Welcome back to Write-Handed! In this episode, host AJ is joined by special guest Angela for an engaging, spoiler-conscious book review of Ashley Elston's hit thriller. First Lie Wins.

Episode Summary: Evie Porter is a woman with a charming boyfriend, a picturesque life, and a completely fabricated identity. A ghost from her past named Lucca suddenly surfaces and threatens to tear down everything she has built. Evie is forced into a tense, dangerous game of cat-and-mouse to protect her carefully curated existence.

Literary Discussion & Thematic Points:

· Deception and Construction of Identity: Aj and Angela examine how the novel treats identity not as an innate truth, but as a performance. We explore the psychological weight of multiple aliases and what it means when survival requires total reinvention.

· Structural Pacing and Narration: We break down Elston's use of non-linear storytelling, shifting timelines, and unreliable narration, analyzing how these elements keep the reader off-balance and actively participating in the puzzle.

· Class, Wealth, and Power Dynamics: The discussion continues by tackling the underlying motifs of privilege and control. We challenge the motivations behind the criminal underworld and the thematic cost of trying to outrun one's past.

Join us for a breakdown of twists, turns, and character psychology!

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

Welcome back to Write-Handed! Join cohosts AJ and Kyle for a chilling, thought-provoking deep dive into Shirley Jackson’s iconic 1948 short story, "The Lottery."

Episode Summary: Set on a clear, beautiful summer morning, a small American village gathers eagerly in the town square for their annual tradition. Children collect smooth stones into piles while adults exchange casual neighborhood gossip, waiting for Mr. Summers to bring out the infamous, battered black box. As the slips of paper are drawn, the festive mood shatters into horror when the Hutchinson family is chosen. The results culminate into a brutal, ritualistic stoning that exposes the dark underbelly of unquestioned conformity.

Literary Discussion & Thematic Points:

• The Danger of Blind Tradition: AJ and Kyle analyze how Jackson uses the townspeople’s routine compliance to critique the unthinking adherence to ancient customs. The surprising twist that highlights the dangers of doing things "just because it's always been done that way."
• The Banality of Evil: We discuss the jarring juxtaposition between the cheerful, sunlit setting and the horrific violence that follows, highlighting how ordinary, kind-hearted people can easily participate in atrocities under the guise of community ritual.
• Scapegoating and Mob Mentality: The conversation explores how quickly community bonds fracture when individual survival and superstition take over, transforming neighbors into executioners in an instant.

Tune in as we dissect the psychological brilliance, enduring legacy, and shocking twists of one of the most famous short stories in American literature!

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: Escaping Injustice, Escaping the Butcher, and Escaping Revenge AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

In this episode of Write-Handed, we confront the art of creating suspense. It is the essential literary device that keeps readers turning pages and audiences on the edge of their seats. Suspense relies on anticipation, building tension by forcing the audience to wonder or care about what will happen next. We explore the foundational techniques writers use to construct compelling narrative tension in books and film.

• Foreshadowing: Writers plant subtle hints early in a story to suggest crucial events to come. In The Departed, constant near-misses with surveillance and covert phone transmissions foreshadow the inevitable unraveling of undercover identities.
• Dramatic Irony: Suspense intensifies when the audience possesses critical knowledge that the characters lack. In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling stumbles in the darkness-filled basement, however the audience clearly see through Buffalo Bill's eyes because he is wearing night-vision goggles.
• Pacing: The speed of the story can dictate an audience's emotions. By slowing down a crucial moment, tension can be built by focusing on specific details or a character’s thoughts. Likewise, speeding up the pace, promotes urgency or heart-pounding excitement.
• The Cliffhanger: Cutting off a scene or chapter at a high-tension climax leaves crucial questions unanswered, forcing the audience to stay engaged to discover the outcome.
• Withholding Information: Gradually dropping clues while keeping key answers hidden encourages audiences to piece together the mystery alongside the characters. In The Departed, tension reaches its peak when Colin and Billy finally come face-to-face, as subtle clues on the desk reveal that their secret identities have been exposed.

Tune in to learn how to apply these techniques to your own storytelling and keep your audience hooked from start to finish!

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

Welcome to Write-Handed! In this episode, we explore the core of story craft by asking a fundamental question: why do people read? Fiction writing allows an escape from our daily routines and entry into new worlds, eras or perspectives. Non-fiction writing can be used as an education device or personal growth. Reading has been shown to reduce stress and reduce heartrate.

Join us as we analyze some of our favorite books and authors to break down what makes great writing.

• Michael Crichton uses meticulously researched science and speculative technology to spark intellectual curiosity and create high-stakes techno-thrillers like Jurassic Park.
• Elizabeth George builds deeply realistic, memorable characters who make story worlds come alive across her intricate mystery novels.
• Lawrence Block delivers rich character-driven mysteries through distinct voices, moral complexity, and iconic atmosphere in his noir fiction.
• Barbara Kingsolver crafts vivid, immersive settings and masterful descriptions that anchor powerful narratives such as The Poisonwood Bible.
• Carl Hiaasen weaves satire, eccentric characters, and environmental commentary into fast-paced capers that deliver both comedy and catharsis.
• Dean Koontz excels at high-tension plotting and suspenseful storytelling that keeps readers hooked from start to finish.

If you have a favorite book or story that you would like to share, leave a comment below.

New episodes every See You NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

Welcome back to Write-Handed! In this episode, we explore the literary themes of rebirth, renewal, and awakening. At its core, the theme of renewal represents transformation, growth, hope, and new beginnings through the cycles of life. Authors use this powerful motif to show characters undergoing profound spiritual, physical, or emotional evolution as they learn from their past or gain a fresh perspective on existence.

A few brief examples Include:

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: Captain Marlow experiences a sobering moral awakening as he confronts the brutality of European colonization in the Congo, while the dying Kurtz undergoes a haunting spiritual rebirth through his final moment of remorse.
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse: Follow Siddhartha's ultimate quest for spiritual rebirth as he navigates self-denial, worldly pleasures, and profound loss, eventually discovering true enlightenment and wisdom by surrendering to the natural flow of life.
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin: Track Edna Pontellier’s dramatic awakening as she rejects rigid early 20th-century societal expectations to discover her independent identity as an artist and embrace her emotional and sexual freedom.
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Examine Jay Gatsby’s reinvention of himself in pursuit of the American Dream and love and his tragic struggle with the illusions of renewal.

Join us as we break down how these timeless stories and more to reflect our own constant search for personal growth and transformation!

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

In this episode, AJ and Kyle break down the wild, varied, and meaningful world of comedy in

literature. We explore why humor is more than just laughs by discussing the major comedy

types highlighting how each uses exaggeration, irony, sarcasm, understatement, puns, and

juxtaposition to reveal deeper truths about human behavior.

Throughout the episode, they spotlight recurring literary themes:

• Humor can be used as a coping mechanism for pain, stress, or social dysfunction.

• Comedy that reveals hypocrisy in systems such as corporations, academia, or politics.

•The reasons that absurdity can be used as a lens for understanding human nature.

• People can relate to identity, love, and personal growth shaped by humorous conflict.

• The tension between progress and tradition, often expressed through satire

Join AJ and Kyle as they unpack why comedy sticks with readers, how authors use humor to

deepen stories, and how laughter helps us understand both literature and life.

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

Welcome back to another episode of Write-Handed, part two of our back-to-back spy thriller novels and the final installment of our biography series.

We tackle David A. Vise’s Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative book, The Bureau and the Mole: The Incredible True Story of the FBI's Longest-Serving Traitor. The book meticulously chronicles the dual life of Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent and devout Catholic who spent over two decades selling top-secret intelligence to the Soviet Union and Russia. The book also delves into the parallel career of FBI Director Louis Freeh, who worked to modernize and clean up the Bureau.

This breakdown compares the delicate balance between twin narratives, comparing the rigid ambition of Freeh with the deep-seated hypocrisy and compartmentalization of Hanssen.

Tune in as AJ and Kyle bring their signature commentary, literary analysis, and sharp insights to one of the most intriguing true-crime, non-fiction accounts of modern spy history!

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc

What does it really take for a character to make up for a dark past? In this episode of Write-Handed, AJ and Kyle dive into one of storytelling's most powerful narrative devices: Redemption.

Redemption gives characters profound relatability by revealing their deepest flaws, regrets, beliefs, and hopes for change. We break down why true redemption arcs resonate so deeply with readers. Redemption requires confrontation, a high cost, rely on relational mercy, and carry the constant threat of failure.

In this episode, we cover:

· The Core Definition: We start at the fundamentals defining redemption and what it means to offset a defect and truly own up to past wrongdoings.

· 10 Key Redemption Archetypes: There are ten key redemption architypes, from The Fallen Hero and The Reformed Villain to The Self-Sacrificing Redeemer and The Broken Mentor to name a few.

· Literary Case Studies: We cover how classic and modern masterpieces execute redemption, including Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Stephen King’s The Shawshank Redemption.

Tune in to discover how authors balance tragedy, grace, and human flaw to craft unforgettable character journeys that remind us that change is always possible, even if it's never easy.

New episodes every See you NEXT Tuesday!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your favorite platform.

Contact us:

Email: ajknightaj@gmail.com

AJ Knight Novels on Amazon: AJ Books

Webpage: AJ Knight Site

Twitter: @AJKnight3

InstaGram: ajknightauthor

Produced by Whining Dog Productions LLC: WDPLLC2026@gmail.com

TikTok: @wdpllc