Season 5 Ep 4 | Jenna Blum | Changing Genres, Creative Identity, & the Business of Writing

This episode of Some Things Considered features the always-brilliant Jenna Blum, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, The Lost Family, Woodrow on the Bench, and her forthcoming psychological thriller Murder Your Darlings (out January 2026).

It’s a wide-ranging, candid conversation about writing across genres, the realities of literary success, and what it really means to build a sustainable creative life.

Murder Your Darlings & Genre Shifts

* Jenna’s first psychological thriller

* Why she chose to tackle the genre now

* Writing across historical fiction, memoir, contemporary fiction, and thriller

* Following curiosity over market expectations

* Using genre shifts as creative challenges

(No spoilers — you’ll have to read the book.)

Success, Industry & Change

* Life as a New York Times bestseller — inspiration and envy

* How publishing and promotion have changed since the early 2000s