Writer’s Corner welcomes authors Rob Jung, Brian Lutterman, and Chris Norbury for a conversation about The Kill Code Collective, an ambitious collaborative medical thriller created by the five members of Midwest Mystery Works. Five authors brought characters from their own mystery and thriller series into a single story—then had to figure out how to make five voices, five fictional worlds, and five very different characters work together as one novel.

Recorded on: October 23, 2026

Writer’s Corner is a television interview program featuring conversations with writers, authors, reviewers, publishers, and other literary voices from Minnesota and beyond. Created by Alan Miller, the program has long offered thoughtful conversations about books, craft, publishing, and the stories behind the stories.

In this episode, Michael MacBride takes a turn hosting Writer’s Corner, because usual host and Kill Code Collective co-author, Rob Jung is joined by fellow Midwest Mystery Works authors Brian Lutterman and Chris Norbury to talk about one of the more unusual experiments in collaborative fiction: getting five established mystery writers to write one thriller together.

The Kill Code Collective begins with two mysterious deaths involving failures of implanted cardiac devices. As questions grow around the Minnesota-based manufacturer behind the devices, the story expands to include stolen patient data, corporate secrets, blackmail, and the terrifying possibility that medical technology has been deliberately weaponized. Investigating the threat is an unlikely collection of characters drawn from the five authors’ existing fictional worlds, including aircraft mechanic Sierra Bauer, attorney Pen Wilkinson, hacker Louise “Weezy” Napolitani, musician and action hero Matt Lanier, and international fixer Henri Hawke.

But the story behind the book may be nearly as interesting as the thriller itself. Midwest Mystery Works consists of Rob Jung, Brian Lutterman, Chris Norbury, Julie Holmes, and John Baird Rogers. Rather than dividing up an anthology or contributing separate stories, the five authors set out to create a single, unified novel using characters they had already developed independently. The project took roughly two years and involved dozens of meetings, rewrites, comments, and collaborative revisions as the authors worked to turn five writing styles into one coherent story.

The result is The Kill Code Collective, released in May 2026: a medical and technological thriller that allows readers familiar with the authors’ individual books to see their characters collide, cooperate, and occasionally clash in an entirely new setting. For readers meeting them for the first time, the novel also serves as an introduction to five different mystery and thriller worlds.

Learn more about each of these authors at their webpages here:

Rob Jung: https://robjungwriter.com/ Rob Jung

Brian Lutterman: https://brianlutterman.com/ Brian Lutterman

Chris Norbury: https://chrisnorbury.com/ Chris Norbury

Julie Holmes: https://julieholmesauthor.com/ Julie Holmes, Author

John Baird Rogers: https://johnbairdrogers.com/ Pilgrimage

Midwest Mystery Works: https://www.facebook.com/MidwestMysteryWorks

Writer’s Corner is shared in connection with Bell Cow Productions, a literary media and author-support platform focused on connecting writers, readers, bookstores, libraries, and literary communities.

Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com/

Special thanks to Eagan-TV, Writer’s Corner’s home station.

Writer’s Corner: http://writers-corner.org/

Eagan-TV: https://eagan-tv.com/

#WritersCorner #KillCodeCollective #BellCow #BellCowProductions #AuthorInterview #BookTube #MysteryWriters #MedicalThriller #TechnoThriller #MinnesotaAuthors #CrimeFiction #CollaborativeWriting #WritingCommunity #BooksAndAuthors #AuthorConversation #LiteraryCommunity #PublicAccessTV #EaganTV

🗺️ What happens when a cartographer who has spent her life making maps realizes she isn’t entirely sure where she belongs?

In this episode of Beyond the Pasture, Bell Cow Productions hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with Minnesota author Anika Fajardo to talk about her adult novel The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore, a story of family, identity, grief, Colombia, magical realism, and the voices of the women who came before us.

At the center of the novel is Dorrie, a 35-year-old cartographer who has never traveled outside the United States and suddenly finds herself the last living member of her family. She also inherits the Minneapolis Victorian where she grew up—and a growing chorus of deceased women from her family who continue offering advice, warnings, and opinions about her life.

Anika talks about why Dorrie became a cartographer, the novel’s original working title Cartographic Memory, and how maps became a way to explore memory, identity, and belonging. We also dig into the rules Anika created for Dorrie’s chorus: the women can speak to her, but she can’t speak back, and their perspectives remain limited by who they were when they were alive.

