Writers, Ink: Your backstage pass to the world's most prolific authors

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about TV writing jobs, book subscription services, and Meta. Then, stick around for a chat with Nat Cassidy!

Nat Cassidy writes horror for the page, stage, and screen.

His acclaimed novels, including Mary: An Awakening of Terror,Nestlings, and Rest Stop (Bram Stoker Award nominee), have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, NPR, the Chicago Review of Books, the NY Public Library, Amazon, and more, and he was named one of the "writers shaping horror’s next golden age" by Esquire.

His award-winning horror plays have been produced throughout New York City and across the United States. He won the NY Innovative Theatre Award for his one-man show about H. P. Lovecraft, another for his play about Caligula, and was commissioned by the Kennedy Center to write the libretto for a short opera (about the end of the world, of course). 

From 2020 - 2023, Nat was the scriptwriter for Shakespeare Theatre of DC's annual WILL ON THE HILL event, a comedy fundraiser about Shakespeare and politics featuring a star-studded cast of journalists, members of Congress, ambassadors, and veteran actors. With WILL ON THE HILL, Nat's scripts helped raise over a million dollars for arts education. 

You've also maybe seen Nat on your TV, playing various Bad Guys of the Week on shows such as Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Bull, Quantico, FBI, and many others. Additionally, Nat is commercial voiceover actor and a member of the audiodrama production company, Gideon Media, which produced hit sci-fi podcasts such as Steal the Stars and Give Me Away, as well as the authorized audiodrama adaptations of the Paramount Pictures classic, Witness, and Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner. Nat authored the novelization of Steal the Stars, published by Tor Books and named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR. 

He lives in New York City with his wife.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Inkitt, Publishers Weekly, and Eric Smith. Then, stick around for a chat with Alan Lastufka!

Alan Lastufka is a Hoffer Award-winning author and the owner of Shortwave, an independent small press. He writes horror, supernatural, and magical realism stories.

His debut novel, Face the Night, received a starred Kirkus review, was a finalist for Best New Horror Novel at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and won the 2022 Hoffer Award for Best Commercial Fiction. It was also listed as one of the 100 Best Indie Books of the Year by Kirkus.

When he’s not writing, or recording with his band, The Caulden Road, Alan enjoys walking through Oregon’s beautiful woods with his partner, Kris.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about James Patterson and MrBeast, NaNoWriMo, and Ingram's MediaScout. Then, stick around for a chat with DP Lyle!

DP Lyle, MD is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning; and Edgar (2), Shamus, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, Silver Falchion, USA Today Best Book Award (2), and Foreward INDIES Book of the Year nominated author of 25 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the SAMANTHA CODY, DUB WALKER, JAKE LONGLY, and CAIN/HARPER thriller series, and the ROYAL PAINS media tie-in novels.

His forensic science books (FORENSICS FOR DUMMIES, HOWDUNNIT:FORENSICS) and his very popular Q&A Series (MURDER AND MAYHEM, FORENSICS AND FICTION, MORE FORENSICS AND FICTION) are published worldwide.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Simon & Schuster, Bill Bryson, and The Hunger Games. Then, stick around for a chat with Adam Nevill!

ADAM L. G. NEVILL was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is an author of horror fiction. Of his novels, The Ritual, Last Days, No One Gets Out Alive and The Reddening were all winners of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. He has also published three collections of short stories, with Some Will Not Sleep winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, 2017.
 
Imaginarium adapted The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive into feature films and more of his work is currently in development for the screen.
 
The author lives in Devon, England. 

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, and Jena Brown as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Oracle, TikTok, the Slush Pile, and LibGen. Then, stick around for a chat with John Scalzi!

John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Netgalley, ChatGPT, and Spotify. Then, stick around for a chat with Stephen Graham Jones!

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of 35 or so books, +350 stories, some comic books, and all this stuff here. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, and has a few broken-down old trucks, one PhD, and way too many boots. More here.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about AAP sales, London Book Fair 2025, and nonfiction paperbacks. Then, stick around for a chat with Marshall Karp!

Marshall Karp - I was born in New York City on June 4 in one of those old-timey years before they invented color TV.

I was always a writer—letters, parody songs, stories, skits, fun stuff—but I had no idea I could make a living at it, so I entered Rutgers with a grand plan. I was going to be a dentist.

Me—a man with all the manual dexterity of a drunken monkey—a dentist. Fortunately the universe intervened. I flunked freshman biology. So I started writing for the school newspaper.

After college I fell into advertising. My girlfriend at the time was a copywriter at an ad agency, and I figured, that sounds cool. So much for career planning.

Short version of that 20-year career—I was very successful, but in advertising, the punishment for being a good writer is to promote you and tell you not to write. Before long I had a big title, a big office, and I supervised a hundred people. I was the boss, and all I could think was, “is this all there is?”

So I started writing at night. The short version of the next twenty years is that I wrote a play, did a stint in Hollywood writing sitcoms, wrote and produced a feature film, returned to advertising and caught the dotcom wave, and finally the ultimate writer’s dream, these books.

I recently wrote about that twenty-year journey on quora.com in response to the question What is the single insight that most changed your life? When the post got tens of thousands of views, I sensed I’d hit a nerve. When it hit a million, I realized I’d struck the mother lode.

On a personal note, I’m married, with a son, a daughter, a grandson, and a dog. I live a hundred miles north of New York City in a small town in the mid-Hudson Valley. I love what I do, and I’m grateful for the feedback I get when I do it.

And like I said at the top, it’s been a great life so far.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about ElevenLabs, Spotify's AI Audiobooks, and publishing cyber attacks. Then, stick around for a chat with Steve Berry!

Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of twenty-four novels. His books have been translated into 41 languages with over 25,000,000 copies in 52 countries. They consistently appear in the top echelon of The New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller lists. Somewhere in the world, every thirty seconds, one of his novels is sold.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Kindle, Yorkies, and James Bond. Then, stick around for a chat with Adrian Tchaikovsky!

AdrianTchaikovsky was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading before becoming a professional author in 2007. He is a keen role-player and board gamer and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

Adrian primarily explores deep themes, such as artificial intelligence and alien awareness within epic galactic and fantastical settings.

He has a deep interest in the animal world specifically insects from his studies in Zoology and has a particular penchant for spiders.

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Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Faber, The Big Five, and Stephen King. Then, stick around for a chat with D.J. Williams!

D.J. Williams - With the DNA of a world traveler, D.J. Williams was born and raised in Hong Kong, igniting an adventurous spirit as he ventured into the jungles of the Amazon, the bush of Africa, and the slums of the Far East. His global travels have submerged him in a myriad of cultures, providing a unique perspective that fuels his creativity.

As a fresh voice in mystery, suspense, and YA fantasy, his novels have climbed the charts ranking as high as #1 on Amazon Hot New Releases. His books The Auctioneer and Hunt For Eden’s Star have received stellar reviews from Kirkus Reviews, the most trusted voice in book discovery. Williams has also been featured in Publishers Weekly and Writer's Digest.

With the launch of his latest YA series, Beacon Hill, the trailers and documentary featuring the first book, Hunt For Eden's Star, and the second book, Secrets of the Highlands, have reached over 1.8 million+ views. Beacon Hill is also currently under optioning consideration for film, television, streaming, and animation by the producers, production companies, and studios who have created the most successful YA franchises of all time.

Williams has also been an executive producer and director on over 500 episodes of broadcast television.

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