🧠Inside the mind of the author

 

🖤 Inside the Mind of a Killer—and the Author Who Created Him

Makitia Thompson opens up about writing evil, surviving the process, and what still haunts her from The Killer Across the Street

“Sometimes it felt very real… and it disgusted me that I was writing such things.”

When Makitia Thompson created Gregg Thorton, she wasn’t aiming to romanticise horror—she was dissecting it. Drawing inspiration from real-world cases like Ted Bundy, Thompson imagined a killer who didn’t just hide in plain sight—he thrived there. A father. A husband. A monster. One who stole identities, adopted new lives, and believed his killings were justified.

“I wanted Gregg Thorton to so obviously be in the wrong,” she says, “but for Gregg not to see that himself.”

To write Gregg’s disturbing confessions and killings, Thompson had to become someone else—someone cold. “I personally felt sick while writing about the murders,” she admits. “I took empathy and sympathy out of the equation. I forced myself to think as someone who enjoyed taking lives.”

Even with all her experience, one chapter still haunts her: Chapter Three. “It was hard to take emotion out while writing about his third marriage. His violence was at its peak. Sometimes it felt too real, like I could hear him. It’s a gut-wrenching chapter that realistically displays abuse and narcissism.”

But Thompson didn’t stop at the killer. She gave him a counterpoint: Cole King, an investigator with no interest in fame or favour. “Cole was abandoned by his mother at four years old. He doesn’t care about being respected. He doesn’t care if people like him. All he wants is the truth—even if it costs him everything.”

What makes The Killer Across the Street so powerful isn’t just the horror—it’s the humanity that surrounds it, questions it, and refuses to look away.

🎤 The Monster’s Voice—and the Silence He Left Behind

How Serial Family Man, The Killer Across the Street, and a Raw New Documentary Unravel Gregg Thorton’s Reign of Terror

“He claimed he wanted to tell the truth… but he planned on lying.”

Before The Killer Across the Street, there was Serial Family Man—a tense, unnerving first interview with serial killer Gregg Thorton, told through the eyes of young journalist Vanessa Bennett. He said he wanted to come clean. He said he was ready to confess.

He lied.

Gregg spoke in riddles, half-truths, and twisted metaphors, weaponizing language like he once weaponized charm and trust. And as author Makitia Thompson reveals, Vanessa was never going to get the full story—because Gregg Thorton never tells a woman the truth.

“I created him that way,” Thompson says. “He has a deep issue with women. So when Vanessa sat across from him, she was doomed from the start.”

That’s where The Killer Across the Street comes in: as a direct response and unravelling of Gregg’s cryptic lies. This time it’s Cole King, the no-nonsense investigator, who pulls apart the riddles and forces Gregg to answer—truly answer—for the pain he caused. Families finally get some version of closure. And the mask Thorton wore for decades begins to crack.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Thompson is now working on a documentary-style companion book, one that passes the mic to those who survived: his last wife. Two of his children. Neighbours who stayed quiet. Family members who looked away. This third instalment isn’t just about Gregg—it’s about trauma, silence, and the consequences of letting evil blend in.

“I want people to understand that evil lives in plain sight,” Thompson says.
“You never truly know a person.”

And the irony she weaves into Thorton’s story is sharp and heartbreaking. “He hated women,” she reveals. “And out of his sixteen children, thirteen were girls.”

The Easter egg stings. The legacy lingers.

What’s next? Thompson teases more serial killers, more psychological thrillers—and deeper emotional weight. “I don’t have a story that haunts me yet,” she says, “but I’m working on a few that just might.”

✍️ Chaos, Character, and the Creative Mind

Makitia Thompson on writing at midnight, procrastination as fuel, and what her darkest characters taught her about herself

“When my characters’ minds have been dissected to the point where there’s nothing but a skull left—I know the story has concluded itself.”

For Makitia Thompson, a typical writing day is anything but typical.

“I wake up, have a tea, shower, check my socials,” she says. “And then at some point I crack open a book file to start writing… but I don’t actually write anything.”

Between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., she might get out 200 words—on a good day. But when the sun dips below the horizon? That’s when the magic starts. “The evening comes around and I can’t stop myself. Nighttime is even better.”

And some stories possess her. “The Killer Across the Street wasn’t a struggle. I actually had to force myself to take breaks,” she admits. “Characters like Gregg Thorton are so rich and complex, they grab hold of me. I just can’t stop sometimes.”

