Heads Up:

This transcript was generated with the help of AI and only got a quick once-over from a human. So if you spot a typo or something that doesn’t make sense… let’s just blame the robots. 🤖

[00:00:03.980] – Alan Petersen
You are listening to Meet the Thriller Author, the podcast where I interview thriller, mystery, and suspense writers. I’m your host, Alan Petersen, a thriller author myself and a big fan of the genre. This is episode number 226, and it’s a special one. After 10 years of doing this podcast, this is my first time recording live on location. I sat down with today’s guests right on the conference floor at the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during Author Nation 2025. This is the largest indie publishing conference out there with over 1400 authors attending. One of those authors was Daniel Pelfrey, who joined me on short notice for this conversation. I wanted to give a quick shout out to Author Nation for providing the podcast recording booth because we were recording live at the conference. You will hear some background noise, people walking around and talking just a few feet away. That adds to a fun, right there in the moment feel. I hope you enjoy it. Before we get into today’s interview, I wanted to share a few thoughts about Author Nation 2025. I’ve been attending these conferences for years now, long before the rebrand to Author Nation.

I’ve only missed two. One of my favorite parts each time is reconnecting with old author friends and meeting new ones. There’s just something energizing about being in the same space with people who are on this journey, too. If you’re an indie author or thinking about becoming one, I really do recommend this conference, especially if you’re just starting out. Author Nation caters to all genres, but they always show a strong appreciation for mystery and thriller authors. This year, they had two great panels. The Cozy mystery panel featured Diana Xarissa and H. Y. Hanna, both of whom I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing on this podcast. The thriller panel included Cheryl Bradshaw and Daniel Hurst. I’ve interviewed Cheryl in the past as well, and Daniel Hurst will actually be on the show in a couple of weeks. There was even a surprise appearance by Mary Stone, who was one of the biggest indie thriller authors out there, so it was a fun moment, too. The closing My main keynote was none other than James Patterson, probably the most famous thriller author out there.

He was originally scheduled to attend in person, but unfortunately, he could not travel because he was recovering from COVID. However, he still joined live via Zoom and author nation did a fantastic job with this setup. It was great video, great audio. Patterson is an incredible speaker, very smart, very funny. If you haven’t watched his master class, I highly recommend it. His lesson on outlining changed the way I planned my books. I use his outlining approach to this day. If you want to check out my video case study on the process, you can find it at thrillingreads. Com/casestudy. If you’re interested in his masterclass itself, you can check that out at thrillingreads. Com/outline. As for the structure of the event, author Nation ran from November third to the seventh. Monday was just a day to register, and then it was the vendor day, so you could walk the floor and talk to companies like Vellum, ProWriting Aid, Bookbub, Amazon KDP, and a lot of others. Then Tuesday through Thursday was the main conference days with sessions covering everything from writing craft to marketing, social media. One thing I appreciate is that the presenters aren’t allowed to pitch from the stage, so you are there to learn, to be sold to. And many of the presenters are authors themselves, which gives everything a practical, grounded feel. The week wrapped up on Friday with the Reader Nation, which is a public event where readers can meet authors, browse books, get them signed, and just talk to writers face to face. Always a great atmosphere. Author Nation will be back in Las Vegas next year. It’ll run from November 10th through the 14th. So if you want to learn more, you can visit authornation. Live. All right, let’s get to it. Here is my live interview with Daniel Pelfrey, recorded right on the conference floor. Enjoy.

[00:03:49.700] – Alan Petersen
All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Meet the Thriller author. I’m Alan Petersen, and I am here in Las Vegas at the Author Nation. They offered a cool recording booth for podcasting. I thought it’d be cool to do a interview right here on the floor, right here in the conference. If you hear the background noise, that’s just the conference going on. I have Daniel Pelfrey, who is a thriller author. Daniel, he writes a thriller. He writes across various genres, including crime fiction, alternate history, and urban fantasy. And his first book, Book of a New Series, the Nathan Calloway Thriller Series, which actually comes out today, November fourth. So, Daniel, congratulations, and thanks for coming on the podcast.

