Award-winning New York Times, Sunday Times, and Amazon #1 bestselling author, James Swallow, spoke with me about his superhero origin story, how he found success channeling his own anger, and the most important lessons he's learned along the way. "I try to make the details as authentic as I possibly can ... because a lot of the action in my books is 'heightened reality.'" – James Swallow James is a former journalist and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominated scriptwriter who has written for video games, TV, and radio. The prolific author of over 50 books – who has written sci-fi for storied franchises including Star Trek, Dr. Who, and Stargate – is best known for his espionage thrillers. His Marc Dane series – with over 750,000 books in print worldwide – includes novels Nomad, Exile, Ghost, Shadow, and his forthcoming novel Rogue, the fifth in the bestselling series featuring "Britain's answer to Jason Bourne," out May 28th (from Zaffre Books). Please help us learn more about you by completing this short 7-question survey If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. In this file James Swallow and I discussed: Why the pandemic feels like "almost the end of the world" The renaissance of "high-speed, low-drag" thrillers inspired by the '80s His theories on the fallibility of action heroes How his journalism and TV writing experience set him up for success Why writers are always writing ... even when they're not His greatest influences And much more! Show Notes: www.jswallow.com James Swallow on Amazon  James Swallow on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter