How well do we really know the people we trust most? In this episode of Booked with Pap, I sit down with Danielle Girard to discuss Pinky Swear, a suspenseful story about friendship, motherhood, betrayal, and the secrets that can survive for years beneath the surface. We also talk about building tension, writing flawed but compelling characters, moving beyond familiar formulas, and the persistence it takes to build a career as a novelist.

What happens when a young woman refuses to let abuse, isolation, and fear define the rest of her life? In this episode of Booked with Pap, I sit down with Marcia Bradley to discuss The Home for Wayward Girls, the unforgettable character of Loretta, the reality of troubled teen institutions, and the resilience it takes to build a life beyond trauma. We also dig into writing tension, creating characters readers genuinely care about, and why some of the most powerful stories remind us that there is always one more thing we can do.

Van Jensen joins me to discuss Godfall, a science fiction murder mystery built around a three-mile-long alien corpse that transforms a small Nebraska town. We explore the novel’s small-town perspective, its hopeful characters, the cultural divide between rural and urban America, and the television adaptation in development. Van also shares how crime reporting and writing comics for DC shaped his storytelling, why visual thinking is central to his process, and what years of daily writing taught him about craft, criticism, inspiration, and writer’s block.

From discovering James Bond at nine years old to becoming the first American chosen to write the official continuation novels, Raymond Benson’s career has crossed fiction, music, theater, video games, and decades of storytelling. We discuss the literary Bond, the extraordinary opportunity that launched his Bond career, his approach to plotting and research, and his return to Ian Fleming’s world with The Hook and the Eye, a noir-inspired Felix Leiter thriller.

I sat down with Joseph Reid, writing as Parker Adams, to discuss The Lock Box, building tension, creating believable characters, handling criticism, and balancing a legal career with the discipline required to finish a book.