Bell Cow Productions: Podcasts

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable variety, and the kind of audience energy you only get when book people gather in a room together. Minnesota Mystery Night describes itself as a live, meet-the-author event featuring mystery and thriller writers in conversation with intriguing guests, held on the third Monday of each month in Mendota, Minnesota.

These Bell Cow encore presentations preserve those live conversations and give them a second life beyond the room. They also connect to Masters of Mystery Radio Hour, the broadcast version of Minnesota Mystery Night, which is recorded live at the event and carried on radio stations in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including KRWC-AM, AM950/KTNF, KTOE, KLTF, KCCR, KKBJ, KWNO, WWIS, and KJAM. Bell Cow Productions, meanwhile, exists to support writers through podcasts, resources, and behind-the-scenes literary conversation, which makes this series a natural fit for the herd.

Originally recorded 4/21/2025 at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota, Minnesota: forensic psychologist and true-crime novelist Frank F. Weber sits down with historical crime writer Betty Brandt Passick for an evening of lively conversation recorded before a Minnesota Mystery Night audience. This episode brings together two authors who draw from real crimes, historical records, community memories, and extensive research to construct stories in which fact and fiction are never very far apart. Bell Cow is proud to give the evening an encore presentation, with the conversation also living on through Masters of Mystery Radio Hour.

Frank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist and Minnesota true-crime author whose novels draw inspiration from real cases. His books include The I-94 Murders, The Haunted House of Hillman, Scandal of Vandals, and Heartbreak Hollow.

https://www.frankweberauthor.com

Betty Brandt Passick is a multi-award-winning author whose historical crime novels include Gangster in Our Midst and The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse. Her gangster series was inspired by the remarkable, fact-based story of a Chicago mobster who settled in her small Iowa hometown.

https://bettybrandtpassick.com

Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Minnesota Mystery Night: https://www.mnmysterynight.com

Masters of Mystery Radio Hour: https://www.mnmysterynight.com/mmrh

#MysteryConversations #MinnesotaMysteryNight #FrankFWeber

Welcome to Bookstore Grazing, a Bell Cow Productions podcast where hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride go beyond the bookshelves to get to know the independent bookstores—and the people behind them—that help make the literary community work.

Every bookstore has a story. How did it get started? What earns a place on the shelves? How do booksellers decide what to recommend, work with local authors, create events, and build a community around books? Bookstore Grazing visits bookstores for casual conversations about their history, their customers, the books they love, and the things readers and authors might never see from the other side of the counter.

In this episode, we’re grazing our way to Fort Dodge, Iowa, where Cori joins Rob and Michael from Green Dragon Bookshop—currently Iowa’s tiniest bookstore at just about 300 square feet. After years of dreaming about owning a bookstore, Cori left a career in project management and put her MBA to work after the pandemic convinced her it was finally time to give that dream a chance. She signed for the space in February 2022 and opened Green Dragon just four months later.

With only enough room for roughly 2,000 to 3,000 books, every inch of shelf space matters. Cori shares the formula she now uses to curate the store: about 30 percent classics and genre foundations, 30 percent current popular titles, 30 percent new releases—and 10 percent whatever she thinks deserves a chance. We talk about her philosophy of balancing dependable “rocks” with more adventurous “reaches,” how customers helped Green Dragon expand from its original science-fiction and fantasy focus into horror, mystery and romance, and why some of the most valuable bookselling lessons have come directly from the readers who walk through the door.

But Green Dragon’s reach extends far beyond its tiny footprint. Cori is also the creator of the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour, which began in 2024 after she realized the nearest independent bookstores to Fort Dodge were more than an hour away. Her solution? Instead of creating a local bookstore crawl, make the entire state the crawl. The first tour included 35 bookstores, grew to 45 in its second year, and reached 62 participating shops in 2026. Thousands of readers now travel around Iowa collecting passport stamps, playing bookstore bingo and, this year, even gathering clues to solve a bookstore murder mystery.

And, of course, we talk books. Cori explains why she loves the rise of cozy fantasy, LitRPG, feminine rage and “weird girl fiction,” how *Dungeon Crawler Carl* has helped bring some readers back to books, why Legends & Lattes is such a useful gateway into fantasy, and how Green Dragon deliberately looks for unique voices and books readers may not already know. We also peek behind the shelves—literally—to discover Green Dragon’s hidden backstock and hear how Cori brings signed books home from conventions and literary events for readers in Fort Dodge who might not otherwise get the opportunity to meet those authors.

