jeopardy by Lindqa Fairstein You may also enjoy my interviews with Jeffery Deaver and Patricia Cornwell For more vintage interviews with celebrities, leaders, and influencers, subscribe to Now I've Heard Everything on Spotify, Apple Podcasts. or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today we are traveling to Boston to chat with best-selling author and Yogi, Sara DiVello! Sara DiVello is a true crime novelist and the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author series and interactive Facebook group. For her weekly Mystery and Thriller Mavens live events, she has interviewed more than 300 authors, ranging from the bestselling and world-renowned (Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tamron Hall, Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware, Lisa Unger, and many more) to the buzziest debuts. While creative and active on her own social media platforms, DiVello also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers Association. Sara has appeared on CBS, ABC, and CNBC, as well as in the New York Times, Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, and more.Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Day, among others. Her highly anticipated novel, Broadway Butterfly is launching on August 1st. Sara is passionate about all things books (especially mysteries and thrillers), the craft of writing, and connecting readers to their favorite authors, as well as introducing them to their new discoveries.                 In today's episode we discuss:·      Best practices for authors using social media to boost their author brand and why they need to be active on the platforms.·      What fifteen years as a PR director in a large corporation taught her about marketing and how this knowledge has transferred to book marketing. ·      The benefits of promoting other author's work.·      Common mistakes authors make with social media and marketing.·      Mystery Thriller Mavens. ·      What inspired Sara to write Broadway Butterfly.·      Her love of Yoga and the benefits of exercise for writers!·      Her new podcast that is coming soon. Yes Sara, you need to create a podcast!All of this and more on today's episode of the Cops and Writers podcast.You can find out more about Sara and her books on her website!Check out Field Training (Brew City Blues Book 1)!!Enjoy the Cops and Writer's book series.Please visit the Cops and Writers website.If you have a question for the sarge, hit him up at his email.Join the fun at the Cops and Writers Facebook groupDo you want to write crime stories that are accurate and believable, but lack first-hand experience in law enforcement? Join Cop Camp, the Cops and Writers Interactive Conference, and experience what real police officers and detectives do through hands-on activities this June 1st – the 4th at the Fox Valley police academy in Appleton, Wisconsin. Register now at premeditatedfiction.com/copcamp2023 and take your crime writing to the next level. Do you enjoy gritty, action-packed real-life police dramas to get your fill of blood, heartache, and cop humor, and maybe even a little romance?I have partnered up with Michael Anderle and we have released a new crime fiction series called “Brew City Blues.” If you're a fan of Hill Street Blues, Southland, or Bosch you're going to love Brew City Blues! Brew City Blues is now live! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLR7FX27Support the show

Wait, what? Rambo was named for a...? Today is author David Morrell's 80th birthday. He is best known for creating the Rambo character with his 1972 book First Blood. In this 1990 interview we talk about Rambo -- his origins, his psyche -- and the latest David Morrell book. Get The Fifth Profession Get First Blood You may also enjoy my interviews with Jeffery Deaver and Tom Clancy For more vintage interviews with celebrities, leaders, and influencers, subscribe to Now I've Heard Everything on Spotify, Apple Podcasts. or wherever you listen to podcasts.

0:00 SEG 1 Number 1 international best-selling author, Jeffrey Deaver, talks about his book ‘Hunting Time', Deaver-verse, his writing process, how he dicides which character to write a new book for, and teaching writing courses. https://www.jefferydeaver.com/ 16:10 SEG 2 Jeffery Deaver talks about whether he is allowed to cast his books when they are adapted to film and tv, turning down a dinner with Angelina Jolie, and what it was like writing a James Bond novel. 28:55 SEG 3 Jeffery Deaver (https://twitter.com/JefferyDeaver) talks about what he would do with the James Bond movies now that Daniel Craig is done, owning his own characters, if there is a character he would like to write for, and how he deals with writer's block. Thanks to our sponsors Marcus Theatres (https://www.marcustheatres.com/), Historic St. Charles, Missouri (https://www.discoverstcharles.com/), and Bug's Comics and Games (https://bugscomicsandgames.com/) Amazon Affiliate Link - http://bit.ly/geektome Buy Me a Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/3Y0D2iaZl Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GeekToMeRadio Website - http://geektomeradio.com/ Podcast - https://anchor.fm/jamesenstall Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GeekToMeRadio/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/geektomeradio Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/geektomeradio/ Producer - Joseph Vosevich https://twitter.com/Joey_Vee --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jamesenstall/support

