"If I'm writing strong, I walk away for the day so I can come back tomorrow and take off immediately. Once that energy starts flowing, it carries right through into the next scene." — Mike Papantonio

Mike Papantonio is an American trial lawyer, television presenter, radio talk show host, and author. He is a senior partner with Levin Papantonio, one of America’s largest plaintiffs’ law firms, and was one of the youngest inductees into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. He has aggressively taken on Big Pharma, tobacco, corporate polluters, and weapons manufacturers, among other bastions of corporate greed, and uses his own cases as springboards for his seven-book series of legal thrillers featuring Nicholas “Deke” Deketomis. Mike’s most recent legal thriller is “A Death in Arcadia,” inspired by the infamous Dozier School for Boys.

Among other things, Mike and Carter discuss how Mike’s novels are inspired by real cases he has litigated, the prevalence of “anti-heroes” in Hollywood, and the myth of writer's block. At the end of their conversation, they make up a poetic story using a line from Robert Thorogood’s The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts.

"I'm going to write what I want to write, because that's what I'm going to write best—what makes me feel passionate. It’s all about messed up people doing messed up things." — David Ellis

Welcome to Episode 250 of Making It Up! Our 250th episode features David Ellis, a judge and an Edgar-award-winning author of ten novels of crime fiction, as well as eight bestselling books co-authored with James Patterson. His novels have been translated into more than ten languages worldwide. In December 2014, Dave was sworn in as the youngest-serving Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District.

Among other things, David and Carter discuss concerns of AI in the writing industry, how plot is less important than character, and how the movie The Sixth Sense is the perfect example of a big plot twist. At the end of their conversation, they make up an interesting story using a line from Alex Finlay’s The Anniversary.

"The difference between a professional writer and an amateur is that the professionals get to the end and write 'The End.' And the thing that helps with that is we have contracts. But I've always found the pressure of a monthly mortgage a very good way of focusing concentration on actually doing your word count for the day." — Robert Thorogood

Robert Thorogood is an English screenwriter and Sunday Times and USA Today Bestselling novelist. He created the BBC One murder mystery series Death in Paradise as well as co-created two spin-off shows from it, Beyond Paradise and Return to Paradise. Since then, he's written The Marlow Murder Club series of murder mystery novels, which he turned into a TV series for PBS and UKTV.

Among other things, Robert and Carter discuss the feeling of seeing your book in person for the first time, writing series versus standalones, and how Robert emulates Agatha Christie in the way he plans out his stories.