And Green Dragon won’t be Iowa’s tiniest bookstore much longer. After waiting about two years for the right space, Cori reveals that the shop is preparing to move into a larger location just a block or so away in Fort Dodge, with the move planned for 2027.

Visit Green Dragon Bookshop: https://www.thegreendragonbookshop.com/

Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Please follow, subscribe, like, and share. And, if you're a bookstore who wants to be featured, drop us a line. We'd love to chat.

#BookstoreGrazing #BellCowProductions #GreenDragonBookshop #FortDodgeIowa #IowaIndieBookshopTour #IndependentBookstore #IndieBookstore #ShopLocal #SupportIndependentBookstores #FantasyBooks #ScienceFictionBooks #HorrorBooks #BookPodcast #BookTube #IowaBooks #Booksellers #ReadingCommunity

🐮 Welcome to Bell Cow Book Club, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride read along with the herd and then sit down for a live, unscripted conversation about books worth talking about. No edits. No safety net. No second take. Just two readers, one book, and wherever the conversation takes us.

📖 This month, we’re discussing The Crying Killer by Minnesota author Jess Lourey, a dark, true-crime-inspired thriller rooted in the Twin Cities and the real-life legend of Minnesota’s Weepy-Voiced Killer.

The story moves between 1986 and 1995, following former police officer turned private investigator Tuesday Kenn, who has spent years trying to escape the violence of her past. When murders begin echoing the crimes of a killer everyone believes died years earlier, Tuesday becomes convinced that the past isn’t nearly as buried as everyone thinks.

But The Crying Killer is also a story built around memory, trauma, identity, family, and the question of whether Tuesday—and the reader—can trust what she thinks she knows.

Rob and Michael dig into Lourey’s use of Minnesota setting and true-crime inspiration, the shifting timelines, the friendship at the heart of the story, Tuesday’s relationship with Julia, and the increasingly complicated question of who is actually telling the truth.

And then there are the twists.

A lot of them.

We talk about which revelations genuinely surprised us, which ones felt earned, and whether there comes a point where adding another twist can actually lessen the impact of the one before it.

🔎 Does the book play fair with its biggest reveals?

👻 Does one particular late-book twist deepen the story—or change the rules too late?

🧩 Does the final identity of the Crying Killer work better thematically than it does as a mystery solution?

👩‍👧 And when protecting someone requires building their life around a lie, how long can that lie still be justified?

We also talk about the difference between admiring the construction of a thriller and actually loving the reading experience—and why disagreement between readers can sometimes make for the best book-club conversation.

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: Bell Cow Book Club is a true book-club conversation. We discuss the entire novel, including Tuesday’s identity, Nic, Arsen, the Crying Killer, major deaths, clues, twists, and the ending. Read The Crying Killer first if you want to experience the story without spoilers.

🐮 Learn more about Bell Cow Productions at: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

And you can find out more about Jess Lourey, all her books, and what's coming next on her webpage here: https://jessicalourey.com/

📺 Follow Bell Cow Productions and join future Bell Cow Book Club conversations live:

https://www.youtube.com/@BellCowProductions/streams

#BellCowBookClub #BellCowProductions #JessLourey #TheCryingKiller #ThrillerBooks #MysteryBooks #MinnesotaAuthors #MinnesotaMystery #TrueCrimeInspired #BookTube #BookClub #BookPodcast #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

Today we’re joined by Minnesota author Skye Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about writing, historical research, and his mystery thriller Long Lost Midwife.

Skye spent much of his professional career as a mechanical designer, using computer-aided design to visualize and build complex industrial machines. Now he brings that same visual approach to fiction, creating the kind of writing readers have described as cinematic. We talk about his path to becoming a writer, the decade he spent moderating the Plymouth Writers Group, and the long process of learning how to turn an idea into a finished novel.

Much of our conversation centers on Long Lost Midwife, set in 1930s St. Louis and following Pamela, a young white socialite determined to find Miss Minnie, the Black midwife who delivered her more than two decades earlier. What began as backstory for another novel grew into a four-and-a-half-year research project exploring race, class, motherhood, midwifery, and the complicated relationship between Pamela and Miss Minnie, eventually developing into a historical mystery with a substantial police-procedural element.

We also dig into Skye’s influences, from Donna Tartt and Allan Folsom to August Wilson, Jessica Lange, and Viola Davis; how he approaches historical characters whose lives are far removed from his own; why going to the gym can solve a stubborn plot problem; and why he writes every day, even if it’s only a page. Plus, we get a preview of his next mystery thriller, The Lake Tower, a decidedly creepy Twin Cities-set novel expected in early 2027, with a sequel already written and a third installment underway.

Author website: https://www.skyesmith-author.com/

You can find out more about your hosts, Rob and Michael, at their webpages:

https://robjungwriter.com/

https://www.michaelmacbride.com

And, of course, you can find everything about Bell Cow at the official webpage: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

(🐮 -- moo!)

#BellCowProductions #BellCowAuthorRoundUp #SkyeSmith #LongLostMidwife #HistoricalFiction #MysteryThriller #HistoricalMystery #MinnesotaAuthors #IndieAuthors #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable variety, and the kind of audience energy you only get when book people gather in a room together. Minnesota Mystery Night describes itself as a live, meet-the-author event featuring mystery and thriller writers in conversation with intriguing guests, held on the third Monday of each month in Mendota, Minnesota.

These Bell Cow encore presentations preserve those live conversations and give them a second life beyond the room. They also connect to Masters of Mystery Radio Hour, the broadcast version of Minnesota Mystery Night, which is recorded live at the event and carried on radio stations in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including KRWC-AM, AM950/KTNF, KTOE, KLTF, KCCR, KKBJ, KWNO, WWIS, and KJAM. Bell Cow Productions, meanwhile, exists to support writers through podcasts, resources, and behind-the-scenes literary conversation, which makes this series a natural fit for the herd.

Originally recorded July 20, 2026, at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota, Minnesota.

Military-thriller coauthors David Bruns and J.R. Olson sit down with former CIA officer and mystery writer Carmen Amato for a conversation about turning real-world experience into compelling fiction. They discuss the partnership behind their national-security thrillers, the research and technical detail that make military stories believable, and the challenge of creating fictional crises that feel unsettlingly plausible.

With experience spanning submarine service, naval intelligence, the CIA, international affairs, and corporate life, the three writers bring an unusually informed perspective to questions of espionage, military operations, global threats, and the line between authenticity and revealing too much.

David Bruns and J.R. Olson are the writing team behind contemporary national-security thrillers, including the Third Option series. Bruns is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and corporate executive, while Olson served as a naval intelligence officer and CIA-trained case officer.

https://www.bruns-olson.com

Carmen Amato spent 30 years with the CIA and is the author of the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, which follows Acapulco’s first female police detective through investigations shaped by corruption, violence, and conflicting loyalties.

https://carmenamato.net

Enjoy the conversation? Please like this episode, subscribe to the Bell Cow Productions YouTube channel, and follow Bell Cow Productions on Facebook so you never miss another conversation from the herd.

Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Minnesota Mystery Night: https://www.mnmysterynight.com

Masters of Mystery Radio Hour: https://www.mnmysterynight.com/mmrh

#MysteryConversations #MinnesotaMysteryNight #DavidBruns #JROlson #CarmenAmato #MilitaryThrillers #EspionageFiction #ThrillerWriters #BellCowProductions

In this episode of Beyond the Pasture, Bell Cow Productions hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with M. A. Monnin, Air Force veteran, avocational archaeologist, and Agatha Award-nominated mystery author, to talk about her Intrepid Traveler Mysteries and the newest adventure for Stefanie Adams and Thomas Burkhardt, Death in Luxor.

For Monnin, setting a mystery somewhere exotic means more than pulling up photographs and doing research online. She travels to the places she writes about. From Greece and Venice to Bermuda and Egypt, she wants to experience the details that are difficult to discover secondhand: what a place feels like, how people move through it, what surprises a visitor, and even whether Venice’s canals actually smell the way everyone claims they do.

