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Hey there Word Nerds!

I\'m so glad you\'ve stopped by today because I\'ve got a great DIY MFA Radio interview for you.

In this episode, I interview\\xa0thriller author\\xa0Steve Hamilton about his new book:\\xa0The Second Life of Nick Mason. This book is a fascinating study on what happens when a fundamentally decent character makes some very bad choices.

In this episode Steve and I discuss:

• Significant experiences for writers that inform your fiction
• Building stories around situations versus characters
• Projecting characters\' arcs through a series

Plus, Steve\\u2019s #1 tip for writers.

About\\xa0the Author

Steve Hamilton\\xa0is\\xa0the two-time Edgar Award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Alex McKnight series and two standalone novels. His debut, novel \\xa0A Cold Day in Paradise, won both an Edgar and a Shamus Award for Best First Novel, and his standalone novel The Lock Artist won an Edgar for Best Novel of the Year, a CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and an Alex Award, given out by the American Library Association to those books that successfully cross over to the Young Adult market. He has either won or been nominated for every other major crime fiction award in America and the UK, and his books are now translated into twenty languages.

His new book The Second Life of Nick Mason\\xa0is the first in a new series and it\'s out now.\\xa0

To learn more about Steve Hamilton, visit his website or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

About\\xa0the Book

A career criminal from Chicago\\u2019s South Side, Nick Mason got his start stealing cars and quickly graduated to safe cracking and armed robbery. But he left that life behind when he got married and settled down with his wife and their young daughter\\u2013until an old friend offered him a job he couldn\\u2019t refuse. That fateful night at the harbor landed him in prison with a 25-to-life sentence and little hope of seeing his wife or daughter ever again. When Nick is offered a deal securing his release twenty years early, he takes it without hesitation and without fully realizing the consequences.

Once outside, Nick steps into a glamorous life with a five-million-dollar condo, a new car, ten grand in cash every month, and a beautiful roommate. But while he\\u2019s returned to society, he\\u2019s still a prisoner bound to the promise he made behind bars: whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, nick must answer it and follow whatever order he is given. It\\u2019s the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind serving a double-life term who still runs an empire from his prison cell. Whatever Darius Cole needs him to be\\u2013a problem solver, bodyguard, thief, or assassin\\u2013 Nick Mason must be that man.

Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes and relentlessly hunted by the detective who brought him to justice in the past, Nick finds himself in a secret war between Cole and an elite force of Chicago\\u2019s dirty cops. Desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wire, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything\\u2013his family, his sanity, and even his life\\u2013to finally break free.

Elmore Leonard\'s 10 Rules for Good Writing

Check out the original article from Elmore Leonard in the\\xa0New York Times.\\xa0The last rule (after #10) is what inspired Steve Hamilton\'s writing tip.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/101