When it comes to writing thrillers, Ronie Kendig shoots right for the heart. Nightshade, the first book in the Discarded Hero series, tackles combat-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the toll it takes on the soldier, and the courage he must muster to respond to the call of duty as part of a covert operation. Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Ronie about Nightshade and her writing process.

Give us the scoop on Nightshade and its "in-your-face" protagonist Max Jacobs.

Soldiers across the globe are returning home to their families after brutal tours of duty. They are discharged from the service. . .and on their own. Meet Max Jacobs, one of these discarded heroes, as he faces a wall of failure--in his career, his friendships, and his marriage. Failing again--this time to end his life--he is offered a thread of hope. Are covert operations the answer for him, or will they only bring more danger and dissension upon his broken family? Will Max yield to a force greater than himself--love?

Leigh Russell hit the publishing world when she banged out the first draft of Cut Short in a mere six weeks. Soon after she snagged a three-book deal, received starred reviews, and broke book sales records in the UK, where she lives. Road Closed, the second book in Russell's series starring female protagonist Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel, hits the shelves in June, and her fans eagerly await its release.

Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Leigh Russell about Road Closed and her writing process.

Tell us about your latest thriller Road Closed and why we want to join D.I. Geraldine Steel in her murder investigation.

People fascinate me, so my characters intrigue me whether they are detectives, killers, or victims. My books are written mainly from the perspective of my detectives, but the reader also sees the story from the killers' point of view. As a writer, I try to get inside all my characters' minds to see the story through their eyes.

You stated your protagonist, D.I. Geraldine Steel, was originally a male, but that you changed the character to a female because you didn't know how men felt in personal relationships and you "didn't want to fall back on clichés." What's unique about D.I. Steel, and what makes her the ideal protagonist?

I was thrilled when US Publishers' Weekly gave my first book, Cut Short, a starred review describing my detective as "a compassionate and complex heroine who's sure to win fans." Geraldine is dedicated to her work. The murder investigation drives the narrative, but Geraldine has her own story, which was introduced in Cut Short and develops in Road Closed. Jeffery Deaver wrote of my protagonist: "you're just plain going to love DI Geraldine Steel." I hope more and more readers agree with him as my series continues.

Nine years. That's how long it took Leanna Renee Hieber to publish The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, the first book in her Strangely Beautiful series. Although editors and agents loved the book, marketing departments did not know how to market a novel that crossed multiple genres. After many rewrites and much time spent searching for the right publishing house, Hieber found a home for her highly-regarded series, a series that combines the Victorian Era with ghosts, suspense, fantasy, and romance. According to Booklist, "Hieber has created a secretive, gothic, paranormal world as well as a character who will resonate with anyone who has found the beauty in being different."

The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker is the second book in the series and Leanna Renee Hieber's newest release. I chatted with Hieber about The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker and Hieber's writing process.

What makes The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker so compelling?

Well... it's more romantic... and far more dangerous. The stakes are higher, there's more passion, intensity, and life-and-death risk as Miss Percy has to stare down the Whisper-world itself, overcoming timidity to undertake a terrifying task all alone. The climax brings an epic, spectral war onto the grounds of Athens Academy. And not everyone makes it out in one piece.

Many authors come to writing via other careers. For Jim Daher, the travel required for his career in health care management provided the perfect opportunity to read mysteries and thrillers by authors such as John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Robert B. Parker, Stuart Woods, Lisa Scottoline, Michael Connelly, Daniel Silva, Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Greg Iles. He became fascinated with how these authors "created characters, devised plots and most importantly 'entertained' their readers" and vowed to write a novel when he had time. That time came eventually, and Daher wrote his first novel, Righteous Kill. His latest book Blood Money is the sequel.

Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Jim Daher about Blood Money and his writing process.

Tell us about Blood Money and why it's so compelling?

