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

Welcome to Bookstore Grazing, a Bell Cow Productions podcast where hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride go beyond the bookshelves to get to know the independent bookstores—and the people behind them—that help make the literary community work.

Every bookstore has a story. How did it get started? What earns a place on the shelves? How do booksellers decide what to recommend, work with local authors, create events, and build a community around books? Bookstore Grazing visits bookstores for casual conversations about their history, their customers, the books they love, and the things readers and authors might never see from the other side of the counter.

In this episode, we’re grazing our way to Fort Dodge, Iowa, where Cori joins Rob and Michael from Green Dragon Bookshop—currently Iowa’s tiniest bookstore at just about 300 square feet. After years of dreaming about owning a bookstore, Cori left a career in project management and put her MBA to work after the pandemic convinced her it was finally time to give that dream a chance. She signed for the space in February 2022 and opened Green Dragon just four months later.

With only enough room for roughly 2,000 to 3,000 books, every inch of shelf space matters. Cori shares the formula she now uses to curate the store: about 30 percent classics and genre foundations, 30 percent current popular titles, 30 percent new releases—and 10 percent whatever she thinks deserves a chance. We talk about her philosophy of balancing dependable “rocks” with more adventurous “reaches,” how customers helped Green Dragon expand from its original science-fiction and fantasy focus into horror, mystery and romance, and why some of the most valuable bookselling lessons have come directly from the readers who walk through the door.

But Green Dragon’s reach extends far beyond its tiny footprint. Cori is also the creator of the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour, which began in 2024 after she realized the nearest independent bookstores to Fort Dodge were more than an hour away. Her solution? Instead of creating a local bookstore crawl, make the entire state the crawl. The first tour included 35 bookstores, grew to 45 in its second year, and reached 62 participating shops in 2026. Thousands of readers now travel around Iowa collecting passport stamps, playing bookstore bingo and, this year, even gathering clues to solve a bookstore murder mystery.

And, of course, we talk books. Cori explains why she loves the rise of cozy fantasy, LitRPG, feminine rage and “weird girl fiction,” how *Dungeon Crawler Carl* has helped bring some readers back to books, why Legends & Lattes is such a useful gateway into fantasy, and how Green Dragon deliberately looks for unique voices and books readers may not already know. We also peek behind the shelves—literally—to discover Green Dragon’s hidden backstock and hear how Cori brings signed books home from conventions and literary events for readers in Fort Dodge who might not otherwise get the opportunity to meet those authors.

And Green Dragon won’t be Iowa’s tiniest bookstore much longer. After waiting about two years for the right space, Cori reveals that the shop is preparing to move into a larger location just a block or so away in Fort Dodge, with the move planned for 2027.

Visit Green Dragon Bookshop: https://www.thegreendragonbookshop.com/

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

Please follow, subscribe, like, and share. And, if you're a bookstore who wants to be featured, drop us a line. We'd love to chat.

#BookstoreGrazing #BellCowProductions #GreenDragonBookshop #FortDodgeIowa #IowaIndieBookshopTour #IndependentBookstore #IndieBookstore #ShopLocal #SupportIndependentBookstores #FantasyBooks #ScienceFictionBooks #HorrorBooks #BookPodcast #BookTube #IowaBooks #Booksellers #ReadingCommunity

🐮 Welcome to Bell Cow Book Club, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride read along with the herd and then sit down for a live, unscripted conversation about books worth talking about. No edits. No safety net. No second take. Just two readers, one book, and wherever the conversation takes us.

📖 This month, we’re discussing The Crying Killer by Minnesota author Jess Lourey, a dark, true-crime-inspired thriller rooted in the Twin Cities and the real-life legend of Minnesota’s Weepy-Voiced Killer.

The story moves between 1986 and 1995, following former police officer turned private investigator Tuesday Kenn, who has spent years trying to escape the violence of her past. When murders begin echoing the crimes of a killer everyone believes died years earlier, Tuesday becomes convinced that the past isn’t nearly as buried as everyone thinks.

