Nonsense-Free Kristin

William Miller left a photography career after 9/11 to enlist in the Army. He now writes the Jake Noble spy thrillers, a paranormal mystery series built around an autistic FBI agent, and a hardboiled crime series for Aethon Books. He also runs Savage Realms, a sword and sorcery magazine he expected to fold after six issues and still puts out every month. In this episode, he joins us to dig into what actually changed in publishing in the early '90s, why a little gatekeeping might be good for a fandom, and what binge-watching did to the thirty-page chapter.In This Episode* William’s love letter to his wife: The Mackenzie and Cole series follows an autistic FBI agent. Miller’s wife is autistic, and he wanted a version of that on the page that includes the hard days, not just the “it’s a superpower” version.* The fashion photographer who writes fight scenes: Years in fashion photography before the Army, and what visual thinking does to prose. Also his flat instruction to authors: you do not know what cover your book needs.* Don’t take writing advice from people who don’t sell books: Miller studied creative writing at Eckerd College, where Dennis Lehane taught. His filter for writing programs is one question long, and it disqualifies most of them.* Men didn’t stop reading, publishing stopped printing: What Miller says changed in trad pub in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and why “men don’t read” has the cart in front of the horse. * Choose your own adventure: Delight Games handed Miller the keys and he wrote Jack Jericho and the Bloody Burlesque Show. It sold, and the content nobody would greenlight elsewhere turned out to be beneath the notice of the people who’d object.* Savage Realms Monthly and the paperback problem: Miller started it as a favor to writers with nowhere to publish, expecting six issues and a tax write-off, and now ships one a month. The print edition is the one Amazon fights him on, and it’s also the one that sells better.* “You gotta get rid of all the God stuff”: Trad publishers wanted the faith cut from Noble Man. Faith publishers wanted the guns and the human trafficking cut. He self-published, and the emails started arriving from people who’d done the work for real.* The agent who pitched him at ThrillerFest: The agent that loved his numbers and wanted to represent him. Four years earlier, she told him that the book would never work.* Genre hopping is bad business and he does it anyway: Spy thrillers, paranormal mystery, sword and sorcery, plus an unknown number of upscale literary novels sitting unpublished on a hard drive. His advice and his behavior do not match.* Binge culture broke pacing: Why he thinks the thirty-page chapter is gone, why he has to fight his own instinct to write long, and why he still tells writers to ignore what’s selling. (On the business side, he cites Maxwell Perkins, the editor who shaped raw manuscripts from Hemingway and Fitzgerald into books that sold.)* Where indie publishing goes from here: AI, universal basic income, and Miller’s standing policy of coming back in six months to eat crow when he’s wrong. Plus the argument that stories outlast whatever format is carrying them, delivered via Reign of Fire.Guest Links* Read the Jake Noble series: https://amzn.to/4uhzhB6* Website: https://williammillerauthor.com/* Facebook: AuthorWillMillerKristin’s Links* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristinTimestamps00:00 - Meet William Miller.00:50 - Writing Autism With Care.02:28 - From Photos To Prose.04:34 - Creative Writing Degrees.07:11 - Do Men Read Fiction.09:26 - Interactive Fiction Detour.11:54 - Gatekeeping Geek Culture.13:51 - Magazine Roots And Aethon.16:33 - Building Savage Realms.19:45 - Print Sales And Amazon.21:23 - Cover Art Censorship.22:59 - NSFW Internet Flashback.23:28 - Trad Pub Rejections.25:26 - Choosing Self Publish.27:23 - Agent Comes Crawling Back.28:45 - Genre Hopping Reality.31:42 - Pacing In Streaming Era.34:15 - Write Weird Find Tribe.37:17 - Indie Future With AI.43:21 - Stories Always Survive.44:03 - Buckle Up Advice.45:16 - Where To Find Him.47:09 - Final Thanks And Goodbye.About This PodcastNonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

Rebecca Jones has a hill she'll die on: there are no bad tropes, only poorly written ones. She put out her debut in September 2025 and already has three books in her Jolene series, plus a Gothic romance on the way, so she's earned the right to defend the love triangle. In this episode, we dig into why so many of them collapse, when a cliché becomes a comfort instead of a crutch, and what gets lost when clean YA is treated like a rebellion.In This Episode* There are no bad tropes, only poorly written ones: Rebecca’s whole thesis, and why a love triangle works only when a character actually makes a choice.* How writers botch the love triangle: The most common failure is telling us two people are in love without ever earning it. We talk about the Wednesday dance that should have built a couple and instead just told us one existed.* Insta-love, chemistry, and flirting that isn’t cheesy: Insta-love can work when there’s a real foundation under it, from Phantom’s Raoul and Christine to the sly, layered flirting between Catherine and Henry in Northanger Abbey.* The ultimate love triangle: Rebecca’s pick for the trope done right is Gone With the Wind, and why The Empire Strikes Back borrowed its romantic DNA.* Clichés, killing your darlings, and the one-bed problem: A deliberate cliché can feel like comfort; a lazy one just muddies the book. Plus what “kill your darlings” actually means, and a great story about a scholarly Regency client whose one-bed scene ignored the scandal it would have caused.* The state of clean YA: On-page spice creeping into books aimed at teens, YA quietly written for grown women, and the clean movement Rebecca is glad to be part of. * Meet Jolene: Ballet dancer by day, zombie-slaying gamer by night, with a geeky best friend and a scene-stealing chaos-agent of a sister.* The Gothic turn: Rebecca’s period horror romance: 1899 France, a possessive ghost, and Phantom of the Opera with the opera swapped out for something a lot darker.* The indie author business: An aggressive release pace as a full-time writer, the Kindle Unlimited versus going-wide money question, why the best marketing might just be the next book, and the metadata work that landed her next to Lynn Painter and Rachel Lynn Solomon.* The worst writing advice you keep hearing: How “show, don’t tell” gets weaponized, and the danger of running your slow-burn romance through a chatbot that only knows how to pace a thriller screenplay.* Books for boys, and content warnings: The gap in the market and Rebecca’s idea for a space book written with her son, plus why she came around on content warnings and a love letter to the website Does the Dog Die.Guest Links* Read the Jolene series: https://amzn.to/48NUUQG * Website: rebeccajonesbooks.com* Facebook: Rebecca Jones Author* TikTok: @rebecca.jones776* X: @NovelistRJones Kristin’s Links* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristinTimestamps00:00 - Meet the Rebecca Jones.02:09 - Why Triangles Fail.02:51 - Insta Love Done Right.03:57 - Writing Better Flirting.05:26 - Best Love Triangle Example.06:13 - Tropes vs Cliches.07:17 - Fixing What Fails.08:09 - One Bed Problem Solving.09:30 - Beta Readers Power.10:13 - State of YA Today.12:25 - Gothic Romance Shift.14:18 - Writing Since Fifteen.16:57 - Rapid Release Routine.17:50 - Kindle Unlimited Reality.20:08 - Indie vs Traditional.20:54 - Marketing Mindset Shift.21:43 - Metadata And Keywords.23:34 - Sisterhood On The Page.25:19 - Belle Époque Gothic Romance.26:01 - Bad Writing Advice.27:19 - AI Tips And Nuance.29:41 - Books For Boy Readers.32:57 - Ideal Reader And Comfort.34:10 - Content Warnings Debate.36:21 - New Release Teaser.38:05 - Tropes And Farewell.About This PodcastNonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

R.A. Flannagan calls himself Canada's only geopolitical military fiction author. Four books and 1,800-plus Amazon reviews later, the title is hard to dispute. In this episode, Ryan sits down to explain how the loss of his university career pushed him toward the keyboard, why he built a series aimed at Commonwealth readers and openly at men, and how fast real-world drone warfare and tactical-nuke brinkmanship have caught up to fiction he began drafting back in 2021.In This Episode* A career ends, a writer begins: Ryan describes the devastating loss of the university vocation he expected to keep for life, and how writing (and his wife) gave him a focus when things were at their worst.* The niche nobody was writing: Military thrillers are almost entirely an American genre. Ryan spotted the gap and built CANZUK at War around Canada and its Commonwealth allies as the protagonists, not the sidekicks.* The market that flipped his assumptions: He went in certain the 330-million-person U.S. market was the prize. Instead, UK, Australian, and Canadian readers embraced the books while American sales stayed at “crickets,” and he unpacks why.* Why Americans won’t read a civil war: Ryan connects his U.S. sales problem to the lukewarm reception of A24’s film Civil War, and to how differently foreign readers and American readers read the same story.* Writing for men, without apology: Of the emails and comments he’s received over the years, essentially none come from women, and Ryan makes the case that traditional publishing walked away from an audience that’s still hungry.* When the headlines catch up to the manuscript: Ukraine, tactical nuclear weapons, and the explosion of drone warfare all appeared in his books before they dominated the news, and he talks about writing near-future fiction that reality keeps overtaking.