Clay Stafford

I’ve followed author Cal Newport’s career for years. He’s radical, and I like that. For most of his career, he has argued against the conventional wisdom of “follow your passion,” instead arguing that passion follows mastery in the pursuit of building a meaningful career. In his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, he introduces the concept of “career capital,” the idea that rare and valuable skills are the currency for building fulfilling work.

Since the inception of Killer Nashville, the name of Robert Mangeot has been a constant presence, a beacon of inspiration for aspiring short story authors.

Dean Koontz is and always has been an incredibly prolific writer. He’s also an excellent writer, which explains why he’s had such phenomenal success. When I heard he and I were going to get to chat exclusively for Killer Nashville Magazine, I wanted to talk to him about how one man can author over one hundred and forty books, a gazillion short stories, have sixteen movies made from his books, and sell over five hundred million copies of his books in at least thirty-eight languages.