But The Crying Killer is also a story built around memory, trauma, identity, family, and the question of whether Tuesday—and the reader—can trust what she thinks she knows.

Rob and Michael dig into Lourey’s use of Minnesota setting and true-crime inspiration, the shifting timelines, the friendship at the heart of the story, Tuesday’s relationship with Julia, and the increasingly complicated question of who is actually telling the truth.

And then there are the twists.

A lot of them.

We talk about which revelations genuinely surprised us, which ones felt earned, and whether there comes a point where adding another twist can actually lessen the impact of the one before it.

🔎 Does the book play fair with its biggest reveals?

👻 Does one particular late-book twist deepen the story—or change the rules too late?

🧩 Does the final identity of the Crying Killer work better thematically than it does as a mystery solution?

👩‍👧 And when protecting someone requires building their life around a lie, how long can that lie still be justified?

We also talk about the difference between admiring the construction of a thriller and actually loving the reading experience—and why disagreement between readers can sometimes make for the best book-club conversation.

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: Bell Cow Book Club is a true book-club conversation. We discuss the entire novel, including Tuesday’s identity, Nic, Arsen, the Crying Killer, major deaths, clues, twists, and the ending. Read The Crying Killer first if you want to experience the story without spoilers.

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

And you can find out more about Jess Lourey, all her books, and what's coming next on her webpage here: https://jessicalourey.com/

📺 Follow Bell Cow Productions and join future Bell Cow Book Club conversations live:

https://www.youtube.com/@BellCowProductions/streams

#BellCowBookClub #BellCowProductions #JessLourey #TheCryingKiller #ThrillerBooks #MysteryBooks #MinnesotaAuthors #MinnesotaMystery #TrueCrimeInspired #BookTube #BookClub #BookPodcast #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

Today we’re joined by Minnesota author Skye Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about writing, historical research, and his mystery thriller Long Lost Midwife.

Skye spent much of his professional career as a mechanical designer, using computer-aided design to visualize and build complex industrial machines. Now he brings that same visual approach to fiction, creating the kind of writing readers have described as cinematic. We talk about his path to becoming a writer, the decade he spent moderating the Plymouth Writers Group, and the long process of learning how to turn an idea into a finished novel.

Much of our conversation centers on Long Lost Midwife, set in 1930s St. Louis and following Pamela, a young white socialite determined to find Miss Minnie, the Black midwife who delivered her more than two decades earlier. What began as backstory for another novel grew into a four-and-a-half-year research project exploring race, class, motherhood, midwifery, and the complicated relationship between Pamela and Miss Minnie, eventually developing into a historical mystery with a substantial police-procedural element.

We also dig into Skye’s influences, from Donna Tartt and Allan Folsom to August Wilson, Jessica Lange, and Viola Davis; how he approaches historical characters whose lives are far removed from his own; why going to the gym can solve a stubborn plot problem; and why he writes every day, even if it’s only a page. Plus, we get a preview of his next mystery thriller, The Lake Tower, a decidedly creepy Twin Cities-set novel expected in early 2027, with a sequel already written and a third installment underway.

Author website: https://www.skyesmith-author.com/

You can find out more about your hosts, Rob and Michael, at their webpages:

https://robjungwriter.com/

https://www.michaelmacbride.com

And, of course, you can find everything about Bell Cow at the official webpage: https://www.bellcowproductions.com

(🐮 -- moo!)

#BellCowProductions #BellCowAuthorRoundUp #SkyeSmith #LongLostMidwife #HistoricalFiction #MysteryThriller #HistoricalMystery #MinnesotaAuthors #IndieAuthors #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview

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 July 20, 2026, at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota, Minnesota.

Military-thriller coauthors David Bruns and J.R. Olson sit down with former CIA officer and mystery writer Carmen Amato for a conversation about turning real-world experience into compelling fiction. They discuss the partnership behind their national-security thrillers, the research and technical detail that make military stories believable, and the challenge of creating fictional crises that feel unsettlingly plausible.

