How Bestselling Ghostwriter, Award-Winning Journo & Debut Novelist Adam Skolnick Writes: Part Two

Update: 2025-12-05

Description

Part 2 of 2

Bestselling author and award-winning journalist Adam Skolnick returns to chat with us about the mystery of the creative process, why timing is everything in crafting a story, and his much-anticipated debut novel, AMERICAN TIGER.

I am joined by my co-host Milena Gonzalez.

Adam Skolnick is an author and award-winning journalist who covers travel, adventure and endurance sports, and the environment. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, Wired, Lonely Planet, and Men's Health.

He's the author of One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits, and the ghostwriter and audiobook narrator of the bestselling David Goggins memoirs, Can't Hurt Me and Never Finished. A frequent contributor on The Rich Roll Podcast, he lives in Southern California where he was born and raised.

His debut novel, American Tiger (available for preorder now, out December 2, 2025), “Based on true events, rooted in the stunning Southern California landscape, and populated with vivid characters, [the book] is more than a frantic tiger hunt. It's about a child's quest for self-discovery, her stoic father's struggle to come to terms with their past, and the innate wildness of every living thing.”

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert said of the author, "Adam Skolnick is a tireless investigator of the human experience, writes like a dream, and American Tiger is a gorgeous, subtly subversive yarn ringing with truth."

[This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ⁠ulys.app/writeabook⁠ to download Ulysses, and use the code FILES at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription."]

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In Part Two of this file Adam Skolnick, Milena Gonzalez and I discussed:

Why the journey of becoming a dad changed the scope and tenor of his novel

The only way to write something great

Telling his moving story from a unique point of view

The many paths to publication

Receiving signs from the universe

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

americantigerbook.com

American Tiger by Adam Skolnick (Amazon)