[00:04:39.140] – Daniel Pelfrey
Thank you.

[00:04:40.640] – Alan Petersen
So that’s going to be nerve-wracking. You’re at a conference and you’re releasing a book. Are you a little distracted?

[00:04:45.760] – Daniel Pelfrey
Technically, I’m releasing two.

[00:04:48.040] – Alan Petersen
Two of them? The first two books are coming out?

[00:04:50.460] – Daniel Pelfrey
No, I have another series. Technically, the book comes out next week, but I’m going to have it at Reader Nation on Friday.

[00:04:57.860] – Alan Petersen
Oh, wow.

[00:04:59.140] – Daniel Pelfrey
You got it next week. In another genre.

[00:05:00.680] – Alan Petersen
Different genre? What genre is that one?

[00:05:02.520] – Daniel Pelfrey
Actually, it’s urban fantasy crime fiction.

[00:05:05.140] – Alan Petersen
Okay, cool. Let me ask you this, though, with regards to the conference, is this your first author nation?

[00:05:11.760] – Daniel Pelfrey
This is my second author nation, but I did the last two 20 Books conferences also.

[00:05:18.730] – Alan Petersen
Okay, cool. What keeps you coming to these conferences?

[00:05:24.000] – Daniel Pelfrey
You know what? I learn something every time. Even going back and watching the videos that we get access to, I can rewatch things that I actually said and learn something new then.

[00:05:37.160] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, that’s awesome. Do you attend any other conferences or is it just this one?

[00:05:42.420] – Daniel Pelfrey
No, I have a day job, so I can’t really take too much time to disappear because I work at a hotel in a tourist town. Okay.

[00:05:51.960] – Alan Petersen
Yeah. You’re familiar with the whole Vegas vibe?

[00:05:56.260] – Daniel Pelfrey
Not exactly. I live in a small town in North Dakota.

[00:06:01.030] – Alan Petersen
Okay.

[00:06:02.380] – Alan Petersen
A little different.

[00:06:05.360] – Alan Petersen
Let me ask you about this new release that you got here. The Nathan Calloway Thriller series. The first book is These Things We Do, which is out November fourth. By the time people are listening to this. They can go get the book. So tell us about it. What can readers expect from the series?

[00:06:21.420] – Daniel Pelfrey
Well, it’s the military fiction here, Vigilating Justice. Usually, you see the Navy Seal, Army Ranger, those types of guys. Well, I’m an Air Force vet, and I’ve always just seen there’s not enough love in the genre for the Air Force. So my guy is retired, Air Force pararescue. If you don’t know what pararescue is, they’re the guys that’s named the Seals call when they need to be evaced out. They’re combat medics who are also special operators, meaning that they can do everything the CL can do.

[00:06:54.400] – Alan Petersen
Oh, yeah. They’re going to jump in the water with like a lot of gear, the first aid gear.

[00:06:58.920] – Daniel Pelfrey
Overbeel out of aircraft, whatever. Yeah.

[00:07:02.620] – Alan Petersen
So that’s what inspired you to do this. You wanted a little difference from what’s out there.

[00:07:08.600] – Daniel Pelfrey
It’s the same, but it’s also different. I was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base at the train pipeline for pararescue. Actually, the title of the book is the second half of their motto. Their motto is these things we do that others may live.

[00:07:26.060] – Alan Petersen
And so tell us about the character. How did it come to be? Is it based based on you and your experience?

[00:07:32.680] – Daniel Pelfrey
No, no, no. In Basic, you try out for Pararescue. If you can’t swim, they don’t want you. Actually, I also have a prequel novella for this. That’s called Broken Faith. It’s actually set during the final eight, three days of the Afghanistan withdrawal when he was still in Air Force. He was at where it happened, Abbey 8, far enough away that otherwise I wouldn’t have a series. But that particular novella is dedicated to those 13 people, 13 servicemen in Parish.

