Other writing

I don't always write book-length (although, yeah, I usually do). Here are some shorter pieces I've penned:

Here’s what it was like to come down with COVID 14 years after writing a novel about the last awful pandemic.

Curious about the inspiration behind Darktown? Read this article from Atlanta Magazine, in which I explain where I got the idea and tell more about the true history behind the book.

Here’s why I’m drawn to crime and mystery stories set in totalitarian systems, and how that inspired my Atlanta series.

Are You A Southern Writer Or A Brooklyn Writer? From LitHub, a short take on my literary conversion from Northeastern writer to whatever the heck it is I am now. Take this handy quiz to find out what YOU really are.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Here's my take on the politicization of the NFL in 2017, the dire need for criminal justice reform, and my unique perspective of viewing the last Super Bowl as a longtime Patriots fan who lives in Atlanta and roots for the Falcons on the side.

Future Shock: From Crime Reads, here are 8 speculative crime stories that inspired the writing of Blind Spots.

Hey aspiring authors, looking for tips on how to get published? Here's a piece I wrote for Poets & Writers on how to break into publishing without an MFA or industry contacts.

Last Call at the Stork Hotel, short fiction published in The Bitter Southerner. What happens when a couple finally learns their adoption of a Chinese baby has been approved the same day that the dad loses his job to China? Find out.

Spellbinder, my true crime piece for Atlanta Magazine. Mitchell Gross wrote thrillers, but he was also an attorney, a scientist, a successful businessman, a Hollywood darling, and a charmer of women. He was none of these things. He was more. Why did so many people fall for his lies?

Are Novels Boring? In Defense of An Art Form. My essay for Paste Magazine explaining why well-crafted novels are so much harder to pull off than strings of interconnected short stories, contrary to what most critics seem to think.

Here are two interviews I did with two of my favorite writers, Jess Walter and Olen Steinhauer.