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New Beginnings: Ditching the Pen Name and Setting Goals for 2025

In this episode of the Killer Prose Podcast, host Tanner Rutledge wishes listeners a happy New Year and invites them to share their upcoming projects for 2025. Tanner discusses his decision to merge his mystery and horror writings under his own name, eliminating the need for a pen name to reduce marketing expenses. He reflects on the professional changes in 2024, including transitioning to commission sales to fund his book projects. Looking ahead, he anticipates releasing his first mystery novel 'Fools and Corpses' by June 2025, followed by a horror novel and another book in the Ted and Darcy series. Tanner emphasizes the importance of writing consistently and sets a goal to write 1,000 words a day. He also invites listeners to join his live writing sessions and to suggest topics and guest authors for future episodes.

00:00 Welcome and New Year's Greetings

00:45 Reflecting on 2024: Professional Changes

01:40 Upcoming Book Releases

03:02 The Pen Name Dilemma

08:02 Writing Routine and Productivity Tips

11:14 Goals for 2025 and Beyond

13:09 Podcasting and Community Engagement

13:44 Final Thoughts and Listener Engagement

Connect with the show and find links to all our social media profiles at https://www.killerprose.com/

Find Tanner's author Page on FB at https://www.facebook.com/tannerrutledgeauthor/

Follow us on YouTube for live writing sessions at https://www.youtube.com/@KillerProse6645

Intro Music: Super Strange Synths by YellowTree -- https://freesound.org/s/482961/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

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Killer Prose

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Tanner Rutledge

Tanner Rutledge writes small-town mysteries and supernatural thrillers. Before turning to fiction, he spent 15 years as a private investigator, working on everything from missing persons to homicide cases. Those years gave him an intimate understanding of motivation and the quick thinking it takes to crack a case.

Tanner’s love of storytelling started early. He was the kid who wrote spooky tales for his second-grade classmates and stayed was always up late reading Stephen King and RL Stine under the covers. In college, he studied criminal justice but couldn’t stay away from creative writing and literature classes. When the world shut down in 2020, he finally gave himself permission to shift his focus back to writing and hasn’t looked back since.

He also hosts The Killer Prose Podcast, where he talks about the craft of writing, creativity, and the strange overlap between true crime and the paranormal.

When he’s not writing, you can usually find him spending time with his family or hanging out with his little black cat, Broccoli—his constant companion and occasional editor.