That firsthand experience takes center stage in Death in Luxor, the fourth Intrepid Traveler Mystery. Stefanie is finally becoming an official part of the Artifact Retrieval Team when anonymous threats against the “gold of the pharaohs” send her and Thomas to Egypt. When someone is murdered and a priceless relic disappears, their investigation follows a collection of Egypt-obsessed suspects up the Nile, through temples and tombs, and into a mystery built around the enduring fascination with ancient Egypt.

Monnin talks about visiting Egypt in 2022, seeing the pyramids rise almost abruptly beyond modern Cairo, exploring temples and tombs, riding a camel at Giza, and visiting Abu Simbel, where an extraordinary international preservation effort saved the ancient temples from the rising waters created by the Aswan High Dam. She also explains how an exhibition devoted to Queen Nefertari helped inspire Death in Luxor and how her research into Nefertari’s tomb, conservation, and antiquities trafficking fed directly into the story.

We also dig into the authors who helped shape Monnin’s approach to mystery writing. She embraces the Agatha Christie comparison, particularly Christie’s willingness to trust readers enough to place clues without drawing circles around them. Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody novels showed her something else: a romantic couple can actually remain together and still be interesting. That philosophy carries into Stefanie and Thomas, whose relationship continues alongside the mysteries rather than being perpetually pulled apart to manufacture romantic tension.

And there’s plenty beyond the novels. Monnin talks about being a dedicated plotter, sometimes spending months working out a story before drafting; writing tightly constructed short fiction featuring retired Air Force investigator Michael St. Killian and time-traveling troubleshooter Hawk Hathaway; growing up listening to classic radio mystery dramas; and the childhood in Germany that first sparked her fascination with archaeology, castles, Roman ruins, and the physical remnants of the past.

🐮 Beyond the Pasture is Bell Cow Productions’ author-centered conversation series for voices from across the literary landscape. Hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride talk with writers about who they are, where they come from, what shaped their books, and what readers will discover once they open the cover.

📚 Learn more about M. A. Monnin and her books: https://www.mamonnin.com/

🎙️ Connect with the hosts:

Rob Jung: robjungwriter.com

Michael David MacBride: https://www.michaelmacbride.com

🐮 Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Subscribe, like, follow, and come wander Beyond the Pasture with us.

#BeyondThePasture #BellCowProductions #MAMonnin #DeathInLuxor #IntrepidTravelerMysteries #MysteryBooks #MysteryAuthor #Archaeology #AncientEgypt #Egypt #QueenNefertari #ArtifactTheft #AgathaChristie #TravelMystery #TraditionalMystery #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #BookTube #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

🚨 What happens when a geopolitical thriller turns one of the genre’s most familiar assumptions upside down?

In this episode of Beyond the Pasture, Bell Cow Productions hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with author and longtime corporate lawyer A. Marc Ross to talk about his novels The Conscripted Extremist and Attacking the Dragon, the real-world experiences that inspired them, and his journey from Stanford Law School and corporate practice back to the writing career he first considered decades ago.

Attacking the Dragon takes a different approach to the familiar U.S.-China thriller. Instead of casting China as the aggressor, Ross makes China the target. An unknown terrorist group launches attacks designed to undermine China’s global expansion, drawing American businessman Wes Robertson and U.S. Ambassador Maria Braga into an international hunt for the people responsible.

Ross drew on years of business travel throughout China, including visits to Beijing, Shanghai, and cities well beyond the places most Western travelers see. His conversations with Chinese lawyers, accountants, executives, and everyday people helped give him the foundation for a thriller built around China’s global relationships and its massive Belt and Road Initiative. The facts provide the framework. Then, as Ross explains, fiction asks what might happen if someone decided to attack that framework.

The conversation also ranges back to Ross’s first novel, The Conscripted Extremist, in which a New York lawyer is coerced by government agents into infiltrating left-wing activists while trying to figure out who is actually working for whom. Ross talks about trying to write political thrillers without simply choosing a political team, why disguises and competing agendas fascinate him, and the G.K. Chesterton novel that helped plant the seed for the story.

