Making It Up with Danielle Girard, author of Pinky Swear

“The idea that you could be at the whim of something as mercurial as a muse doesn’t work if you also have to show up for a job and a family and kids.” —Danielle Girard

Danielle Girard is the USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels. Her books have won the Barry Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and more. In addition, two of her titles have been optioned for screen. Her next thriller, Pinky Swear, will be on February 24, 2026. Danielle is also the creator and host of the Killer Women podcast, where she interviews the women who write today’s best crime fiction.

Among other things, Danielle and Carter discuss writing first-person present tense, Danielle going back to get her MFA after four published books, and the challenge with writing characters who are demographically different from you. At the end of their conversation, they make up a mysterious story using a line from Wendy Walker’s Blade.