The characters, the plot and the unknown of what's next makes Blood Money a must-read. Scott Justice, Sarah James' groom, is shot in the middle of his wedding vows and Sarah is devastated. After she is certain he will survive, Sarah becomes frustrated with the FBI's botched attempts to protect Scott and their lack of progress in identifying the shooter. As a result, she decides to "handle it" herself and deal with him "her way." The FBI forbids her to get involved in the case, but that's impossible for Sarah James. She wants, no needs, revenge.

It's not easy to get into the heads of killers, to relay their thoughts and feelings and deep, dark secrets in a way that makes them seems so real and so frightening. But J.T. Ellison does it, and she does it well.

Ellison is the best-selling author of the Taylor Jackson series of thrillers (All the Pretty Girls, 14, Judas Kiss, and The Cold Room). She has published numerous short stories in a variety of publications, including the anthologies Killer Year: Stories to Die For, First Thrills, and Surreal South 09.

Recently, I chatted with J.T. Ellison about her latest book, The Cold Room, and her upcoming thrillers.

In your latest thriller The Cold Room, you introduce the reader to the Conductor, a serial killer who keeps his victims in glass coffins until they starve to death. Draw us into the world of the Conductor and your protagonist, homicide detective Taylor Jackson.

The Conductor loves classical music, opera, and art. How much more normal could you get, right? There's just one catch. He's also a burgeoning necrosadist, with online friends he shares his fantasies with. Taylor Jackson, recently busted back to Detective by the Office of Professional Accountability, is trying to save face and solve one of the strangest murders she's seen in years. And to top it all off, her fiancée, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, believes he has seen this scenario before, on an international scale.

With over 40 published novels and novellas, NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen Harper delivers again with her latest book, Down River.  RT Book Reviews states, "Harper spins a wickedly intricate plot, and it's simply impossible to guess the killer's identity. So don't try...just fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride."

Recently I chapttd with Karen about Down River and her writing process.

Tell us about Down River and what makes it such a fascinating read.

First of all, the setting--the wilderness of Alaska.  My husband and I took a trip there a few years ago, and I fell in love with the stark beauty of "the last American frontier" and with its very independent people.  Alaska is not only the setting, but another character in the book.  Ft. Lauderdale lawyer Lisa Vaughn, on a corporate bonding experience, at first loathes and fears the Alaskan wild but comes to terms with it and with the fact that someone is trying to kill her.  She is haunted by her past--her mother committed suicide, an event she feels she could have stopped--and the owner of the wilderness lodge where she is staying before she is swept downriver is owned by her former fiancé, Mitch Braxton.

With a writing schedule as action-packed as her books, Jordan Summers crosses the genre lines--paranormal, contemporary, historical--to give her readers a variety of thrilling adventures.  Crimson, her most recent release, is the third book in the Dead World series. I catted with Jordan about Crimson and her writing process.

What makes Crimson such a fascinating read?

The blend of suspense, urban fantasy, sci-fi and romance.

Jeaniene Frost says Crimson is "dark, action-filled and hot! This heroine is a wolf dressed in Little Red Riding Hood's clothing." Tell us more about the heroine of Crimson and what Frost means by her statement.

Red, the heroine in Crimson, came about when I asked myself the following question: What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf turned out to be the same person?

I wanted to play with the fairytale, but I knew that I didn't want to follow its original structure completely. I also knew that it would take more than one book to tell Red's story. So I started the story with book one, Red and continued it in Scarlet. I'm wrapping up the overall arc with Crimson where Red finally becomes the Big Bad Wolf.

Hank Phillippi Ryan talks with contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman about Prime Time, the first book in her Charlotte McNally mystery thriller series. Prime Time hit the shelves in July. The second and third books in the series (Face Time and Air Time) will be published in August and September, respectively.

What makes Prime Time such a great read?

As a reporter, my first goal is to tell a great story - and that's how I think of Prime Time. It has a truly unique and original plot. I still remember the moment I thought of it - I was deleting a raft of annoying spam emails, and opened one by mistake. Instead of being about refinancing, as the subject line promised, the body of the email looked like lines from a play from Shakespeare.