[00:08:19.180] – Alan Petersen
And what’s your process then? So it’s based on true events, obviously. Do you look a lot of research in the beginning?

[00:08:25.860] – Daniel Pelfrey
That one was based on true events. This one here, it’s more I have a veteran who helps those other veterans who fall between the cracks or maybe other people. He lives by that creed, these things we do.

[00:08:41.280] – Alan Petersen
So let me ask you then. So I’m assuming these are fast paced And what’s your writing style in your process?

[00:08:50.280] – Daniel Pelfrey
My writing style, it’s always evolving because I’m writing different genres and can’t have the same voice in everything I’m going to write it. Even similar series with Casasco Police Procedural, that’s very different than this. I plan out several books, at least a premise. I have up to the fourth or fifth book with the premise already planned, and the next two books are already written. So that way I can release quarterly. I typically have my first draft seven or eight months ahead. Editing is about four months. So that way, when I put it up for pre-order, it’s ready to go. I can do it right then, but I don’t. I do it three-month pre-order. Yet there is a lot of research. I actually use a lot of AI to help with that. So that way, otherwise, it would take me probably four times longer to write each book. I know a bit about the Air Force culture. So a lot of that is That is first-hand knowledge. But within the pararescue, the PGA community, that I rely on a few people I know and research, because Otherwise, I want it to be accurate. The concepts are, he’s helping people in the community, typically other vets who, like I said, fall between the cracks or the The system just failed them.

[00:10:32.840] – Daniel Pelfrey
And that’s where the title from Broken Faith came from. He wants one person at a time if he could help someone. Part of his thing is once he does something to help someone, in the military, we have challenge coins. He gives the person a challenge coin, and he gives him poker chips. The challenge coin is he helped the poker chips or the referral if someone else didn’t tell.

[00:10:57.780] – Alan Petersen
Okay, so that’s the way they reach him for the chips that he knows?

[00:11:02.180] – Daniel Pelfrey
And it’s set up. There’s a secured phone number on it.

[00:11:05.680] – Alan Petersen
Okay. Got it. It’s cool. Yeah. I like it. That’s a cool hook. You mentioned before you’ve written it across multiple genres. So What’s your approach from writing readers to, for example, you also write alternate history stories? Is it the same approach? Is it the same style?

[00:11:23.220] – Daniel Pelfrey
The planning portions are all the same. I The alternate history that I write, and I’m actually also planning a straight historical fiction series because I have a degree in history, so I want to use it for something. But the alternate history It’s like, first you got to ask yourself the what if. And that one, my what if is what if the colonies lost at the Battle of Yorktown? So that’s the prequel. I set the main series and in 1905. Still colonial, but in what’s now the States. But I think that the atmosphere is more like about Ireland at the same time if you study history, which wasn’t very good. And in that one, I actually have Theodore Roosevelt is not the main character, but he’s the mentor for my male and female leads in the story in the series. So it’s Yeah.

[00:12:32.060] – Alan Petersen
Kind of a filler vibe on that one, too. Like a little action. Yeah.

[00:12:35.920] – Daniel Pelfrey
The first ones are more espionage. But then after about book three, it becomes more epic war.

[00:12:44.500] – Alan Petersen
Okay. Yeah. And so I was going to ask you, you’ve had a pretty interesting career path. You mentioned the Air Force, you were TSA, you even dealt blackjack. Does any of that stuff get into your books?

[00:12:56.240] – Daniel Pelfrey
Not that much. I can tell you that when I worked for Did you say I was at Chicago Midway. It was busy. You would not believe how many times I said to someone, I’m sorry, but you cannot take that iron skillet as carry on. I was a supervisor. When I dealt with Black Jack, I actually worked at 8: 00. She was kissing them.

[00:13:17.120] – Alan Petersen
Oh, really? Yeah. Full circle.

[00:13:19.660] – Daniel Pelfrey
That was about eight months.

[00:13:23.060] – Alan Petersen
Let me ask them, too, now, with regards to your writing process, because I always ask my guests these type of questions. How do you write books? Do you use Word, Scrivener, something else?

