"Every story has a time and place in the world."
An interview with Benjamin Bradley
Not long before the pandemic, Benjamin Bradley found himself curled on the floor of a Nepali hotel, taken ill with a water-borne parasite.
This might seem like an unpromising start to a writing career, but for Benjamin it was one more step on a path that led him to realize his deep love for storytelling. With a brand-new novel launching tomorrow, he was kind enough to stop by Cold Caller HQ and take a few questions.
Tell me a little about your background and evolution as a novelist. Have you always considered yourself a writer?
My bio states that I wrote my first piece of crime fiction when I was just a kid, and although that is true, I didn't evolve to consider this as a path for my life until my thirties. I've been extremely fortunate and privileged to spend my career working with nonprofits around the US and internationally, getting these little nuggets of experiences and cultural norms that shaped me into who I am today. A big part of doing that type of work is that you see the power of storytelling. It's a key tenet of social impact work—to raise money and to expand your reach, you need to be able to neatly package the work you're doing into a cohesive and compelling narrative. That was my first real step into this world, although it took a bit of a leap for the rest to come together.
In 2019, I had a misadventure while backpacking in the Annapurna mountains of Nepal which led to me acquiring a lovely water-borne parasite that had me in the fetal position on the floor of a Nepali hotel for a few days. It wasn't the first time that things had gone awry in my travels, but when I came back home, I wanted to tell the story to people. (I'm fine, by the way, I got it all cleared up and I was back on my feet a week after I got home.)
That was a real test of my storytelling abilities—everybody nowadays likes to say they’re a storyteller, and I believe it’s true, but it's a big jump from that to trying to put things down on paper in a way that makes sense.
So eventually, when the pandemic hit, I spent some time writing down stories of my travels and the people I’ve met across the world, understanding that I was incredibly lucky to have those experiences. Eventually, I found this creeping urge to write more fictionalized tales and I started to explore what it meant to truly be not just a storyteller, but a writer.
How long did it take you to go from "Okay, I want to do this seriously" to getting those first stories and novels published?
The short answer is a long time. When I made that decision to start writing, I was still blissfully ignorant. Nobody had drilled into me "show, don't tell" or the pros and cons of first-person narratives. Nobody had explained Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey or Save The Cat. I just went in blindly and started writing.
The first story that really came about was what eventually became a YA mystery/adventure novel called The Stash. I spent some time online trying to get a sense of word counts and all that, eventually finding an editor on Reddit that was looking for client testimonials to start their business. I sent them my work and after a few rounds of edits, we had a "final" manuscript. I spent a little time sending that around to small publishers (I had not heard the word query yet...) and eventually struck a deal with Indies United Publishing House, which was a great partner that eventually helped me publish a three-book cozy mystery series.
All told, I spent a few years learning in public. Now, I more often think of those years as failing in public because sometimes I read back on old writing and cringe and resist the urge to remove it from existence, but those novels are an important part of my journey, even if they're not the same caliber that I like to think my writing holds now.
What attracted you to suspense and mystery fiction?
As a kid, we're all afraid of the dark and adults come around and tell you how it's okay and it's safe and all that. I'm not sure that any of that really leaves us as we grow up. The dark is still scary. The unknown, unseen parts of the world that we can't entirely understand. To me, that's a lot of the magic of what mystery, crime, and suspense fiction holds. It's always been my favorite genre to read way back from To Kill A Mockingbird (suspense at its finest) to Agatha Christie and beyond. I grew up with a lot of Harlan Coben and John Grisham in my hands and grew a strong reverence for their twists and turns and satisfying endings.
When writing came into view for me, I knew that was where I wanted to focus. Partly, it's a glimpse into the types of people and world that I can't comprehend. Spending some time in the heads of villains and criminals helps illuminate how the world is harsh to so many and how some people respond to that with violence. Some of my favorite characters in fiction are those that are flat out desperate. The world has broken them in some unique way where their only response is to seek revenge, kill, etc.