And Ross’s path to becoming a novelist may be nearly as interesting as the books themselves. He published a science-fiction story in Galaxy while still in school, seriously considered becoming a writer in college, chose law instead, and finally returned to fiction when the pandemic slowed life down enough to give him the opportunity. Along the way, we talk about the realities of publishing, pitching agents at ThrillerFest, marketing books as an independent or small-press author, the surprising importance of reader reviews, works currently in progress, and even the story of how Ross wound up appearing with Conan O’Brien.

🐮 Beyond the Pasture is Bell Cow Productions’ author-centered conversation series for voices from across the literary landscape. Hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride talk with writers about who they are, where they come from, what shaped their books, and what readers will discover once they open the cover.

📖 Learn more about A. Marc Ross: https://www.amarcross.com/

🎙️ Connect with the hosts:

Rob Jung: https://robjungwriter.com/

Michael David MacBride: https://www.michaelmacbride.com/

🐮 Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com/

Subscribe, like, follow, and come wander Beyond the Pasture with us.

#BeyondThePasture #BellCowProductions #AMarcRoss #AttackingTheDragon #TheConscriptedExtremist #GeopoliticalThriller #PoliticalThriller #ThrillerBooks #China #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #BookTube #WritingCommunity #WritersOfYouTube #AuthorConversation #ThrillerWriters #WritingLife #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

Welcome to Bookstore Grazing, a Bell Cow Productions podcast where hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride go beyond the bookshelves to get to know the independent bookstores—and the people behind them—that help make the literary community work.

Every bookstore has a story. How did it get started? What earns a place on the shelves? How do booksellers decide what to recommend, work with local authors, create events, and build a community around books? Bookstore Grazing visits bookstores for casual conversations about their history, their customers, the books they love, and the things readers and authors might never see from the other side of the counter.

In this episode, we’re grazing our way to Dragon Tale Books in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where owner Ann Vogl joins Rob and Michael to talk about the five-year journey that took her from wondering whether she could run a bookstore to finally taking the plunge. With a background in both accounting and library science, Ann purchased the inventory and fixtures from longtime Menomonie bookstore Bookends on Main in 2022 and transformed it into Dragon Tale Books—a cozy independent shop carrying new and used books across genres and for readers of all ages.

Ann takes us behind the counter to talk about some of the decisions readers rarely see: figuring out which books people will actually want, judging how many copies of a major new release to order, deciding when books have occupied precious shelf space long enough, and balancing national bestsellers with local and independently published authors. We also talk about what author events really look like in a smaller community, why a Saturday signing can sometimes work better than a formal reading, and the challenges self-published authors face when their books aren’t readily available through traditional bookstore distribution.

We also explore Ann’s unusual perspective as both a librarian and a bookseller, including the surprisingly big difference between handing someone a library book and asking them to buy one. She shares how Dragon Tale continues to work alongside local libraries, why UW-Stout students help shape what sells in the store, and how book clubs, author visits, downtown events, and even an annual dragon hunt have helped make the bookstore part of the larger Menomonie community.

And, of course, we talk books. Ann shares what’s moving off the shelves, why classic literature remains one of her favorite sections, what she’s been reading and listening to lately, and which kinds of books she wishes readers would give a little more love. We also hear about the remarkably supportive network among independent bookstores, where owners trade ideas, organize regional and statewide bookstore crawls, and help one another figure out what works.

Visit Dragon Tale Books: https://dragontalebooks.store/

Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Please follow, subscribe, like, and share. And, if you're a bookstore who wants to be featured, drop us a line. We'd love to chat.

#BookstoreGrazing #BellCowProductions #DragonTaleBooks #MenomonieWisconsin #WisconsinBooks #IndependentBookstore #IndieBookstore #ShopLocal #SupportIndependentBookstores #BookPodcast #BookTube #Booksellers #LocalAuthors #ReadingCommunity #UWStout

Welcome to Bookstore Grazing, a Bell Cow Productions podcast where hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride go beyond the bookshelves to get to know the independent bookstores—and the people behind them—that help make the literary community work.

Every bookstore has a story. How did it get started? What earns a place on the shelves? How do booksellers decide what to recommend, work with local authors, create events, and build a community around books? Bookstore Grazing visits bookstores for casual conversations about their history, their customers, the books they love, and the things readers and authors might never see from the other side of the counter.