Despite writing deeply unsettling material, Thompson says it’s the work that grounds her emotionally… even when it doesn’t feel like it. “I dive deep into manipulative, narcissistic, emotionally immature characters,” she says. “And by doing that, I’ve learned more about my own mind. I unconsciously give my characters some of my own issues—and then try to explain those issues through them.”

But perhaps the most surprising revelation? Procrastination is her not-so-secret weapon.

“I’ll go days without writing. Every hour I tell myself I have to write, and I don’t. But then, out of nowhere, I’ll write 20,000 words in a day. I’ve learned that unknowingly giving myself a break has helped me grow.”

She doesn’t force endings either.

“I never know when a story is done—the story knows. When there’s enough there to paint the picture, when I’ve pulled everything from my characters' minds until there’s nothing but bone… that’s when I know I can stop.”

🌌 Why I Write: A Storyteller’s Origin

From fairies and goblins to killers and broken minds—Makitia Thompson shares how writing saved her, and why she’ll never stop

“I didn’t choose this genre—it chose me. And it did me a service.”

Before the darkness of Gregg Thorton and the razor-sharp truths of Cole King, Makitia Thompson was a third grader spending her lunch breaks in the library, lost in the magical world of Geronimo Stilton.

“I was obsessed,” she says. “Those books made me fall in love with fantasy. Fairies, goblins, princesses, magic… I wrote every cliché you could think of. The books were terrible—but I loved writing them. I transported myself into different realms every time.”

But something shifted. As life got harder and real emotions began to press in—so did the stories.

“I was having issues of my own,” she shares. “Dark thoughts. And face-to-face expression was never my strong suit. But I had so much to say.”

So she wrote. And cried. And healed.

“Writing became a release. I poured myself into every page. Sometimes I’d cry while writing because it was so relieving to express myself without limits.”

“Honestly, I didn’t choose this genre—it chose me.”

Now, Thompson identifies herself as a psychological writer—an author who dives into the most shadowed corners of the human mind. “I want to write stories that stick to the part of your brain you didn’t even know existed. Stories that make you ask the deepest questions.”

Her influences? Not what you’d expect from a thriller author.

• Losing Isaiah taught her that not every choice should be made for yourself.

• Selena showed her how powerful a single person’s presence can be—and how destructive greed is.

• My Girl revealed the devastating weight of grief, even for someone raised around death.

“I can’t watch My Girl without crying,” she says. “Vada’s love for Thomas J… it stayed with me.”

And her voice? Still evolving. Still being uncovered. Still growing into the space it’s meant to fill.

“I know there’s so much more I can do. I won’t ever be done creating and thinking.”

🧠 Stories That Stay With You

Makitia Thompson on readers, reflections, and the stories still waiting to be told

“There’s a connection in every word, a revelation to be had on every page.”

If Makitia Thompson could sit across from one of her readers, she wouldn’t talk about sales or reviews or even success. She’d talk about the importance of storytelling.

“This has never been work for me,” she says. “It’s never even been a hobby. It’s something I need. I went through some dark times, and writing became my way through them. That’s when I began to understand why stories matter so much.”

She believes books are more than entertainment. They’re lifelines. Confessions. Connections.

“I’d want to have a real conversation with that reader. I’d want to know how stories have shaped their life, because I know what they’ve done for mine.”

And the stories are far from over.

Her next book—Until Time Remembers—is a haunting, genre-bending mystery about a cursed town, lost time, and a woman pulled into something no one else can see. The book is set to release this August and promises a gripping, emotional experience with twists readers won’t see coming.

(No spoilers… but this may be her most ambitious world yet.)

Thompson admits that reader support has saved her work more than once. “Sometimes I get really anxious about how a book will be received,” she confesses. “I unintentionally discredit my own work. But when I see people reading—whether they paid for the book or not—it means the world. It reminds me that I’m doing something worth doing.”

And if her bestselling crime novel The Killer Across the Street were to become a series?

She already knows her dream cast.

• Neal McDonough as Gregg Thorton: “He’s phenomenal at playing villains, and I’ve loved his work since Desperate Housewives and Walking Tall.”

• Morgan Freeman as Cole King: “Cole is blunt, composed, and fearless—and no one can command quiet power like Morgan Freeman.”