Lastly, I like that a mystery novel can be a sort of trojan horse for a million other genres, but especially in how you can bring a strong theme into the story and keep the suspense intact.
Small towns and forests seem to be a recurring setting for your fiction. What is it about those places you find so compelling?
I'm a sucker for a mystery novel that revolves around nature, particularly forests. It may just be that I'm a nature lover at heart, but there's just something that connects with my soul when I find the right setting and characters. Often, I listen to audiobooks on long trail runs while training for ultra marathons, so maybe that's part of it. But I decided that it was important to write what I know and what I love. So nature plays a big role. To me, there's nothing spookier or more ominous than a dark set of woods. It's one of the last wild, untamed worlds we co-exist with and it just leaves the door open to so many possibilities, both sinister and joyful.
Small towns are important too because they provide an almost closed-door setting for a mystery. What I've seen firsthand is that these types of places can often start to feel closed off from the world, so when something or somebody crosses their boundaries, it can really throw off their equilibrium. That's just the perfect catalyst for a good mystery novel. I based Oak Hill, the town in which What He Left Behind takes place, off a few different small towns both in Western North Carolina and out in Colorado. Both settings had mountains lurking in the distance, so it felt only natural to bring that into the fold too.
So tell me more, because I'd love to hear about the inspiration and development of What He Left Behind. Where did this book begin, and how did it change as you worked your way through it?
The plot began in earnest years ago when I lost three of my grandparents in the span of a few months. It was a sad time, but it also left me with a lot of time to ponder the idea of legacy and how complex that can be for a human. Around the same time, I was starting to really set my roots in Raleigh and found this fascinating mix of people who had been here their whole life and those that left their homes to move here. That was another key element that flirted with the legacy question too. How might those two type of people coexist or work together?
Some of the major changes came in the editing process through CamCat Books, who really embraced the "we" nature of the publishing effort rather than leaving me to feel like I was flying solo. Helga Schier, who edited WHLB, made it clear she cared deeply about the characters and story, but also that I needed to cut about 15,000 words to keep the pacing tight. Looking back now, she was absolutely right. WHLB is still a bit of a slow burn, but Helga's eye really helped sharpen the book.
What was the toughest lesson you had to learn about publishing novels? What's been the best part about the experience?
This is a common lesson that is told a million times over, but you can only truly learn it when you live through it. Publishing takes a long time and the road is littered with rejection and self-doubt and imposter syndrome. The odds are stacked against you and it's super easy to give up. It's sobering to realize that your story is one in a million (or more), but at some point, you can find that freeing and start lifting up others around you, celebrating their work, getting into their heads.
The best part has been perhaps my favorite lesson from this last experience: there is no rush. Often when a story is being written or edited or queried, I felt this extreme sense of urgency to get this book out into the world. It felt so important. So crucial. Every rejection was devastating, not only in that it was a hit to my ego, but also that it was another day gone by when this story would not be told. The truth is every story has a time and place in the world. Some take years to start appearing on store shelves. Some hit the express lane and show up on shelves in six months. No two stories will have the same path, and some stories need to be written just for the writer.
What’s next for the book? And where's the best place for people to connect with you?
I'm all systems go for What He Left Behind, which comes out tomorrow from CamCat Books. Hardcover, eBook and audiobook are all available, with paperback to follow in 2026. My ask to readers is to please help spread the word in whichever ways they can: tell a friend, post a review, follow on social media, shout from the rooftops, etc.
If readers would like to connect, I'm most active on Instagram but I also have a Substack and website for folks to check out.
Benjamin Bradley is a member of both Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He's the author of What He Left Behind, coming April 2025 from CamCat Books, and the Shepard & Kelly Mystery series through Indies United Publishing House. His short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Reckon Review and Flash Fiction Magazine. He works in public health and homelessness and calls Raleigh, North Carolina home.