Why would someone put Shakespeare in spam? I wondered. And it crossed my mind - oh, maybe it's a secret message. It was a true plot-eureka experience. And from that moment on, I was obsessed with finding out whether there could be secret messages in spam, and why, and how it could work.

Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post called it "a wonderful mystery." I think readers are compelled to discover what happens next, and that's terrific.

You stated the "architecture of a mystery novel has fascinated [you] from the beginning because it all has to work, it has to be fair." How do you ensure this occurs during your writing process?

One of the amazing things about writing is that you have to hold 90,000 words in your head at the same time. You're managing the lives of dozens of characters. You've created a new world. You're juggling and moving and being careful of context. You need to make sure the "truth" of the world you created stays fair and honest.

Kathleen George chats with Big Thrill contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman about The Odds, George's fourth thriller that has focused on Pittsburgh homicide detectives.

Entertainment Weekly states, "If anyone's writing better police thrillers than George, I don't know who is."

Give us a quick run-down on The Odds and what makes it such a fascinating read.

I show what the police are doing, how they are working a case, but I also track the criminals and the victims. The reader is in the cat-bird seat, seeing everything, making the connections, and it can get very tense when the reader watches the police almost catching up to something or a victim making a bad decision. I love those big tapestries in which you see many stories unfolding. In this novel I have several versions of "motherless children" - which is one of my themes throughout all my work. I'm interested in people who missed out on nurturing and in children who become adults before their time.

My police characters have that in their history. Commander Christie had to be the support for his mother when she was abandoned by his father. As a result, he takes on a paternal role with almost everyone. The effect at the office and with the families of victims is that almost everyone ends up with a crush on him. His novice detective Colleen Greer has that particular form of magic too. She had unattentive parents. She made up for it with charm and will, so people get crushes on her, too.

But I think the main ingredient the EW reviewer refers to is the tension between the stories - the police working hard but the worlds of characters unraveling at the same time.

Four abandoned kids are at the center of your story. Tell us about them and why we want to know them.

I fell in love with these characters as I wrote them. They've had really rough breaks - they're orphans abandoned by their step-mother, but they're extremely smart in a number of ways. They're alert, well-read, and at the top of their classes in school. So this smartness and sense of responsibility both help and harm them. They are able to get away with being on their own. They're so good at it that people don't notice. That's frightening. Because they still need things - food, clothes, basic things. And they need adult attention. But a tricky thing I discovered about them as I wrote them was that they still had a capacity for love. For each other, for others. They're immensely generous kids.

Austin S. Camacho talks with contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman about Russian Roulette, the fifth book in the Hannibal Jones series.

Libby Fischer Hellman, author of the Ellie Foreman suspense series, states, "Russian Roulette delivers a whipsaw of a plot with more layers than a Vidalia onion. Camacho gets it right with solid storytelling and compelling characters, all set in the off-beat neighborhoods of the Nation's Capital." Why is Russian Roulette so compelling?

In Russian Roulette, Washington DC PI Hannibal Jones is forced to take a case for a Russian assassin who will kill Hannibal's woman if he refuses. What makes the story so compelling is the characters: Hannibal, the African American detective driven by fear for his woman's life; Alexandr, a professional killer trying to protect the woman he loves; Gana, the wealthy Algerian who has stolen Alexandr's woman but has more secrets than he can contain; and Viktoriya, the woman the two men are fighting over. She's a Russian femme fatale with secrets of her own.

What triggered the idea for Russian Roulette?

I wanted to humanize Hannibal by showing what happens to him emotionally when someone attacks his Achilles Heel - his long time girl, Cindy Santiago. He's separated from her through the entire book. At the same time, I was fascinated by the idea of a detective being forced to take a case he doesn't want. Also, I had this assassin who is kind of a funhouse mirror reflection of Hannibal Jones who describes himself as a troubleshooter. I had to see how they'd interact.

