Making It Up with Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh, authors of Echo Road Artwork

Carter Wilson's Making It Up

In this conversation series, USA Today bestselling novelist Carter Wilson talks to writers of all backgrounds in order to find out why they do what they do. He and his guests discuss childhood influences, roots of creativity, luck and loss, tools of the craft, and the highs and lows of publishing. At the end of their conversation, they pick a random sentence from a random book and use it to create an impromptu short story. Visit Carter at www.carterwilson.com.

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Carter Wilson's Making It Up

Making It Up with Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh, authors of Echo Road

August 16, 2024 • Carter Wilson • Season 1 • Episode 145

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, the Mercy Kilpatrick novels, and the Columbia River novels. She's a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist.

Melinda Leigh is a #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author. Her debut novel, SHE CAN RUN, was nominated for Best First Novel by the International Thriller Writers. She has garnered numerous publisher awards, including two Silver Falchions and three Golden Leaf Awards. She is a two-time RITA® Award Finalist and has earned three Daphne du Maurier Award nominations. Melinda’s books have sold over 15 million copies.

Among other things, Carter, Kendra, and Melinda discuss their process of taking turns writing novellas in the same series, how aspiring writers tend to become obsessed with having the ‘perfect’ plot, and how book-launch days feel after publishing several novels.