After all these years, the AWC has collected quite a treasure trove of interviews and book trailers made for our finalists. Get some hints, advice and background on some of our talented and fun-loving entrants from the last dozen or so years!
Interviews Book Trailers
A.W. Baldwin proves that perseverance pays off, as does talent! His fourth entry into the AWC comes back a winner of the 2023 Grandmaster award and a Clive Trophy! Exciting chases, drug-runners and crooked scientists make for a winner in his novel The Antidote.
Author Keith James discusses his award-winning new book Intentional, a 2023 Adventure Writers Competition finalist. See how a thriller can excite you and break your heart in just the first two chapters!
J.L. Hancock’s The Hawk Enigma is a 2023 finalist! Listen to the interview where Jim explains his reasons for deciding to write a novel, hear some amazing future-tech possibility, and how Jim’s past experience helped him develop this one-of-a-kind thriller.
David Shultz’s TOPS takes home the 2022 “Clive Trophy,” a wild adventure in the splendor of the Alaskan Wilderness! See his secret desires to go to Vegas, hear about his past writing that includes music and find out what makes this adventure super-star tick.
Maranda Collins and her thriller novel On The Run make the finals of the 2022 AWC. Maranda tells us about her reason for setting this mysterious, shadowy, chase in a unique and stunning place. Mix in a little intrigue, a bit of a love story, and lots of action gets you On The Run, the first installment of the Sadie Lynch series.
Ryan Pote’s False Horizon (originally titled “Starfish”) is a finalist in the 2022 AWC. Check out the interview and the book trailer to see how the unlikely setting of Antarctica will have you chilled to the bone with excitement! He’s been around the world doing secret stuff in real life, so this novel is the real deal!
C.E. Albanese is the 2021 Grandmaster award winner for Drone Kings. Does this author have a secret past? Yup, a US Secret Service past, and he knows the ropes. Check out our interview and book trailer for this exciting terrorist vs good guy thrill ride!
A.W. Baldwin, with Broken Inn, continues the tradition of the most award-winning writer in AWC history! Andrew is a three-time finalist Here, he talks about his latest book in the ‘Relic’ series! More Relic! Check out the trailer for some wild action in stunningly beautiful prose chock full of mystery!
Caleb Andrew’s The Koh Ker Conspiracy (originally titled ‘Kidnapped at Koh Ker’ by C.A. Benadum) is an edge-of-your-seat thriller set in the wilds of Cambodia, and in the bustling and stunningly beautiful metropolis of Phnom Penh! Check out this exploration of parts unknown and meet one of the baddest baddies ever to hit the AWC!
Toni Bird Jones delivers us The Measure of Ella, the 2020 AWC Grandmaster award winner! How much of Toni’s past activities made it into this book about deceit, love, betrayal, and running drugs for a quick buck in the dangerous waters of the Florida Keys? She will never tell!
David Tunno and Intrepid Spirit catch a 2020 Grandmaster Finalist Award! Experience, talent and a will to create sounds like characteristics of an adventure novel character, but it also describes David! He is the real deal, and so is the unique plot of this novel!
A.W. Baldwin does it again! Wings Over Ghost Creek is a 2020 Grandmaster Award Finalist. It has only happened once before, but never in the modern era: A.W. Baldwin makes the finalist rank two years in a row! Rushing rivers, nasty thieves, an airplane crash and a moon-shining hermit named Relic – its in there!
Jake Avila – Cave Diver is the 2019 AWC Grandmaster Award winner. Who would trade in an established career as a teacher and writer of…well NOT mainstream action adventure novels? Find out why Jake Avila did just that and why he is our 2019 Grandmaster! And yeah, there is underwater cave diving in here! Exciting!
A.W. Baldwin – Raptor Canyon – 2019 AWC Finalist Award winner. I don’t know if A.W. Baldwin has a hidden gin still in the remote canyons of the Canyonlands, but he sure knows how to add excitement to a story set in the wilds. Poetic and funny and exciting!
Landon Beach enters The Sail in the 2019 AWC and makes finalist! A success story where perseverance pays off, as does his talent and dedication. He might seems calm, but his books are anything but! The dark, dangerous waters of northern Lake Superior are the setting for kidnapping, murder and a father-and-son reckoning.
Taylor Zajonc’s The Maw will mess with your brain, and it’s just delightful! A wild ride into the depths of the earth made this the 2018 Grandmaster Award winner. His real-life adventures and experiences led to the creation of this novel about deep cave exploration, personal redemption and facing fears both internal and external.
Eve Simpson’s The Emerald Tablet is a 2018 AWC Finalist Award winner. What makes an action writer tick? Lots of things: family, research, skiing, outlining and much more. Eve Simpson discusses her award-winning novel, action writing and research.
M.T. Falgoust enters The Eye of the Storm and becomes a 2018 AWC Finalist. What do you get when you mix an actress, a comedy-adventure writer and a mom? You get M.T. Falgoust, that’s what. Check out her book trailer and this interview for some insights and laughs!
Nate Granzow’s The Phaistos Paragon makes you laugh, cry and hold your breath. A lot! So, he wins the 2017 Grandmaster Award. Action, humor and a love interest are hard to pull off, unless you’re a Grandmaster! Watch the interview and hear about Nate’s writing style and the dreaded writer’s block.
Domenick Venezia, is a 2017 Adventure Writers Competition finalist with The Minidoka Legacy, a historically-based thriller. He gives us a compelling interview as he discusses his writing, how he got the “bug”, his influences and his reasons for entering competitions. Oh, and going to Disneyland.
Eric Wentz, author of Piercing the Veil, one of the three 2017 AWC Finalists entries, discusses his early writing and motivation, research, using first-hand experience and gives a few tips to aspiring entrants!
John Thomas Everett, our 2016 Grandmaster winner discusses his beloved city (Baltimore), writing, his award winning entry Maseah Mountain, and entering writing contests. Explore the powers of Maseah Mountain, by watching the trailer!
John R. Monteith, retired US Naval Officer, discusses his motivation, research work for a multi-book series and writing to impress the most important person: yourself. Watch the interview and check out the book trailer for John’s award-winning naval thriller Rogue Fortress.
2016 Finalist Ken Barnett talks about writing his award-winning novel, contests, and getting your friends and family in your books! Watch the book trailer for Ken’s award-winning Skeleton’s of Weaver’s Needle. It’s out of this world!
2015 Finalist and 2018 semi-finalist Charles Kowalski discusses the world events that compelled him to write his award-winning entry Mind Virus, now published by Literary Wanderlust books! Plus the best way to combat writers block!
2015 Finalist James Marshall Smith discusses his entry Silent Source (now published by Braveship Books), writing the genre of adventure, his background with the CDC (as much as he is allowed to speak about!) and his writing methods.
In the dark ages, before the modern era of the Adventure Writers Competition, before interviews and book trailers, there were ‘the others’. Here they are immortalized for the recognition they earned as being the pioneering winners of the Grandmaster Trophy, the now famous and coveted “Clive.” 2008 – Jeff Edwards (Sea of Shadows), 2010 – Ian Karitonov (The Russian Renaissance), 2012 – Peter Greene (Warship Poseidon), 2014 – Scott Slater (Blood of my Blood). 2015 – C.T. Wells, our first winner in the modern era for Kingdom of the Air, would have been our first interviewed winner in 2015, however, on his way from Australia to the airport to fly to the US to attend the Clive Cussler Collector’s Society and AWC festivities with his son, they suffered injuries from a devastating auto accident. Though they are now fine and healthy, their hospital stay took precedence over an interview and book trailer. Here are the covers to those great novels!