* What three years in the reserves actually taught him: Ryan was infantry, not special operations, and he’s candid about how far listening to hundreds of audiobooks carries him toward writing operators convincingly, and where the research has to take over.* The anti-MVP approach: Before publishing a single word, Ryan spent roughly a year absorbing podcasts on craft and the business, hired a developmental editor and a copy editor, and argues that new authors owe it to themselves to write six to ten books before quitting.Guest Links* Read The CANZUK at War Series: https://amzn.to/3P3ynJ3* Website: https://raflannagan.ca/Kristin’s Links* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristinTimestamps00:00 - Meet Ryan Flannagan.01:24 - Career Upheaval and Writing.03:05 - Learning the Indie Path.04:51 - Momentum and Mindset.07:25 - Finding a Canadian Niche.12:40 - Anglosphere Market Strategy.14:27 - Why Americans Don’t Bite.19:13 - Reserves Lessons for Fiction.20:46 - Military Banter Realism.22:28 - Researching Special Operators.25:09 - When Fiction Meets Reality.27:19 - Drones And Future War.29:20 - Writing For Men.33:56 - Defense Blogging Passion.37:49 - Lessons From Four Books.40:24 - Editing And Craft Standards.40:53 - Where To Find Ryan.41:36 - Amazon Exclusivity Farewell.About This PodcastNonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

Cairo Smith won one of Hollywood's biggest screenwriting awards, wrote English adaptations for Netflix, Disney, and Paramount, and had the representation and the meetings most writers spend a decade chasing. Then he read a few self-published novels, realized indie fiction was speaking to his life in a way the front table at Barnes & Noble wasn't, and walked toward the door. In this conversation he tells us why he left the industry track, how he ended up at New Ritual Press, and what it actually takes to build a creative life nobody can cancel.In This Episode* From Pokémon Go to the Page: Cairo’s road through Niantic’s experimental GPS games and into fiction, and why the novel is the form he keeps returning to.* The Award That Opened the Door: Winning the PAGE Award with a screwball script about the disastrous making of the first Star Wars, and what representation actually got him: a mountain of unpaid work and meetings with people who don’t read much.* What Localization Really Means: Adapting foreign shows for English audiences, the pastry-that-got-called-a-donut problem, and why serving the studio beats serving the fans when getting hired again is the goal.* Novelize Your Screenplay: His pitch to every contest finalist whose movie will never get made: a screenplay is already novella-length, and Kindle readers love that length even while trad pub pretends nobody does.* Which Contests Are Real: The screenwriting competitions worth your money (Nicholl, PAGE, Big Break), the ones that are basically scams, and why you never wire cash to anyone or answer a cold email from a “producer.”* How He Found New Ritual Press: Indie lit runs on relationships even more than Hollywood does, except the people are approachable and the bar for connecting is a warm reply and a thoughtful essay.* Brand Over Everything: Why a small press wins by going exactly where the majors won’t or can’t, and why copying the mainstream “only different” is a dead end.* The Anatomy of a Cancellation: The two levers anyone actually has over you, and how distributing your income and keeping your people close leaves the mob with nothing but noise.* What Rolling Stone Got Right: The “anti-woke lit scene” feature everyone braced for as a hit piece, why it came off warmer than expected, and what a sales bump really looks like.* New Wave, Alt Lit, and Skating Where the Puck Is Going: Cairo on the labels for this loose movement, why he’s set “new wave” aside for “alt lit,” and the trap of building a personality out of what you’re against.* Running Futurist Letters: How a personal blog became a literary journal with a status-blind reading policy, and why editing other people’s work makes you a sharper writer of your own.* A Cancellation: His new novel about a vlogger’s summer-long implosion, why everyone in it is a terrible person, and what streamer culture looks like with none of the old guardrails.* Writing for Smart Adults: Reading as a hike you take with someone who can keep pace, why looking up words is growth and not embarrassment, and the difference between the narrator and the author.Guest Links* Read Scenebux://amzn.to/4d0GSxL* Website: cairosmith.com* X: @cairoasmithKristin’s Links* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristinTimestamps00:00 - Meet Cairo Smith.01:44 - From Hollywood to Indie.04:42 - Localization and Adaptation.06:51 - Why Novelizations Faded.09:16 - Competitions That Matter.11:10 - Breaking In and Scams.11:43 - Dad’s Advice on Film.13:05 - Getting Representation.15:15 - Finding New Ritual Press.17:39 - Indie Press Brand Voice.18:51 - Ideological Capture in Publishing.20:29 - Cancel Culture Resilience.22:30 - Handling Online Mobs.23:58 - Vibe Shift Politics.25:21 - Rolling Stone Feature.27:54 - Beyond Anti Woke.28:47 - New Wave To Alt Lit.30:52 - Building Futurist Letters.32:56 - Writing And Editing Benefits.33:34 - New Novel A Cancellation.34:40 - Influencer Spiral Satire.39:00 - Reading For Smart Adults.42:21 - Where To Find Cairo.43:11 - Buying And Distribution.44:02 - Closing Thoughts.About This PodcastNonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