Your protagonist Hannibal Jones describes himself by saying, "I'm not really a detective, although I do have a private investigator's license. And I'm not a bodyguard, although I have been known to protect people from danger. And I'm not a strong-arm man, but I do sometimes have to fight on the job. I'm a troubleshooter. I help people out of tight spots." Why do readers love Hannibal Jones so much, and what makes him a good protagonist?

Hannibal is an anachronism, a traditional hero out of the 1940s, dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Women love him because he clings to the old values - chivalry, honor, honesty, that whole code most pulp era detectives had. Men love him because he believes in the direct approach, but is confused (as many of us are) by the shift in gender roles that took place in the last half of the 20th century.

Matt Hilton's Dead Men's Dust is "a dose of pure rocket fuel. Starts fast, gets faster, and doesn't quit right through the slam bang finale. Dead Men's Dust is as enjoyable a thriller as you will read this year, and I do mean 'Thriller!' My ears are still ringing with gunfire! I loved this book." Christopher Reich, best-selling author of Rules of Deception. Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Matt Hilton about his thriller and his writing process.

Tell us about Dead Men's Dust.

It's the first in a new thriller series featuring Joe Hunter, an ex-soldier searching for his younger brother, John, who has gone missing in the USA. Hunter has no idea that John is on the run from mob hit men and has also run afoul of a serial killer called Tubal Cain, who intends on making John his latest victim. It's a cat and mouse chase that takes Hunter across country and to a climatic showdown in the Mojave Desert.

What triggered the idea for the book?

I had one of those odd moments, thinking about how powerful a handgun was and if someone could shoot through a ceiling and kill someone in the room above. Because of this I wrote a short scene where some people are assaulting a building. I then wondered why they were there and decided that they were looking for someone who may or may not be held by the gangsters inside. This one scene led to the entire novel. I wrote the beginning with a view to including the aforementioned scene, which now appears somewhere in the middle albeit in a slightly different form. From there I completed the book. Normally I start at the beginning and work through to the end. I don't plot that much out beforehand, just write as the story unfolds from my imagination.

Your protagonist Joe Hunter says, "Some may call me a vigilante. I think I've just got problems to fix." Explain.

Since leaving the military, Hunter has made a living as what he terms a 'security consultant.' In this role he acts outside the remit of the law and has gained the reputation of being a vigilante. Hunter disagrees: where the law fails he sees himself as someone victims can turn to for help. 

Helter Skelter author Vincent Bugliosi calls M. William Phelps "one of America's finest true-crime writers," and Radio America states Phelps is "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." Phelps is the author of 12 books and has appeared on dozens of national radio and television programs, including Court TV, The Discovery Channel, ABC's Good Morning America, Biography Channel, History Channel, Fox News Channel, USA Radio Network, and ABC News Radio.

Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with M. William Phelps about his latest book, Deadly Secrets, and his upcoming thriller.

Tell us about Deadly Secrets and why it's such a fascinating read.

When you have the local police lieutenant's wife murdered in the parking lot of her church after choir practice, a few nights before Halloween, by a woman she's been having lesbian relations with, you have to scratch your head ... I could not have made this up, and if I did, no one would believe me. And, wouldn't you know, the story takes place the town of Pleasant Valley.

Dawn Silvernail, the killer whose crime is profiled in Deadly Secrets, refused to speak to reporters about the case but granted you exclusive interviews. Why do you think she trusted you with her story?

Because she knew I would give her a voice, and tell her complete story for the first time. No one had offered Dawn this opportunity. Charm helps. I spent some time flattering Dawn, making her feel comfortable with me. She was a bit standoffish. She was in a prison with a woman I had written about previously who told her not to trust me. I had to remind Dawn that she was taking the advice of a woman who had murdered four of her children, mummified their remains, and carried them around in boxes for 25 years.

Jailbait Zombie is the fourth book in Mario Acevedo's Feliz Gomez vampire detective series. Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman caught up with Mario to talk about the series and his writing process.

