What does writing feel like when it's actually working? Not the grinding, forcing, staring at the screen version. The other kind, where you're not even really writing anymore, just trying to keep up with your fingers because something is coming through you.

Jon Lindstrom is a four-time Emmy nominated actor, filmmaker, and USA Today bestselling author of Hollywood Hustle and Hollywood Payback. In this episode, he breaks down how stepping away from the camera and into novels unlocked a freedom that acting and screenwriting never could.

We also get into the real people behind Jake Ferguson in Hollywood Payback, what it took to write the past timeline of the book, why he went to a hotel room in Savannah for five days to dig deeper, and what broken dreams in Hollywood taught him about building a character worth caring about.

Jon Lindstrom's book Hollywood Payback: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/803639/hollywood-payback-by-jon-lindstrom/9798892425094

Follow Jon Lindstrom online: https://www.jonlindstrom.com/writer

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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Brittany Butler spent 10 years as a CIA targeting officer running spies in the Middle East and war zones. Now she writes espionage thrillers for Crooked Lane Books and the operational world she lived in shows up on every page.

In this episode Brittany breaks down how she builds characters using goals, motivations, and conflicts before writing a single scene, how she balances three interlocking plot lines without losing the reader, and how she transfers the real psychological cost of espionage work onto the page. She also talks about the moral weight of running sources she couldn't always protect, and the moment she knew it was time to leave the CIA.

Brittany Butler's book The Patriot's Daughter: https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Daughter-Novel-Brittany-Butler/dp/B0FJDHLKRN

Follow Brittany Butler online: https://www.instagram.com/brittanybutlerbooks/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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Michael J. Lalonde spent 23 years as a Canadian Army intelligence officer before writing The Quiet War: Canadian Front, a modern military thriller built around Canada's tier one special forces unit, JTF Two.

In this episode we get into how he built a story where the heroes are winning every engagement and losing the war without knowing it, why the villain targets Canada before the United States, what the "every day is selection" culture of special forces does to the people inside it, and where realism and story collide and why story has to win.

Michael J. Lalonde's book Canadian Front: https://books2read.com/u/3kJk2N

Follow Michael J. Lalonde online: https://www.michaeljlalonde.com/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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Cam Torrens is a retired Air Force C-130 pilot, active search and rescue volunteer, and author of Havoc, book five in the Tyler Zan series. His first two books never got picked up. His third did. Then he went back and got the first one published as a prequel. Every book in the series starts with a real SAR mission or a real location where one happened.

In this episode we talk about the dual timeline that saved Havoc, the duty vs. family conflict at the heart of the book, and why if you've published your first or second book you should already be writing your third.

Cam Torrens book Havoc: Buy on Amazon

Follow Cam online: https://camtorrens.com/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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What does it actually mean to write what you know? For Mark P.J. Nadon, it meant embedding the parts of himself he doesn't talk about into the characters at the heart of his new psychological tech thriller, The Treatment Room.

In this episode, TD Severin, author of the award-winning medical thriller Deadly Vision, takes over the show to interview Mark on launch day about the craft, the characters, and the personal experiences that shaped the book.

They dig into writing two POVs that sound nothing alike, why the second half of every book throws out the outline, how to write trauma without tipping into melodrama, and what it feels like to release a book that has pieces of yourself in it.

Mark P.J. Nadon's book The Treatment Room: https://mybook.to/thetreatmentroom

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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A phone call dropped Luke Richardson into a story he couldn’t ignore. An ancient manuscript lost for thousands of years. A British Museum dig in Lebanon. An archaeologist who faked his own death to smuggle out clay tablets.

That call became The Ark Files, the first book in his eight-book Eden Black archaeological thriller series.

We get into how that real story shaped the novel, how he turns setting into part of the action instead of slowing it down, and what it actually took to walk away from teaching and write thrillers full time.

Luke Richardson's book The Ark Files: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2PS8NC6

Follow Luke online: https://www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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James Rosenberg is a Pittsburgh attorney and author of the Verdicts and Vindication series, legal thrillers pulled directly from cases he has handled. Unclean Hands is based on the most nerve-wracking trial of his career: defending the store employees who accidentally killed a man they were detaining for shoplifting. We get into how he builds thriller pacing around a full courtroom proceeding, why a case with no clear right answer makes for the most compelling fiction, the pressure that eats at trial lawyers even when the cameras aren't rolling, and how real people from the actual trial ended up fictionalized in the book.

James Rosenberg's book Unclean Hands: https://a.co/d/0fjOwMzd

Follow James online: https://jamesrosenberglegalthrillers.com/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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Robert Adamcik is a Navy veteran and defense contractor who writes spy thrillers populated with real people, coworkers, shipmates, and friends, by name and by personality.

We talk about his Martini Squad series and the second book The Wave Force Affair, how he approaches getting permission before putting someone in a novel, and what happens when a character based on a real colleague doesn't make it out alive.

If you write fiction and have ever wondered how far you can take real people and real experiences in your storytelling, this is a conversation worth hearing.

Robert Adamcik's book The WaveForce Affair: https://a.co/d/0cEQQN9T

Follow Robert online: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552185593381

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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What do you do when your characters are trapped at 30,000 feet with nowhere to go? Susan Walter wrote a locked room murder mystery on a plane and had to figure out how to keep it moving when everyone is literally buckled in.

In this episode we talk about her writing process, how she went from screenwriter and movie director to bestselling novelist, her brilliant character naming tricks taken from Hollywood, and the lesson her dad taught her about never taking no for an answer that has shaped her entire career.

Susan Walter's book Murder at 30,000 Feet: https://a.co/d/04tyglhl

Follow Susan online: https://www.susanwalterwriter.com/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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35-book veteran Brian Drake joins Mark P.J. Nadon to reveal a brutal industry truth: If you aren't publishing fast, the algorithm will forget you. In this episode, we deconstruct how Brian maintains a prolific pace and why he uses a manual typewriter for his first draft.

Inside the Episode:

The 90-Day Churn: The modern algorithm requires high-volume production to stay visible to readers.

The Typewriter Strategy: How Brian uses a manual typewriter to write his first draft

Character Mastery: Moving past "flat" characters to create stakes that actually make readers care.

Technical Research: How Brian researched nuclear security for The Murder Mind.

Brian Drake's book The Murder Mind: https://a.co/d/8nPvNqG

Follow Brian Drake online: https://briandrakebooks.com/about/

Join the After Show on Patreon and get early access to episodes, bonus after-show segments with guests, and my free novella Cognitive Breach. You’ll also be able to support the show and help me keep bringing on great thriller authors.

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