With experience spanning submarine service, naval intelligence, the CIA, international affairs, and corporate life, the three writers bring an unusually informed perspective to questions of espionage, military operations, global threats, and the line between authenticity and revealing too much.

David Bruns and J.R. Olson are the writing team behind contemporary national-security thrillers, including the Third Option series. Bruns is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and corporate executive, while Olson served as a naval intelligence officer and CIA-trained case officer.

https://www.bruns-olson.com

Carmen Amato spent 30 years with the CIA and is the author of the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, which follows Acapulco’s first female police detective through investigations shaped by corruption, violence, and conflicting loyalties.

https://carmenamato.net

Enjoy the conversation? Please like this episode, subscribe to the Bell Cow Productions YouTube channel, and follow Bell Cow Productions on Facebook so you never miss another conversation from the herd.

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 #DavidBruns #JROlson #CarmenAmato #MilitaryThrillers #EspionageFiction #ThrillerWriters #BellCowProductions

In this episode of Beyond the Pasture, Bell Cow Productions hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with M. A. Monnin, Air Force veteran, avocational archaeologist, and Agatha Award-nominated mystery author, to talk about her Intrepid Traveler Mysteries and the newest adventure for Stefanie Adams and Thomas Burkhardt, Death in Luxor.

For Monnin, setting a mystery somewhere exotic means more than pulling up photographs and doing research online. She travels to the places she writes about. From Greece and Venice to Bermuda and Egypt, she wants to experience the details that are difficult to discover secondhand: what a place feels like, how people move through it, what surprises a visitor, and even whether Venice’s canals actually smell the way everyone claims they do.

That firsthand experience takes center stage in Death in Luxor, the fourth Intrepid Traveler Mystery. Stefanie is finally becoming an official part of the Artifact Retrieval Team when anonymous threats against the “gold of the pharaohs” send her and Thomas to Egypt. When someone is murdered and a priceless relic disappears, their investigation follows a collection of Egypt-obsessed suspects up the Nile, through temples and tombs, and into a mystery built around the enduring fascination with ancient Egypt.

Monnin talks about visiting Egypt in 2022, seeing the pyramids rise almost abruptly beyond modern Cairo, exploring temples and tombs, riding a camel at Giza, and visiting Abu Simbel, where an extraordinary international preservation effort saved the ancient temples from the rising waters created by the Aswan High Dam. She also explains how an exhibition devoted to Queen Nefertari helped inspire Death in Luxor and how her research into Nefertari’s tomb, conservation, and antiquities trafficking fed directly into the story.

We also dig into the authors who helped shape Monnin’s approach to mystery writing. She embraces the Agatha Christie comparison, particularly Christie’s willingness to trust readers enough to place clues without drawing circles around them. Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody novels showed her something else: a romantic couple can actually remain together and still be interesting. That philosophy carries into Stefanie and Thomas, whose relationship continues alongside the mysteries rather than being perpetually pulled apart to manufacture romantic tension.

And there’s plenty beyond the novels. Monnin talks about being a dedicated plotter, sometimes spending months working out a story before drafting; writing tightly constructed short fiction featuring retired Air Force investigator Michael St. Killian and time-traveling troubleshooter Hawk Hathaway; growing up listening to classic radio mystery dramas; and the childhood in Germany that first sparked her fascination with archaeology, castles, Roman ruins, and the physical remnants of the past.

🐮 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.

📚 Learn more about M. A. Monnin and her books: https://www.mamonnin.com/

🎙️ Connect with the hosts:

Rob Jung: 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 #MAMonnin #DeathInLuxor #IntrepidTravelerMysteries #MysteryBooks #MysteryAuthor #Archaeology #AncientEgypt #Egypt #QueenNefertari #ArtifactTheft #AgathaChristie #TravelMystery #TraditionalMystery #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #BookTube #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow