My favorite thriller writer is Jonathan Maberry. He writes a series for adults featuring a character named Joe Ledger who works for the mysterious Department of Military Sciences. Maberry’s writing not only brings Joe Ledger to life, but also the increasingly challenging threats that Ledger faces over the course of many books. Maberry also edits professionally written X-Files fan fiction and publishes it in anthologies. I attended the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, PPWC, just to meet him. I sat next to him at lunch and I went to all of his sessions. While I knew about Maberry’s YA zombie series, Rot and Ruin, what I didn’t know was that Maberry considers himself more of a horror writer than a thriller writer. He’s even on the board of the Horror Writers of America. His ideas about adventure horror and thriller horror gave me a lot to think about as I continue to work on my first scary book – a YA poltergeist story. A story inspired by one of the X-Files fan fics in one of the Maberry collections.