Brian McCoppin’s a cloud and AI consultant by day, and a Tang Soo Do instructor and author by night. With books sold in more than 12 countries, he specializes in Christian supernatural action fiction, a corner of the market most people assume doesn't exist, where the demons wear senators' faces and a small-town pastor learns he's been drafted into a war nobody around him believes is real. In this episode, he joins us to talk about building the Record of the Paladins series, why he refuses to let writing stop being a hobby, and how he keeps faith on the page without ever slipping into a sermon.In This Episode* Writing as a hobby, on purpose: Brian McCoppin has no interest in replacing his day-job and explains why that freedom is the whole point. He and Kristin compare notes on the strange pressure authors put on themselves to monetize even when the money isn’t needed.* Why his nonfiction outsells his fiction: His most successful book is the short nonfiction title he wrote to practice the publishing process. Both authors dig into why that happens to the same audience, and why you can’t market the two the same way.* The gap nobody was filling: Walk into the Christian fiction section and you’ll find shelves of bonnets and farms with almost nothing for men. Brian planted his flag in men’s action fiction with explicit faith, and talks about walking the tightrope between biblically sound and genuinely violent.* Demons who look reasonable: His evil doesn’t show up with wings and fangs. It shows up in politics, in institutions, in the polished public figure who suddenly changes. He explains why that version of evil unsettles readers more than any monster.* He thought his readers would be men: More than half turned out to be women walking up at events to tell him which senator is definitely a demon. Brian and Kristin get into who actually reads new fiction right now and why the numbers surprised him.* Profanity, pushback, and his favorite two-star review: Why the F-bombs stayed in, why he’s gotten less heat than expected, and why a critical review from an attentive reader is a gift, not an insult.* In-person selling beats the internet: Most of his sales happen face to face at churches, cons, and book fairs, and he argues the reviews are better too. * Content warnings, reconsidered: Kristin shares how one book changed her hardline stance against content warnings, and Brian explains why he puts them on his audiobooks as a fellow parent trying to filter what reaches his kids.* Writing humans is harder than writing demons: Evil is easy to rationalize on the page. Two people quietly talking about faith is where it gets hard, especially with female leads, which is why he leans on his wife, his daughters, and a female editor.* Tang Soo Do, firearms, and fatherhood: A decade of training alongside his daughters reshaped what he thinks masculinity is for, and that idea, protecting what matters rather than dominating, runs straight through the books.* Media that’s actually healthy: Why Bluey and WALL-E keep coming up in his house, and what both authors think Gen Z is quietly asking for from stories.* What’s next: Book of Turpin, the fourth Paladin novel, is on presale now, plus upcoming events (including a cigar bar in Port Richey), karate tournaments, and his honest take on AI narration for audiobooks.Guest Links* Read Record of the Paladins: https://amzn.to/4u3pZbM * Website: thepaladinbooks.com* Facebook: RecordOfThePaladins* X: @brianmccoppinKristin’s Links* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristinTimestamps00:00 - Meet Brian McCoppin.01:05 - From Fanfic to Publishing.02:46 - Fiction vs Nonfiction Sales.03:29 - Christian Action Niche.05:34 - Peretti and Going Darker.06:54 - Demons in Institutions.08:37 - Who Actually Reads It.10:38 - Profanity and Pushback.12:21 - In Person Sales Wins.14:16 - Why Indie Publishing.16:53 - Content Warnings Matter.19:34 - Writing Humans vs Demons.21:54 - Overwriting Lessons.22:18 - Faith Without Preaching.24:16 - Guns In The Story.25:02 - Writing Hardship And Poverty.26:46 - Building Oliver The Warrior.28:49 - Family Martial Arts Journey.30:16 - Fatherhood And Masculinity.33:06 - Media Picks For Teens.36:00 - New Books And Events.37:09 - Conventions And Book Signings.38:15 - Selling Tips And Swag.39:49 - Audiobooks And AI Narration.41:53 - Where To Find The Author And Final Thanks.About This PodcastNonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.New episodes weekly.Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com