In this episode, we’re grazing our way to Warrensburg, Missouri, where Woods Prael joins Rob and Michael to share the story behind Gunzil & Bowser Children’s Bookstore, a wonderfully eclectic shop where childhood memories, vintage toys, and carefully chosen books come together. Nearly five years after opening his doors, Woods has created something that goes well beyond selling books: a place where adults can reconnect with their childhoods and children can discover the stories that may stay with them for a lifetime.

Woods shares how a building originally intended for his wife’s art shop became a children’s bookstore, why he named it after an unpublished book written by his father in 1978, and how his brother recently completed that book nearly five decades later. We also explore the realities of running an independent bookstore in a community where other bookstores have struggled to survive, the challenges of attracting customers, and why Woods continues to invest his time and energy into a business that has never been about making money.

And, of course, we talk books. Woods explains how he selects titles based on their storytelling, artwork, and ability to create lasting memories. From beloved childhood classics and surprisingly dark picture books to an entire section devoted to children’s horror, Gunzil & Bowser offers plenty of surprises. We also discuss how Woods helps customers find the right books for the children in their lives, why he believes the person doing the reading matters just as much as the child listening, and how a vintage Fisher-Price toy once brought a grown man nearly to tears.

Along the way, we talk about supporting local authors, hosting children’s read-aloud events, participating in Missouri’s statewide bookstore tour, and Woods’s local radio program featuring children’s stories and vintage country music. Through it all, Woods reminds us that the magic of a bookstore isn’t necessarily in the books themselves, but in the memories, relationships, and connections we build around them.

Visit Gunzil & Bowser Children’s Bookstore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Gunzil-Bowser-Childrens-Bookstore-LLC/61590991623138/

or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gunzilandbowserchildrensbooks/

or Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/gunzilandbowserbooks

Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Please follow, subscribe, like, and share. And, if you're a bookstore who wants to be featured, drop us a line. We'd love to chat.

#BookstoreGrazing #BellCowProductions #GunzilAndBowser #WarrensburgMissouri #IndependentBookstore #IndieBookstore #ChildrensBooks #ChildrensBookstore #ShopLocal #SupportIndependentBookstores #BookPodcast #BookTube #MissouriBooks #Booksellers #ReadingCommunity #ChildrensLiterature

Author John Winn Miller joins Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride on Beyond the Pasture for a wide-ranging conversation about World War II espionage, investigative journalism, filmmaking, historical research, and his newest thriller, MIRIAM IN THE SHADOWS. John has had the kind of career that almost sounds fictional itself: foreign correspondent, investigative reporter, newspaper editor and publisher, screenwriter, film producer, and now award-winning novelist. In 2026, he was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

In this episode, John talks about how a dream became the screenplay that eventually launched his Peggy C Saga; why he considers himself a “pantser” rather than an outliner; and the obsessive research that goes into making his historical fiction feel authentic. Along the way, we get into Ian Fleming’s surprising career in British Naval Intelligence, carrier pigeons used during World War II, the challenge of turning screenplays into novels, his Pulitzer Prize-finalist investigative reporting in Kentucky, and his experiences producing independent films. John also gives us an early look at the fourth Peggy C novel, tentatively titled A WILDERNESS OF RATS.

MIRIAM IN THE SHADOWS, the third book in the Peggy C Saga, follows Miriam Maduro, a Dutch-Jewish woman turned lethal British SOE agent, as she infiltrates a secret Nazi weapons facility in northern France just before D-Day. Her mission becomes an impossible choice between stopping a threat that could alter the course of the war and saving the man she loves. As John explains, some of the most unbelievable events in his novels are often the ones most closely rooted in actual history.

Learn more about John Winn Miller: https://www.johnwinnmiller.com/

Learn more about MIRIAM IN THE SHADOWS and the Peggy C Saga: https://www.johnwinnmiller.com/

Explore Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Learn more about Beyond the Pasture and the Bell Cow podcast network: https://www.bellcowproductions.com/podcasts

Subscribe to Bell Cow Productions for more conversations with authors, storytellers, publishers, and literary voices from inside and beyond the pasture.

#JohnWinnMiller #MiriamInTheShadows #BeyondThePasture #BellCowProductions #AuthorInterview #HistoricalFiction #WWIIFiction #EspionageThriller #HistoricalThriller #PeggyCSaga #WritingLife #BookTube