On this week's Corks & Conversation with Jeffery Deaver episode, Christie & Cathi talk with the Master of Ticking-Bomb Suspense about what readers want, serial killers and why plotters have it right. His latest Colter Shaw book, Hunting Time, is a page turner and the new CBS series, Never Game, based on the first in this series is sure to be a hit! With over 40 best-selling novels, Jeff knows his stuff!   Episode Highlights: (06:01) Jeffrey Deaver knows what his readers want! (09:58) It's all about the reader (10:20) Research! (13:40) What's scarier than a serial killer? (16:54) Which would you chose? (26:04) Dear Pantsers (30:13) Writer dodgeball

#PodcastersForJustice #1 international bestselling author of over 40 novels, Jeffery Deaver, returns to rap about his prolific output, an award-winning handbook for mystery writers, and the latest Colter Shaw novel, "Hunting Time." Jeffery Deaver is a former journalist, musician, and attorney best known for his Lincoln Rhyme series – now a hit NBC TV show – and the novel, The Bone Collector, adapted for the big screen starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The "master of suspense" has been nominated for eight Edgar Awards and served two terms as president of Mystery Writers of America, and was recently named a Grand Master of MWA, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark, and Walter Mosely. His latest is Hunting Time (A Colter Shaw Novel), described as "... a riveting thriller, as reward seeker Colter Shaw plunges into the woods and races the clock in a case where nothing is quite what it seems." Kirkus Reviews described the book as "A fleet, irresistible tale." Jeffery has sold over 50 million books worldwide in 150 countries, and been translated into 35 languages. He has also published three collections of short stories. Stay calm and write on ... Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please "Follow" us to automatically see new interviews. In this file Jeffery Deaver and I discussed: Pandemic survival How he finds the solitude of the writing life What it's like to be mentioned in the same breath as Agatha Christie How he keeps his Edgar Award nomination streak alive Why books are better than Netflix How the author structures his novels with questions and conflicts  And a lot more! Show Notes: JefferyDeaver.com How to Write Commercial Fiction with NY Times Bestselling Author Jeffery Deaver Hunting Time (A Colter Shaw Novel) By Jeffery Deaver (Amazon) How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America (Amazon) Jeffery Deaver Amazon author page NaturalReader app Jeffery Deaver on Instagram  Jeffery Deaver on Facebook Jeffery Deaver on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're joined again by Jeffery Deaver for a fun chat all about his new novel Hunting Time, taking Math for Writers in college, speeding, his ill-fated attempt at rock climbing to better understand Colter Shaw, and how all writers are basically nerds. Plus- Dave blows stuff up in front of his students, Laura is feeling … Continue reading Ep. 190 All Writers Are Nerds With Jeffery Deaver

A quick note that this week we're resurfacing Part One of an enlightening chat I had with #1 internationally bestselling author Jeffery Deaver about his process for writing “ticking-time bomb suspense,” near the start of the Pandemic. Next week we are going to catch up with the author for the second part of that interview series with Jeff to talk about his latest novel and a lot more about the writing life. Until then … The #1 internationally bestselling author of over 40 novels, Jeffery Deaver, took a few minutes to discuss his advice on how to write emotionally engaging fiction, the merits of plotters vs. pantsers, and a 5-step process for writing your novel. "Rejection is just a speed bump ... it's not a brick wall. Keep at it." – Jeffery Deaver Jeffery is a former journalist, musician, and attorney best known for his Lincoln Rhyme series – now a hit NBC TV show – and the novel, The Bone Collector, adapted for the big screen starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The "master of suspense" has been nominated for seven Edgar Awards and has gone on to sell 50 million books worldwide, translated into 35 languages. His thriller featured here is a sequel to The Never Game – The Goodbye Man (A Colter Shaw Novel Book 2) – and once again features Colter Shaw, a rugged survivalist and "reward-seeker." One of Bookpage's "Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers" of 2020, Publishers Weekly said of the book, “Deaver balances suspense and plausibility perfectly ... This is a perfect jumping-on point for readers new to one of today's top contemporary thriller writers.” Stay calm and write on ... Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please "Follow" us to automatically see new interviews. In this file Jeffery Deaver and I discussed: Why suspense writers are like airline pilots Wisdom from Joyce Carol Oates and the importance of outlining How having your novel read aloud to you can improve your prose A simple formula for writing "roller-coaster" fiction And much more! Show Notes: JefferyDeaver.com The Goodbye Man (A Colter Shaw Novel) by Jeffery Deaver [Amazon] Jeffery Deaver Amazon author page NaturalReader app Jeffery Deaver on Instagram  Jeffery Deaver on Facebook Jeffery Deaver on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices