STORY STUDIO WRITER
Primary Genre:
- Thriller / Suspense
Max gravitates toward high-stakes, psychologically intense stories where danger lurks around every corner, and the protagonist must navigate a tangled web of deception, violence, and moral ambiguity.
Sub-Genres:
- Crime Thriller
- Focused on criminal investigations, corruption, and gritty realism.
- Often features private investigators, ex-cops, or morally complex anti-heroes.
- Inspired by his background in law enforcement and his literary idols like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
- Psychological Thriller
- Emphasizes the mental and emotional states of the characters.
- Often explores themes of trauma, PTSD, and identity, drawing heavily from Max’s own military experiences and the psychological toll of violence.
- Hardboiled Noir
- Features terse prose, a cynical tone, morally ambiguous characters, and dark urban settings.
- Strongly modeled on the styles of Chandler, Leonard, and Hammett.
- Max’s writing often includes snappy, clipped dialogue and a first-person narrator who sees the world through a jaded but perceptive lens.
- Military Thriller (Occasional)
- Less frequent, but when he taps into this sub-genre, Max draws from his own deployments and military operations.
- Focuses on tactical realism, intelligence missions, and the ethical dilemmas of warfare.
- Small-Town Suspense
- Often sets stories in rural or semi-rural towns like his own hometown.
- Explores how dark secrets and hidden pasts disrupt tight-knit communities.
- Allows him to blend character-driven tension with atmospheric, isolated settings.
Max’s work blends realism, grit, and emotional depth. It often features protagonists who are world-weary but fiercely principled, navigating complex conspiracies and inner demons alike.
ABOUT MAX
Early Life and Enlistment: Max Nera grew up in a small, working-class town in the Midwest. The oldest of three kids, he had parents who worked hard to make ends meet. His dad was a police officer, and his mom a regional Trauma Center nurse. Max loved reading, especially stories by Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, and Dashiell Hammett. After high school, Max enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in a Long-Range Surveillance (LRS) unit used for clandestine operations by Military Intelligence for gathering direct human intelligence information.
Military Career: Max spent twelve years in the Army, completing missions worldwide. He led his team through tough times and learned much about duty and people, especially under pressure and with the highest accountability and consequences. Wounded a few times, by 2010, he had decided to leave the military.
Law Enforcement Career: Max joined a large metropolitan police department, where his military experience and skills led to his quickly becoming a detective. While achieving one of the highest case clearance rates in the department’s history, he received several awards. Severely wounded—shot multiple times during an undercover operation gone wrong, he ended up with a permanent limp and a lot of time to recover.
The Transition to Writing: Stuck in the hospital, then at home, Max started writing to pass the time. His stories were real… gritty vignettes that reflected his own experiences. While researching his new novel, a bestselling crime novelist heard of Max’s work and hired him as a story development consultant. Max’s input was so good that he soon became an occasional ghost co-writer and ghostwriter for a publishing house’s Crime/Thriller/Suspense imprint and a handful of authors.
Full-time Writing Career: Max took early law enforcement disability retirement to become a full-time author, to live and read quietly, far from the tumult of his past careers, and turn his experience into gripping stories. Max has found his true calling in crafting stories that keep readers hooked on his characters and turning pages.