Bell Cow Productions: Podcasts

🐮 Bell Cow StoryLab: Writing Across Genres: The Joy (and Chaos) of Being Unpigeonholeable (with four authors)

Bell Cow StoryLab is our monthly author panel series, hosted by authors Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride. Each episode brings multiple writers into one craft-focused conversation, spotlighting how books actually get built. Scene by scene, choice by choice. In Writing Across Genres: The Joy (and Chaos) of Being Unpigeonholeable, we talk about what happens when your imagination refuses to stay in one lane. Some writers stick to a single genre forever. Others genre-hop like they are stepping stones across a creek. We dig into what pulls an author into new territory, what stays constant across wildly different kinds of stories, how to manage reader expectations without sanding off your weirdness, and how to experiment without turning your author brand into a yard sale of mixed signals. We also get into questions like: What genre surprised you when you tried it? Do your readers follow you from genre to genre? Is genre-blending freedom, or headache? Today’s panelists (bios + links) Beth M James: A romance author who writes contemporary and fantasy-leaning love stories with strong characters, emotional grit, and a sense of adventure. https://www.bethmjames.com/ Catherine Friend: A genre-fluid Minnesota writer of adult and children’s books, spanning nonfiction, fiction, and big-hearted storytelling with a sharp, playful voice. https://catherinefriend.com/ Frank Weber: A Minnesota author and forensic psychologist who channels real-world insight into crime-focused storytelling shaped by high-stakes human behavior. https://www.frankweberauthor.com/ M.A. Monnin: An Agatha Award nominated mystery author whose work blends traditional whodunits with travel, history, and a touch of romance. https://www.mamonnin.com/ Connect with the hosts Rob Jung: https://robjungwriter.com/ Michael David MacBride: https://www.michaelmacbride.com/ Everything Bell Cow: https://www.bellcowproductions.com/ #BellCow #BellCowProductions #BellCowStoryLab #StoryLab #Villains #Antagonists #WritingCraft #AmWriting #FictionWriting #MysteryWriters #CrimeFiction #ThrillerWriters #CharacterDevelopment #PageTurners

🐮 Bell Cow Author Round-up: A.W. Powers & C.N. Buchholz (with hosts Rob Jung & Michael MacBride)

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and craft, you’ll get to know, like never before, the people who embellish our lives via the written word. The podcast rings the bell loud and clear, guiding you straight to your next favorite author, maybe even one who writes in your own backyard. Join the herd. Give the round-up a listen: subscribe, like, and follow! Today we’re joined by two Minnesota authors bringing very different—and equally compelling—flavors of dark fiction to the table: A.W. Powers and C.N. Buchholz. A.W. Powers is the author of Uncontrolled Variables, a paranormal thriller that blends scientific curiosity with haunting supernatural twists. Powers writes stories where the boundaries between logic and the inexplicable blur, creating narratives that keep readers questioning what is real and what lies just beyond our understanding. A longtime writer with a background steeped in speculative storytelling, Powers weaves tension and emotion together with precision. You can learn more about A.W. at: https://wmjanderson.com/ C.N. Buchholz joins us with The Devil You Know, a chilling mix of mystery, horror, and psychological tension. Buchholz excels at crafting dread—stories where danger presses in at the edges and characters must confront the terrors lurking within and without. Her work examines fear, resilience, and the complicated alchemy of trauma and survival. Learn more at: https://cnbuchholz.com/ Both authors’ books are available wherever books are sold, and Minnesota readers can also find them at Once Upon a Crime: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/ In this special episode, Powers and Buchholz join the herd to talk about fear, the supernatural, the allure of dark storytelling, and why readers love to be unsettled. You can find out more about your hosts: Rob and Michael at their webpages (https://robjungwriter.com/ and https://www.michaelmacbride.com). And, of course, you can find everything about Bell Cow at the official webpage: https://www.bellcowproductions.com (🐮 -- moo!) #bellcow #bellcowproductions #interviews #authors #roundup #bellcowroundup

🐮📚 Five Minnesota mystery authors. One collaborative thriller. A whole lot of ways this could have gone off the rails.

