Let’s get this out of the way — I didn’t plan on being a novelist. I didn’t sit in college writing tortured poetry about sunsets or brooding in coffee shops pretending to be Hemingway. I was too busy running companies, turning around failing businesses, and helping CEOs stop stepping on their own neckties.
But life’s funny. One day you’re writing Intentional Leadership — a book about how to not be a dumpster fire of a leader — and the next thing you know, you’re writing Let It Die, a brutal revenge thriller where the only leadership lesson is: Don’t piss off Greg Newsome unless you like hospital food.
It Started with Intentional Leadership
This was my love letter to business coaching. Well… a love letter written with a red pen and a lot of sarcasm. I told CEOs to stop playing CEO dress-up and start leading like real people — with honesty, accountability, and maybe even a soul.
It was blunt. It was direct. And yeah, it sold okay because business leaders like it when someone tells them what time it is without asking them to build the damn watch.
But somewhere in there, I got bored.
Then I Got Dangerous
See, coaching real-life people is fun until you realize fiction lets you do something even better — blow them up.
So I birthed Greg Newsome. Part business coach. Part smart-ass. All trouble.
Write one book? Sure. Write a series where Greg gets tangled up with mobsters, cult leaders, Russian spies, and the occasional psychopath? Why the hell not.
And here’s where it got weird — people liked it. They really liked it.
They didn’t just want business wisdom. They wanted blood-soaked wisdom with a side of gallows humor.
From Write to Die to Let It Die — The Evolution of a Reluctant Killer (Me, Not Greg)
The early Greg Newsome books were about a guy who didn’t want the fight but showed up anyway. Kind of like me at networking events.
But by Let It Die, Greg isn’t just in the fight — he owns it. The stakes are higher. The body count’s bigger. The heart is heavier. And the jokes?
Well, they’re sharper than ever.
Because that’s my thing. If I’m gonna write about death, betrayal, revenge, and trauma — you better believe I’m gonna make you laugh while doing it. That’s how real people survive the hard stuff.
Humor is armor. Snark is survival. And Greg Newsome is basically me if I were 20 years younger, 30 pounds lighter, and slightly less concerned about felony charges.
So What’s Next?
Honestly? I don’t know. Maybe Greg retires. Maybe I write a cookbook called Eat to Die. Maybe I go back to yelling at CEOs.
But one thing’s for sure — I never set out to be a thriller writer.
I just followed the cardinal rule of business and life:
Do the thing that scares the hell out of you — then laugh about it later.
That’s how I went from teaching boardrooms how to lead…
…to teaching assassins how to leave a message.
Spoiler: It usually involves a body.
You can get your copy of the Greg Newsome Series books by linking here on Amazon.
