Ted is joined by Annie B. Jones, the author of the soon-to-be-released Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put. A book of essays, it draws on her experiences living in a small town in the area where she grew up. Those experiences include owning and running an independent bookstore, The Bookshelf, through which she also talks books, small business, and life in the South as the host of the store’s popular podcast, From the Front Porch.

In one of her first interviews about her book—and yes, if #humblebrag were still a thing, that would absolutely be a Working Drafts #humblebrag—Annie talks with Ted about what it’s been like to go from bookseller and reader to the person with your name on the cover. She also shares why she chose to write essays given her well-known love of fiction, the process of titling those pieces, deciding how much of her life to include, and what just might be the frontrunner for her favorite essay in the book.
 
In the process, Annie and Ted discover they both read what they write out loud—oftentimes to a canine companion—in order to get their words in their final form.

Episode Links:

• Annie’s Website
• The Bookshelf (Annie’s bookstore)
• From the Front Porch Podcast (plus wherever you get your pods)

Ted is joined by Angela Montoya, whose debut novel, Sinner’s Isle, received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and trade reviews from Booklist and The Bulletin. Her second novel, A Cruel Thirst, was published last month and has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection and an Editor’s Pick: Best YA of December by Amazon Books.

Angela also co-hosts the podcast Of the Publishing Persuasion, which is where she and Ted first talked. He had so much fun that he asked her to come on Working Drafts to celebrate the release of A Cruel Thirst—which she describes as “Zorro meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer”—and dive into what she’s working on now.

Titled Carnival Fantástico, that third novel, scheduled for release in spring 2026, is a second-chance romance set amidst a traveling carnival, with a dose of secrets and magic.

Here, Angela describes the process of writing a book while you’re actively seeing readers respond to your previous one and how she finds ways to draw on that feedback to make the next novel even better, a skill Ted freely admits to envying. In addition, they discuss the genesis of Angela’s idea for Carnival Fantástico, the collaborative process that has shaped the book into its current form, and the struggle that comes with knowing you have to cut your word count—along with realizing everyone isn’t going to think your first draft is brilliant as is.

Episode Links:

• Angela’s Website
• Of the Publishing Persuasion Podcast (+ wherever you get your pods)

Ted is joined by Katherine J. Igoe, a writer and editor who’s been freelancing since 2011. At the moment, she is also a contributing syndications editor at Marie Claire. She has written for The New York Times, The Cut, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Parents, and The Boston Globe, among others.
 
Katherine and Ted have known each other for a number of years and have bonded over their shared love of the written word—along with the challenges said love presents. One of these is how to make a living from writing, which, as her bylines indicate, she’s done by contributing pieces to some of the country’s most recognizable media outlets.
 
But as successful as she’s been in this nonfiction space, Katherine has wanted to write fiction since she was a kid. She and Ted have often talked about how to go from one type of writing to the other, and in this episode, she takes us inside the strategies she’s using to overcome the nagging self-censor of impostor syndrome and pursue her book aspirations. That journey has started with a book coach, something called The Artist’s Way, and short-story writing, where she has found an interest in speculative fiction that she didn’t know she had.

Episode Links

• Katherine’s Instagram
• The Artist’s Way

A short post-election break from our regularly scheduled programming.

Website Mentioned in This Episode:

• Postcards to Voters: postcardstovoters.org

Ted is joined by Kirthana Ramisetti, author of the novels Advika and the Hollywood Wives and Dava Shastri’s Last Day, a Good Morning America Book Club selection optioned by Max. Her books have been praised by TIME, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, The Associated Press, and others. Beyond her novels, Kirthana’s writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Elle, and Salon.
 
She just finished the copyediting stage for her next novel, a case of mistaken identity titled The Other Lata. It comes out in April of next year, and it was a great time to talk with her about what her process looked like for this book in particular. In addition to humoring a question from Ted about Oxford commas and punctuation in general, she discusses the challenge of avoiding dangling plot lines that leave the reader hanging as well as the music-fueled writing sessions that allowed her to complete a first draft in one month.
 
They then move onto what will be Kirthana’s fourth book, one she is just in the early stages of writing right now and for which she is pushing herself to go in a direction she hasn’t tried in her first three. She compares drafting to going on a hike, with her synopsis acting as the path to help her plot her way—even as she and Ted agree that synopsis writing is not among their favorite tasks—and highlights the importance of the little ways writers can make the process fun for themselves.

Finally, as has become tradition these several last months, Kirthana hits Ted with a rom-com recommendation to wrap things up.
 
Find Kirthana Online:

• Kirthana’s website: kirthanaramisetti.com

Ted is joined by Laura Hankin, an author, screenwriter, and performer. Her books include The Daydreams, one of the “Best Beach Reads of 2023” (Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and more); Happy & You Know It, a Book of the Month and Library Reads selection; and A Special Place for Women, as seen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Laura and Ted’s conversation begins with her most recent book (and second Book of the Month pick) One-Star Romance, which The Washington Post calls “real, refreshing and romantic.” It’s about a struggling writer who has to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with a man who gave her book one star on Goodreads and the ways the two keep being brought into each other’s lives over the subsequent decade.

This prompts Laura and Ted to have a very real conversation about the highs and lows of reading Goodreads reviews of their own books and why Laura has put in place some self-imposed boundaries that, by his own admission, Ted could stand to learn from. He also picks her brain about the way she managed flashbacks in One-Star Romance and the real-life backstory that inspired the novel.