The conversation also explores Anika’s own connection to Colombia, her experience being born there and raised in Minnesota, and the influence of writers such as Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez. We talk about magical realism, inherited family stories, and why fiction allows a writer to imagine the parts of the past that can never be fully recovered.

We also get into Maggie’s storyline, which Anika added relatively late in the writing process; Dorrie’s inherited Victorian and the long literary tradition of houses that seem to hold generations of memory; and the community Dorrie encounters when she finally travels to Cali.

Beyond Dolores Moore, Anika talks about her journey from librarian to published author, her memoir Magical Realism for Non-Believers, her middle-grade work, and her newest Disney project, Waiting on a Miracle: A Twisted Tale.

🐮 Beyond the Pasture is Bell Cow Productions’ author-centered conversation series for voices from across the literary landscape. Hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride talk with writers about who they are, where they come from, what shaped their books, and what readers will discover once they open the cover.

In this episode, we explore:

• The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore

• Why Dorrie is a cartographer who has never traveled

• The original title, Cartographic Memory

• The chorus of deceased women who accompany Dorrie

• The rules and limitations of those voices

• Magical realism and leaving room for readers to decide what they believe

• Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, and literary influence

• Being born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota

• Writing about identity through memoir and fiction

• Why Maggie’s storyline came later in the writing process

• Dorrie’s Minneapolis Victorian and houses that hold family memory

• Cali, Colombia, and the experience of finding community while traveling

• Anika’s journey from librarian to author

• Magical Realism for Non-Believers

• Disney’s Waiting on a Miracle: A Twisted Tale

• And what Anika may be writing next

📖 Learn more about Anika Fajardo: https://anikafajardo.com/

🎙️ Connect with the hosts:

Rob Jung: https://robjungwriter.com/

Michael David MacBride: https://www.michaelmacbride.com/

🐮 Learn more about Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com/

Subscribe, like, follow, and come wander Beyond the Pasture with us.

#BeyondThePasture #BellCowProductions #AnikaFajardo #TheManyMothersOfDoloresMoore #MagicalRealism #Cartography #Colombia #MinnesotaAuthors #FamilyStories #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #BookTube #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable variety, and the kind of audience energy you only get when book people gather in a room together. Minnesota Mystery Night describes itself as a live, meet-the-author event featuring mystery and thriller writers in conversation with intriguing guests, held on the third Monday of each month in Mendota, Minnesota.

These Bell Cow encore presentations preserve those live conversations and give them a second life beyond the room. They also connect to Masters of Mystery Radio Hour, the broadcast version of Minnesota Mystery Night, which is recorded live at the event and carried on radio stations in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including KRWC-AM, AM950/KTNF, KTOE, KLTF, KCCR, KKBJ, KWNO, WWIS, and KJAM. Bell Cow Productions, meanwhile, exists to support writers through podcasts, resources, and behind-the-scenes literary conversation, which makes this series a natural fit for the herd.

Originally recorded 4/21/2025 at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota, Minnesota: forensic psychologist and true-crime novelist Frank F. Weber sits down with historical crime writer Betty Brandt Passick for an evening of lively conversation recorded before a Minnesota Mystery Night audience. This episode brings together two authors who draw from real crimes, historical records, community memories, and extensive research to construct stories in which fact and fiction are never very far apart. Bell Cow is proud to give the evening an encore presentation, with the conversation also living on through Masters of Mystery Radio Hour.

Frank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist and Minnesota true-crime author whose novels draw inspiration from real cases. His books include The I-94 Murders, The Haunted House of Hillman, Scandal of Vandals, and Heartbreak Hollow.

https://www.frankweberauthor.com

Betty Brandt Passick is a multi-award-winning author whose historical crime novels include Gangster in Our Midst and The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse. Her gangster series was inspired by the remarkable, fact-based story of a Chicago mobster who settled in her small Iowa hometown.

https://bettybrandtpassick.com

Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

Minnesota Mystery Night: https://www.mnmysterynight.com

Masters of Mystery Radio Hour: https://www.mnmysterynight.com/mmrh

#MysteryConversations #MinnesotaMysteryNight #FrankFWeber