[00:13:34.060] – Daniel Pelfrey
I actually use Nolou Crafter.

[00:13:36.590] – Alan Petersen
Oh, Nolou Crafter? Yeah, I read about that one.

[00:13:38.860] – Daniel Pelfrey
Like I said, I do a lot with AI, clean it up. If you put my voice into it. If I’m looking for a specific dialog where I want the character to say certain things, I make that happen. I put that voice in. I think my writing has gotten better because I know a lot of people don’t like AI. A lot of authors are negative on it. After my first 20 books in 2022, right after my 50th birthday, I had congestive heart failure. And for a long time, I couldn’t even string a sentence together. So working with ChatGPT and finding new things, it helped retrain my brain so that way I can work, so that way I can write again. That’s where that alternate history got planned. Okay. During that practice. I made it a long time to write it. But now it’s like, say I want to paint a wall and I take in the roller. I take the roller over the wall and I miss the blank spots. The AI fills in the blanks for me, that I’m missing. Okay. Yeah. And it’s a back and forth. So certain things, it’s like, No, I don’t like that idea.

[00:14:54.800] – Daniel Pelfrey
We’re going to go this way. So it’s like getting to brainstorm, but not having with six other people in the room disagreeing with you.

[00:15:02.730] – Alan Petersen
Yeah. Well, yeah, I know AI is a hot topic and controversial topic, but it’s here. It’s a tool. It’s useful. And it’s not going anywhere.

[00:15:13.260] – Daniel Pelfrey
It would take me eight or nine months to write I don’t read a book otherwise. Yeah.

[00:15:17.520] – Alan Petersen
Is there a common thread that you end up baking into your books without even realizing it?

[00:15:23.940] – Daniel Pelfrey
I like to have family in books. Okay. In the Nathan Calloway series, he’s divorced, has a teenage daughter. That is being divorced and have a teenage daughter also helps add tension and helps have those points. I also write the Police Procedural. I write the Hector Ramirez series. I like to rotate. He is the lead, but I like to rotate who I focus on in the books. So that way, there’s five or six different detectives that work with them. So that way they each get character development, like through a whole book.

[00:16:00.000] – Alan Petersen
Okay.

[00:16:00.380] – Daniel Pelfrey
So that way, all they get is a mention here or there. But I also, when I was starting to create that series, that was when I was going through the worst of the congestive heart failure. And I was watching a lot of guys, Yeti, and it’s like, this book needs a diner, where it’s that neutral ground. So there’s a diner, and in that series, it’s taking on a life of its own. It’s its own character. And I set two or three scenes in each book in the diner, and usually one toward the end after they’ve solved the case. And that’s where I do a lot of the… Where I definitely want to be writing a lot of the dialog because they’re trading quips and insulting each other in their playful way. It’s a fun way to have your characters a little outside of their character, but still working within the confines of what you would expect in that a story.

[00:17:06.880] – Alan Petersen
And what is your process? Do you outline or do you write by the seat of your pants?

[00:17:12.160] – Daniel Pelfrey
I used to write by the seat of my pants, and my stories We go all over the place. And now I start with a premise. The premise of this book actually is a continuation from the prequel novella, the broken faith novela. And it’s his best friend who his daughter calls uncle because they’re like brothers, drowned. Well, pararescuers don’t drown.

[00:17:47.100] – Alan Petersen
I like that.

[00:17:49.020] – Daniel Pelfrey
So he starts investigating it. So that’s the premise for that. Like I said, I have books two and three already trash written. The third book, I can tell you, I’m going to give you a spoiler because the book two, Shaker Ground is already in pre-order. Book three, the title is going to be No Fixed Address. Homeless Vetted, Who Witnesses a murder, gets accused of a murder. Oh, nice. So it’s That’s my premise. And from there, I say, okay, well, what’s going to work? I need attention points. I need… So it’s a back and forth, thinking what’s going to work, what’s not. I’ve actually written home novels, looked back at it, said, This doesn’t work. The premise worked, but the story didn’t. So then I go back, and that’s actually one of the great things about AI, because I can say, Okay, it worked up to this point. Now I can go back into the outline and say, Okay, here’s where it didn’t work. Let’s fix it. Then I read right from there.

