"I would say my books are about three quarters research and sort of mining my research, and then one quarter writing," says Hampton Sides, author of several New York Times bestselling works of narrative history, including his latest, now in paperback, The Wide Wide Sea. It's published by Doubleday.

So Hampton was great. There was a moment halfway through where my dogs got to barking, then howling, which made me give them a stern talkin’ to. I think I edited that out. I should have. Hope I did. I can tolerate a little barking in the background, but the howling is obnoxious. Hampton got a laugh out of all of it … He’s the author of eight books including In the Kingdom of Ice, Hellhound on his Trail, and Ghost Soldiers.

Here we talk about:

• How he found his lane of book writing
• Of transitioning from a journalist to a popular historian
• Finding the frame
• Writing in coffee shops
• Running to the computer in the middle of the night
• And an April Fool’s Day joke gone horribly wrong

Learn more about Hampton at hamptonsides.com and follow him on the gram @hamptonsidesauthor.

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com