Then it’s onto Laura’s work in progress, a book she just recently finished outlining that she plans will be a romantic comedy that will explore the theme of female friendship, as well. She and Ted talk about “clicking” with a new manuscript, the line between editing and overediting as you go, and learning to love editorial notes.

Last but not least, Laura shares some rom-com recommendations and her thoughts on the applicability of screenwriting to the process of writing a novel.

Find Laura Online:

• Laura’s website: laurahankin.com

Ted is joined by Alyssa Neece, his real-life coworker who shares his passion for making funny stuff outside of the office. For Alyssa, though, it’s not about writing books but coming up with and performing comedy for audiences.

Alyssa’s comedy journey started in college but didn’t really take off until some years later when they received a simple piece of advice: Focus less on what they should do and more on how they wanted to feel—and Alyssa realized they wanted to laugh more.

That led them to start taking classes at The Second City in Chicago, where they progressed from a series of improv offerings open to anyone to auditioning for and being accepted into the 13-month conservatory program, which they finished earlier this year.

Alyssa and Ted talk about the full-length Grad Revue Showcase sketch comedy show Alyssa and their classmates produced as the culmination of the program, the similarities and differences between improv and sketch as well as how that compares to Ted’s experience crafting jokes for books, the dynamics of working as a team versus writing on your own, and how Alyssa is now applying their Second City experience on a comedy podcast. Then, in honor of Ted’s newly released romantic comedy, Date Week, Alyssa shares some thoughts on their favorite rom-coms.

More From Alyssa:

• Second City Grad Revue Showcase: Customer Service Sketch
• Podcast: The Weekly Quarterly Report

Ted is joined this month by Lauren Aliza Green, author of the just-released novel The World After Alice, a “most anticipated” book by Vogue, Town & Country, and LitHub, among others. Her chapbook, A Great Dark House, won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship, and she was named to Forbes’ 2024 30 Under 30 list.
 
After a quick overview of The World After Alice—which Ann Napolitano called “A lovely debut novel that glimmers with fine writing and notes of human insight”—Lauren and Ted discuss the swirl of emotions surrounding publication day, something that’s top of mind for both of them at the moment.
 
They then move into a conversation about Lauren’s second novel and work in progress, a modern-day interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Set in New York City, it follows three grown siblings as their father announces he’s leaving his multimillion-dollar art collection to his youngest child, cutting the older two out of the will.
 
Lauren and Ted talk about how closely (or not) her book follows the valleys and peaks of King Lear, writing in first- versus close third-person, what she describes as her “complete disorganization of process” and its parallels to working a jigsaw puzzle, giving the muse ample chances to visit you, and the emotion of having to set aside a project you’ve devoted years to. Then, in honor of Ted’s newly released romantic comedy, Date Week, they wrap up by trading thoughts on some of their own favorite rom-coms.
 
Find Lauren Online:

• Lauren’s website: laurenagreen.com

To mark the release of his new rom-com, Date Week, which is out June 25, Ted is joined this month not by another writer but his longtime literary agent, Jessica Sinsheimer, the person responsible for helping him develop and then selling both this novel and his first, Schooled.

An agent at Context Literary Agency, Jessica has been campaigning for her favorite queries since 2004 and is known for co-creating #MSWL and ManuscriptWishList.com—and, like Ted, for drinking way too much coffee.

The concept for Date Week started with Jessica, and she talks about why she suggested this story to Ted in the first place, sharing the mix of highbrow inspiration and decidedly less highbrow reality TV-watching that led to the idea. They then move beyond his work specifically to discuss what she sees as an emerging trend of power arcs in fiction more generally as well as what she looks for in a potential client’s writing when assessing whether she is the one to help that person take their work in progress to the next level.

Through the course of their conversation, Jessica and Ted also open up about the challenges, from both the author and the agent sides, of navigating a highly subjective industry built on a strange mix of creative endeavor, business realities, and the unrelenting push to be productive.

Ted is joined by Johnny Compton, a Stoker Award-nominated, San Antonio-based author of horror stories whose debut novel, The Spite House, was released in 2023. In its review of the book, Esquire noted that “You can trace the tradition of the American ‘Bad Place’ from Edgar Allan Poe through Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, and Stephen King, all the way to Johnny Compton and The Spite House.”

Johnny’s work in progress (at least for the purposes of the discussion here) is a book you’ll be able to read later this year. Titled Devils Kill Devils, it’s about a woman who believes she has a guardian angel who has saved her life multiple times—only to see that same entity show up on her wedding night and murder her husband. This begs the question: What has this supposed angel been saving her for?

Johnny and Ted start out talking about pacing, which in Johnny’s case, changes depending on the type of horror he’s writing. He then unpacks the connection he’s always seen between writing horror and writing comedy and the challenge that arises in both from readers knowing what type of story they’re in while the characters don’t. Johnny also discusses not wanting to kill a particular character even though he knew he had to and his relationship to horror movies.

And because he is technically done writing Devils Kill Devils and is already onto his third novel, Johnny and Ted talk about that one, too, including the 3-D chess writers play with themselves when trying to title the book they’re working on, knowing full well that it may have to change down the road.

Find Johnny Online:

• Website: johnnycompton.com