Tell us about Jailbait Zombie and why we would want to visit this world.

Reading Jailbait Zombie could save your life. It's got details that may be useful in the upcoming zombie plague. Fact: Homeland Security and the CIA are funding research to reanimate the dead but, like most government projects, they'll find a way to screw it up. What else is in the story? Lots of guns. Some kissy face vampire stuff. Imagine a Dirty Harry version of Twilight as directed by George Romero and Sam Peckinpah.

You stated you were "a huge fan of the Creepy-style magazines. [Your] mom and dad used to confiscate them from [you]. [You] also enjoyed the sarcastic apocalyptic vision of Vincent Vaughn Bode's Cobalt 60 comics and the ribald humor of National Lampoon. Anything with big stop-action monsters (and slave girls in skimpy harem outfits) like in the Sinbad movies was high on [your] must-see list." How did your love of these forms of media influence you as a writer?

The Creepy magazines haven't influenced my writing so much. I like National Lampoon because of its satirical attitude and the great writing. What I admired about the Sinbad movies and the wonderful stop action was that ability to make you suspend disbelief and get drawn into the action.  If the animation was done well, you wouldn't think, "This could never happen." Instead, you'd tell yourself, "This is so cool." One media inspiration for my books are movies like Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowski. I love the loopy, hard-boiled dialog and the noir atmosphere. Another source of inspiration comes from weird true tales I read in junior high.  Demons. Fantastic inventions. Ghosts. And aliens. In The Undead Kama Sutra, I based my description of the alien gangster on a sighting of an extraterrestrial near Socorro, NM.

Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Grant McKenzie about his debut thriller, Switch, which hit the shelves in Australia on December 4, 2008. Switch also will be available in the UK in July 2009, in Germany in August 2009, and in Canada in July 2010. McKenzie has had a distinguished career as a journalist, and his short stories have appeared in Out of the Gutter and Spinetingler magazines.

#1 New York Times best-selling author Lee Child describes Switch as "a terrific little-guy-in-big-trouble thriller...think Saw meets Payback moving at speed - with the emphasis on warp." Tell us about Switch and what makes it such an exciting read.

It's definitely a fast-paced thriller with a chilling premise. My protagonist, Sam White, is an ordinary guy who has to face his worst nightmare. After a late-night shift in a dead-end job, he returns home to find his house in ashes and the remains of his wife and daughter being carried out in body bags. In the blink of an eye, he has lost everything that ever mattered. But then he receives a phone call. The caller tells him the bodies don't belong to his family. His loved ones are alive, and Sam can still save them. Instantly, Sam is plunged into a deadly race against time that will challenge him to question how far he's willing to go in order to save the ones he loves. And that's just the beginning.

The Y2K bug was a ticking time bomb that threatened to affect computer software and firmware and grind major industries to a halt. For Matthew Dunn, the Y2K bug had the opposite effect. In 1998, Dunn wrote an article about the Y2K bug for a business journal, and the writing bug bit him.

Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Matthew Dunn about his new thriller, The Tiananmen Square Effect. Dunn is the author of five other novels, including Erased, an IPPY award-winner.

Tell us about The Tiananmen Square Effect

Like all good thrillers, Tiananmen weaves a life-and-death plot using a handful of colorful, and seemingly unrelated, characters. Filled with twists and turns, murder and mayhem, the real fun is in watching the male characters - men who are used to getting what they want - pursue their own agendas while unwittingly assisting the central character, a beautiful, but revenge-obsessed, woman named Azar, to create an inspiring moment reminiscent of the diminutive Chinese man blocking the advance of a line of military tanks to prevent the potential slaughter of protesting students.

The majority of the story takes place in modern-day Iran. The Iranians are on the verge of nuclear capability, while the United States scrambles to prevent it. Racing against time to beat them both to the punch, Azar willingly places herself in the middle while praying that the whole world will take notice of her actions and react.