[00:18:56.720] – Alan Petersen
What’s the AI tools that you use? Is it like the- I mainly use Novel Crafter, but you have to have an API key.

[00:19:03.520] – Daniel Pelfrey
I usually use Claude.

[00:19:06.270] – Alan Petersen
Okay. Within Novel Crafter.

[00:19:08.620] – Daniel Pelfrey
Yes. But I also use Claude directly when I do all the outlining and planning, because that way I can go more in-depth. It works a little bit better for the way that I like to work. I actually get my full outline and all my story beats, and then I put that all in Novel Crafter, and then I just sit I can go through that and start editing. Sometimes I edit on the fly because if you don’t, if there’s one little small thing in it that’s wrong, it’ll come back to bite you later and snowball and get bigger.

[00:19:44.080] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, that’s the most frustrating part of it, too, when you get stuck like that. Let me ask, too, with regards to the thriller genre, were you a fan of these type of books before you started writing them?

[00:19:58.960] – Daniel Pelfrey
You know what? The only genre that I didn’t really read a lot in before I started writing, it was the urban fantasy. I like alternate history. One of my favorite authors, he’s now passed. Eric Flandre did a series called Ring of Fire. And the first book that I saw, I was in the Burns & Noble, and I see this book, and it shows some hillbillies. And Spanish conquistadors. I’m like, What in the world? So I look, flip it over and see, oh, for where I’m at, I’m originally from Northwest Indiana. He lived in Northwest Indiana. I’m like, I think I’ll give this one a shot 30 something books later. I’m still reading in that series. I know that they just announced that they’re going to continue it with someone else running the series. So I’m happy. I do read Mark Dawson’s John Milton series. Tony Lee writing his Jack Allen. I read his Dechna Wall series. Love that series. Love both those series, actually. I’m a reader. I’ve always been a reader. I picked just about everything up. Matter of fact, was just in a barns in the noble the other day. I picked up a biography on Theodore Roosevelt and a book on Native American folklore.

[00:21:30.460] – Daniel Pelfrey
The cover was cool.

[00:21:31.880] – Alan Petersen
Yeah. The importance of the book cover. People don’t judge by the covers, but in this business, it’s a big, very important. I like your cover. Do you do it yourself?

[00:21:45.840] – Daniel Pelfrey
Actually, I do and I don’t. I actually prepared a brief. I used to get covers.

[00:21:56.500] – Alan Petersen
Oh, yeah. Economical.

[00:21:59.020] – Daniel Pelfrey
If you’re an author start now, you can get some really great covers. Let me double-check something here. I can’t remember if I did a title page in this one. Yes, I did. They also offer the title pages for $5 more, audiobook covers included in the package. But what I do is I actually will work with AI, say, Here’s the story. What cover should this have? Oh, good.

[00:22:27.700] – Alan Petersen
It’s a good idea.

[00:22:28.560] – Daniel Pelfrey
It tells me what it should look like. So I can then set down into a brief for the cover artist, for the designers. It get covers and send it to them. And I’ve done that with a couple of different series. I’ve done that with my Alterated History series, and those all turn out gorgeous, too. But that’s what I do. So I don’t pay a lot for the coverage. It saved me money for advertising.

[00:23:00.000] – Alan Petersen
Yeah. The important things. So what are you working on now? What’s your current project that you’re writing?

[00:23:07.580] – Daniel Pelfrey
Actually, just last night, I was working on a book for my Urban Fantasy series that The title in that series is Chicago Underground. It’s Urban Fantasy, more magic, realism. The magical community is hidden in plain sight. It’s called Blood and Ballets: The Series is set in Chicago. Ampires in politics. What can I say? Yeah.

[00:23:34.800] – Alan Petersen
In Chicago. Cook County, style.

