ThrillerFest 2026
In the fall of 2025, I called a good friend for some advice. My latest short story, Shucks, had just been published in Rock and a Hard Place. Essentially having stopped writing since 2022 as my wife and I learned how to be parents and I dealt with my mental health (as evidenced in this long forgotten post The Year I Almost Quit Writing), I decided that I was ready to finally invest in my craft and goal of being a published author. While there are so many amazing festivals all across the U.S., the two biggest in the mystery/thriller space are by far Bouchercon and Thrillerfest. Yet, as with all things in life, they cost money and I could only afford one. Having gone to Bouchercon in 2018 as a fan, I asked my friend, a well known published author, where I should invest. He said, “Philip, look, Bouchercon is amazing… if you’re already published. But as you know, it’s a fan fest. Thrillerfest is where you go to work on your craft, meet other writers, agents, editors. Get your ass there.”
He could not have been more right!
Now, before I dive into my experience in New York, I have to start by saying thank you to my wife for being the best partner in the world. Her encouragement means the world to me and her staying home with our two little boys allowed me the mental space to really focus on being present and in the moment while at the conference. That said, by Friday night I missed them terribly and couldn’t wait to get home on Sunday to see them.
I arrived at Thrillerfest on Tuesday, easing into the week by exploring New York and eating an amazing meal at Lord’s. The goal was to get a great night of sleep so that I could attack the conference enthused and energized. An amazing meal and couple of cocktails later, sleep was shot to shit but the food was so good, I didn’t care.
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending my first day of Craftfest, a tailored, hands on learning experience, with sessions led by individual authors who each teach aspects of the craft of writing, all geared towards writers who are earlier in their journey like I am. In addition to the great sessions, because it’s technically an add-on to the conference and a smaller group, I got to know some amazing people. It was the best way to start the conference because as more people arrived Wednesday night and Thursday, I had already formed a bit of a tribe. Will, Buck, Tom… so great meeting you all and can’t wait to see what comes next for you!
Below are just a couple of standout CraftFest sessions:
- Planting Red Herrings led by Ande Pliego. This session dissected how to think about red herrings in the drafting (and redrafting process). She shared an excellent tool that she leverages in the second draft, the Victim Wheel. It was a very helpful visualization technique to understand if the suspects motives are strong enough to really keep the reader guessing and not reveal the killer too early. I appreciated that even as a plantser (plots heavily but goes through discovery writing as she works through first draft) she doesn’t put extra emphasis on this, just getting the bones down, and taking the heavy lifting in the follow up drafts because this is something I deal with (trying to overthink things in first draft vs just getting the story down and working through it later). This session was honestly, for me, the top craft session of the whole weekend.
- The Visual Writer led by Carter Wilson. This session dove into the idea that writing a great book is the bare minimum authors have to do in 2026 and that showing up authentically where you can connect with your readers is as important as it ever has been. What I appreciated is that, for someone like me who has never been the best at Social Media, he really drove home that it’s not about showing up gimmicky or pushing product like you see a lot of social media influencers do, but just sharing more about us as writers, our processes, the things that interest us and that newsletters, where writers most likely feel the most comfortable, still plays a crucial role in showing up in 2026 because we can’t control algorithms. He put in terms like this, “Would you rather have 10k instagram followers with a maybe 5% engagement rate, or 1,000 newsletter subscribers with 600 or 700 who read and engage with it regularly?” I had the pleasure of getting to know Carter a bit at the cocktail hour Wednesday evening and he was the epitome of the conference itself… a USA Today Bestseller with 10+ books published spending real quality time to ensure I was having a great experience and offering advice tailored to where I am in my journey. One of the nicest guys I have ever met.
- Creative Commerce led by Mark Tavani. This session was led by former editor, now agent, Mark Tavani. The entire session was based around the idea that as writers it’s okay to think about your work as commerce/a good to be sold and to think about the commercial appeal of our stories. As Mark shared, at the end of the day we do want to get paid to do this (as well as the Agents and Editors who support us), so even as previous as our stories that we love are, “commercial” is not a dirty word. He gave great example of different writers various journeys to commercial success and while some of it was, when you step away, some “obvious” things, hearing it from him directly gave the permission to think about the commercial viability of our art was reassuring.
On Thursday, I ended up having to work my day job most of the day which was a bit of a bummer but that evening more than made up for it as I spent the entire evening getting to know other writers, but especially Tony Wirt and Matthew Becker, eventually joined by the one and only S.A. Cosby. I’ve never spent so long talking (and laughing) about the craziness that is writing and Thursday evening was just the another example of the wonderful spirit that is Thrillerfest. The most amazing group of creative people I’ve ever met.
Friday was the first official day of ThrillerFest and it was filled with amazing panels by some of the most amazing thriller writers working today. That evening, at the first of two cocktail hours, a good friend who I had met and spent time with over the few days, David Parry, grabbed me by the arm and walked me over to a woman I had not met before. “Philip, this is Liz. Liz is an agent and I told her a bit about the book you’re working on. Go for it.” Nervously, I proceeded to pitch my novel, a WIP called DIG TWO GRAVES (working title) and you know what? I must have said something right because instead of laughing in my face, she gave me her email and told me to send it to her when I was ready to query. Now, something or nothing may come from it, but that’s not the point. Instead, what I left with was a jolt of a enthusiasm that a reputable agent (I confirmed this later) was intrigued enough by my book that she was interested in actually reading something that I wrote! There really is no feeling quite like it. I could not have been more appreciative of David in that moment.
By Saturday morning, the sleepless nights were starting to catch up with, but as my wife told me before I left, “You can sleep when you’re dead,” so I got my butt up and caught a couple of panels with people who I now got to call friends on them. So glad I did. Needing some fresh air, I got a coffee and walked around Central Park before heading back and spent the afternoon having a coffee with a writer, Connor Martin, whose espionage book, The Silver Fish, I had recently devoured and loved. We talked about our respective journeys and writing as Dad’s with jobs and young kids at home. He couldn’t have been more gracious with his time and I appreciated it tremendously. Finally, I got to catch up with an amazing friend who I had done a Noir at the Bar reading with in Hillsborough, the wonderful K.T. Nguyen.
There were so many other writers who were gracious with their time, even if just for the few minutes we got to speak, but I want to specifically say thank you to (and tell you if you’re reading this to go buy their books immediately because they are all wonderful):
- Mark Ellis and Alex Gerlis - We had a wonderful conversation following their panels about how great historical mysteries/thrillers can illuminate not as well known events about a period in time we all assume we know everything about.
- Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau - We talked about daily writing goals and how her changing her view on what a successful writing day looks like has allowed her to be so much more prolific in her day-to-day writing in 2026 (hint: this blog post - follow her on Substack, you won't regret it).
Overall, my time at Thrillerfest was so much more than I could have anticipated. My one regret? I didn't take nearly enough pictures to document the experience (will rectify that next year for sure).
Thrillefest was one of the most rewarding experiences of my writing life and I cannot wait to go back next year to see old friends, make new ones, and continue to pursue my goal of becoming a published author.