Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable variety, and the kind of audience energy you only get when book people gather in a room together. Minnesota Mystery Night describes itself as a live, meet-the-author event featuring mystery and thriller writers in conversation with intriguing guests, held on the third Monday of each month in Mendota, Minnesota. These Bell Cow encore presentations preserve those live conversations and give them a second life beyond the room. They also connect to Masters of Mystery Radio Hour, the broadcast version of Minnesota Mystery Night, which is recorded live at the event and carried on radio stations in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including KRWC-AM, AM950/KTNF, KTOE, KLTF, KCCR, KKBJ, KWNO, WWIS, and KJAM. Bell Cow Productions, meanwhile, exists to support writers through podcasts, resources, and behind-the-scenes literary conversation, which makes this series a natural fit for the herd. Originally recorded July 20, 2026, at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota, Minnesota. Military-thriller coauthors David Bruns and J.R. Olson sit down with former CIA officer and mystery writer Carmen Amato for a conversation about turning real-world experience into compelling fiction. They discuss the partnership behind their national-security thrillers, the research and technical detail that make military stories believable, and the challenge of creating fictional crises that feel unsettlingly plausible. With experience spanning submarine service, naval intelligence, the CIA, international affairs, and corporate life, the three writers bring an unusually informed perspective to questions of espionage, military operations, global threats, and the line between authenticity and revealing too much. David Bruns and J.R. Olson are the writing team behind contemporary national-security thrillers, including the Third Option series. Bruns is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and corporate executive, while Olson served as a naval intelligence officer and CIA-trained case officer. https://www.bruns-olson.com Carmen Amato spent 30 years with the CIA and is the author of the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, which follows Acapulco’s first female police detective through investigations shaped by corruption, violence, and conflicting loyalties. https://carmenamato.net Enjoy the conversation? Please like this episode, subscribe to the Bell Cow Productions YouTube channel, and follow Bell Cow Productions on Facebook so you never miss another conversation from the herd. Bell Cow Productions: https://www.bellcowproductions.com Minnesota Mystery Night: https://www.mnmysterynight.com Masters of Mystery Radio Hour: https://www.mnmysterynight.com/mmrh #MysteryConversations #MinnesotaMysteryNight #DavidBruns #JROlson #CarmenAmato #MilitaryThrillers #EspionageFiction #ThrillerWriters #BellCowProductions