My Best Writing Tip

Ted is joined by Lindsay Lewis, who fell in love with books when she realized she could escape algebra class by peeking at the romance novel hidden on her lap. Now she entertains herself by making the characters in her head kiss. Her debut novel, a sports rom-com titled It’s a Business Doing Pleasure With You, will be published by Alcove Press this August. Lindsay tells us about the book and why she aims to give readers a sense of found sisterhood through her work before she and Ted bond over...

Ted is joined by Nishant Batsha, whose second novel, A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart, was published this month by ecco/HarperCollins. He is also the author of Mother Ocean Father Nation (ecco/HarperCollins), which, among other honors, was named one of the best books of 2022 by NPR. Nishant holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, so it’s no surprise that his fiction draws heavily on real-life people and events. He describes this latest book as a “socialist, anti-colonial coming-of-...

Ted is joined this month by not one but two amazing guests, Jennifer Acker and Emily Everett. Jennifer is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, an award-winning print and digital literary journal based at Amherst College, and author of the novel The Limits of the World, which was one of three fiction honorees for the Massachusetts Book Award. Emily works with Jennifer as managing editor at The Common. She is also a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction and author of...

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—an...

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...

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...

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 the...

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 ...