[00:23:38.560] – Daniel Pelfrey
Yeah. I also started a historical fiction, a detective series set in Prohibition here in Chicago.

[00:23:47.950] – Alan Petersen
Oh, that sounds cool.

[00:23:49.580] – Daniel Pelfrey
That one is called O’Malley Investigations. Okay. Just so you know, O’Malley is drunk.

[00:23:56.500] – Alan Petersen
Of course.

[00:23:57.580] – Daniel Pelfrey
His secretary is the brains.

[00:24:01.580] – Alan Petersen
Let me ask you, with this conference going on here, what classes are you… What presentations are you going to? What’s your thoughts?

[00:24:10.530] – Daniel Pelfrey
This year, I’ve been putting it off. Three conferences this year. My focus is the marketing because I need to get better at it.

[00:24:20.280] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, absolutely.

[00:24:21.160] – Daniel Pelfrey
I do take time to do a couple of panels or maybe at least one craft session just because there’s always something Yeah, that is true in this business.

[00:24:32.740] – Alan Petersen
Everything changes, too, in an instant, sometimes. All right, Daniel. So let me ask you before I let you go. I always ask my guests in every episode, advice for aspiring writers that are listening to this?

[00:24:47.560] – Daniel Pelfrey
My first bit of advice is never listen to the people who say, Oh, you’ll never make it. My first book that I published is actually not fiction.

[00:24:54.640] – Alan Petersen
Okay.

[00:24:56.040] – Daniel Pelfrey
I have a degree in history, like I mentioned. The focus of my undergraduate studies, and actually to a degree, I did a year grad school for history. Okay. I decided this wasn’t for me, but American West. So I had 17 different essays of varying lengths about the American West. So I reedited those. Someone who was a boy, he was the President of the Foundation I used to work for. He was like, you know, most people won’t sell 100 copies of a book. And then he said, I’m still working on my first book, and he’s still working on it. And I can say, I have more than 20 hours, Andy. Yeah, right. Yeah. So, yeah, I’m working. And you know what? I have a day job still. But if you think you can do it, don’t give up your dream. Just write what you want to. Yeah. Because let’s face it, everything is a passion project if you want to write. But also, I would say, do something you can do in series. You want it your own thing, but you still need to be… And you’ll hear this from a lot of people. You can do your own thing, but at the same time, you still have to be still within that niche that it fits.

[00:26:31.340] – Daniel Pelfrey
If you don’t fit in anything, it’s not good. Not that it’s bad writing. It’s harder to find success.

[00:26:40.540] – Alan Petersen
Yeah. Give the readers books that they’re looking for already. All right, Daniel. Let me ask you for the listeners who are listening to this, where can they find you? Do you have a website? Where are you online?

[00:26:51.940] – Daniel Pelfrey
My website is… I’m going to give it where it goes right to the books.

[00:26:57.480] – Alan Petersen
Okay.

[00:26:58.560] – Daniel Pelfrey
Books. Daniel danielpelfre. Us.

[00:27:02.740] – Alan Petersen
All right. Daniel, thank you so much for coming on and doing this podcast here live at Author Nation. Thanks to Author Nation, too, for providing this booth. It’s pretty cool. Oh, absolutely.

[00:27:11.360] – Daniel Pelfrey
Thank you for… Because this is my first podcast I’ve ever done.

[00:27:15.520] – Alan Petersen
All right. Got you going now. The first of many, probably. Hopefully. Yeah. All right. Thanks very much.

[00:27:30.000] – Announcer
Thanks for listening to Meet the Thriller author, hosted by Alan Petersen. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps other Thriller fans discover the show. You can find all past episodes, show notes and author interviews at thrillerauthors. Com, including conversations with icons like Dean Koontz, Freda McFadden, and Lee Child. And if you’re looking for your next gripping read, check out Alan’s own Psychological Thrillers and Crime Fiction novels at thrillingreads. Com/books. Until next time, stay safe, keep reading, and keep the thrills coming.