I want to thank my friend and podcaster Cameron Santana for having me on his show, Santana True Crime, this week to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Chained Birdsβnow an Amazon Best Sellerβand to talk about my next book, The Jacklighter!
You can watch our hour-plus interview on Spotify, catch some outtake shorts on YouTube, or listen to the full episode No. 35 on Apple podcasts.
I’m a guest with distinction!
I had the pleasure of being Cameron’s first repeat guest on Santana True Crime, after appearing as one of his first guests seven months ago when he launched the podcast in April. Cameron, who spent over 18 years in law enforcement, including 16 years with the Raleigh Police Department, is also a true crime author. And we are both WildBlue Press alums.
He and his brother, Brian Santana (an English professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington), co-authored A Murder on Campus: The Professor, the Cop, and North Carolinaβs Most Notorious Cold Case, which came out in January. That book investigates the 1973 murder of Virginia Olson near UNC-Asheville, and blends Cameron’s detective expertise with his brotherβs academic insight in a multi-generational hunt for justice.
Santana Brothers and Carla Conti: traditionally-published-authors-gone-indie
Cameron and I have one more thing in common: we’ve both transitioned from traditional publishing to indie authoring. We discussed this new publishing landscape, beginning with Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, which I relaunched (with a new cover and subtitle) after regaining the book rights from WildBlue Press this summer. My “Author’s Cut” new edition includes more than 20 new photos, sketches, and prison artwork made by the federal inmate at the heart of the story, Kevin Sanders.
Cameron revealed that he and his brother are working on a collection of North Carolina true crime stories that they plan to publish themselves next year. One of the unsolved cases they’re writing about is the abduction and murder of five-year-old Brittany Locklear near her North Carolina home 25 years ago. The brothers discussed that case on Santana True Crime in July.
Independent author marketing … a LOVE-HATE necessity
Cameron and I chatted about all the work involved in indie authoring, including the heavy burden of marketing. He generously shared my precipitous climb in Amazon rankings, which I attributed to a new AI-assisted ad campaign that IΒ wrote about last week. We agreed that, unless you are Stephen King or Dan Brown, trad-pubbed authors are expected to market themselves anyway, so why not go indie and get more royalties for the effort? Cameron and his brother have all of that marketing to look forward to when they launch their first indie book next year. πππ
An overview of The Jacklighter case
Speaking of next year … Cameron and I discussed at length the story behind my next book, The Jacklighter, scheduled for launch in Q4 2026. This is the first time in any public forum that I’ve gone into details about this work in progress. Cameron, who had read The Jacklighter’s first two chapters, had great questions. I won’t give away any spoilers here, so if you want to know more, check out the full episode.
And if you would also like to read those first two chapters of The Jacklighter, sign up for my π Substack newsletter: Crimemoir Confidential. All newsletter subscribers are treated to free previews of both Chained Birds and The Jacklighter as a thank-you π
Once again, I want to thank Cameron for having me back on his show! I can’t wait to return π₯³
Carla Conti is a former journalist and the award-winning author of Chained Birds: A Crimemoir. Her true crime debut won multiple 2025 national book awards, including 1st Place in True Crime from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Winner in True Crime from the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, Silver in True Crime from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Finalist in True Crime from the National Indie Excellence Awards, and a 1st Place Nellie Bly Journalism award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards. Carla is at work on her next true crime book, The Jacklighter, scheduled for release in 2026. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who supports her true crime habit.