🚨 Welcome to Fresh Off the Stack, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with authors to talk about brand-new books just as they arrive in the world. This series is all about new releases, the stories behind them, and the conversations that happen when a book is still fresh in readers’ hands. 🖊️ In each episode, we talk with authors about inspiration, process, research, surprises, and what readers can expect when they open the cover. Some conversations focus on craft, some on publication, and some on the real-world ideas behind the story, but every episode begins with a new book and a chance to give it a proper welcome. 🐮 This episode digs into The Kill Code Collective by five Minnesota mystery and thriller authors: Brian Lutterman, Rob Jung, John Baird Rogers, Chris Norbury, and Julie Holmes. Written by members of Midwest Mystery Works, the novel brings together five writers, multiple thriller traditions, and one collaborative story involving medical technology, unexplained cardiac device failures, and a mystery big enough to require a collective response. In this conversation, we talk about how five authors managed to write one cohesive thriller, how they handled voice, plot, research, continuity, and collaboration, and what happens when a group of novelists tries to share the steering wheel without driving into a ditch. 📚 Featured authors: Brian Lutterman is a Minnesota mystery and thriller author, a former trial lawyer and corporate attorney, and the author of Incel, Bound to Die, and the Pen Wilkinson series. https://brianlutterman.com John Baird Rogers writes thrillers shaped by his background in finance, technology, and biotech. He is the author of the Mayfield-Napolitani thriller series. https://johnbairdrogers.com Chris Norbury is the award-winning author of the Matt Lanier mystery-thriller series, including Straight River, Castle Danger, and Dangerous Straits. https://chrisnorbury.com Julie Holmes writes mystery and suspense, including Murder in Plane Sight, and brings experience as a former aircraft mechanic and technical writer to her fiction. https://julieholmesauthor.com Rob Jung is an author, publisher, producer, former newspaper writer, former lawyer, and Michael’s partner in Bell Cow Productions. His novels include The Reaper, The Sower, Cloud Warriors, and Judgment Day. https://robjungwriter.com 📖 Buy a copy anywhere books are sold, and if you're looking for a great independent bookstore to support, here's a link to buy a copy from Once Upon A Crime: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781736610879 📍 Key book launch and signing events: May 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM Official Launch Party at Minnesota Mystery Night Lucky’s 13 Pub, Mendota, MN May 21, 2026 at 10:10 AM Book Club Radio Show KRWC-AM 1360, Buffalo, MN May 21, 2026 from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM Signing at Book Nook Delano, MN May 23, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Signing at Once Upon a Crime Minneapolis, MN May 30, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Sweet Read Books Austin, MN July 12, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM Twin Cities Sisters in Crime Wine and Crime Book Fair Next Chapter Winery, New Prague, MN 🐮 Learn more about Bell Cow Productions at: https://www.bellcowproductions.com #FreshOffTheStack #BellCowProductions #BookTube #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #BrianLutterman #RobJung #JohnBairdRogers #ChrisNorbury #JulieHolmes #TheKillCodeCollective #MysteryBooks #ThrillerBooks #NewBookRelease #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow

Mystery Conversations: Chicago author Lori Rader-Day in conversation with book reviewer Kate Malmon

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 multiple radio stations in Minnesota and South Dakota, including KRWC-AM, AM950/KTNF, KTOE, KLTF, KCCR, KKBJ, and KWNO. 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 2/16/2026: Chicago author Lori Rader-Day sits down with book reviewer Kate Malmon for a conversation about mystery, suspense, storytelling, and whatever else the night was willing to confess. Recorded in front of a live audience at Minnesota Mystery Night, this episode brings together an acclaimed novelist and a deeply plugged-in reader and reviewer for a conversation that is thoughtful, lively, and built for mystery people. Bell Cow is proud to give the evening an encore presentation, with the conversation also living on through Masters of Mystery Radio Hour. Lori Rader-Day is an Edgar-nominated, Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning crime writer whose books include Wreck Your Heart, The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago and has served as co-chair of the Midwest Mystery Conference and as national president of Sisters in Crime. https://loriraderday.com Kate Malmon is a book reviewer and moderator whose criticism appears at Book Marks and Crime Spree Magazine. She is widely known in the crime-fiction community as a sharp reader and engaging conversation partner. https://bookmarks.reviews/reviewer/kate-malmon/ 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 #LoriRaderDay

Bell Cow Book Club Live: SL Woeppel's The Butcher and the Liar

🐮 Welcome to the Bell Cow Book Club, a live monthly podcast from Bell Cow Productions. This one is a little different from our usual shows. No edits. No safety net. No second take. Just a real-time conversation about a book, shared with readers, writers, and anyone who loves talking about stories after the last page. Each month, Bell Cow cohosts Rob Jung and Michael MacBride will choose a book connected to the Bell Cow community, including authors from the Bell Cow Cattle-Log, guests from our podcast network, and writers featured through Minnesota Mystery Night. We can’t promise we’ll get to every deserving author, but we can promise to keep spreading the love, the attention, and the conversation around. 📚 This Month’s Book: The Butcher and the Liar by S.L. Woeppel We’re kicking off the Bell Cow Book Club with S.L. Woeppel’s The Butcher and the Liar, a psychological thriller that moves through memory, trauma, secrets, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. If S.L. Woeppel’s name sounds familiar, it may be because she was featured at Minnesota Mystery Night in March. Now we’re taking a closer look at her book in a live, unedited conversation. Here’s how to join the herd: 🐮 Read the book ahead of time 🐮 Email us your thoughts and questions at bellcowproductions@gmail.com 🐮 Join us live and ask questions in real time 🐮 Or just listen along and enjoy the conversation 📅 Live: May 13 at 7 PM Central ⏱️ Length: About 30 minutes 📍 Future episodes: Second Wednesday of each month Learn more about Bell Cow Productions at: https://www.bellcowproductions.com #BellCowBookClub #BellCowProductions #BookTube #BookClub #LivePodcast #AuthorInterview #MinnesotaAuthors #MysteryBooks #ThrillerBooks #SLWoeppel #TheButcherAndTheLiar #ReadersOfYouTube #BellCow