"Two simple words—'what if'—can create thousands of novels." – Traci Abramson

Traci Hunter Abramson was born in Arizona, and after graduating from Brigham Young University, she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, eventually resigning in order to raise her family. She recently retired after twenty-six years coaching her local high school swim team. She has written forty-five best-selling novels and is an eight-time Whitney Award winner, including 2017 and 2019 Best Novel of the Year.

Among other things, Traci and Carter discuss how Traci’s background in the CIA influenced her writing, treating writing as a job versus as a hobby, and Traci’s experiences with the CIA’s review board when writing her novels. At the end of their conversation, they make up a mysterious story using a line from Lee Goldberg’s Dream Town.

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She is the first Latina in history to win a Bram Stoker Award. Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, and more.

Among other things, Cynthia and Carter discuss having a day job while writing, their approaches to social media, and writing fairy tales versus novels grounded in reality. At the end of their conversation, they make up a clever story using a line from Mindy Mejia’s A World of Hurt.

Bob Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and graduate of the lowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has been published by The Common, Philadelphia Stories, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Barcelona Review, and elsewhere. His story "The Continental Divide" was named Short Story of the Year in The Hudson Review.

Among other things, Bob and Carter discuss growing up with undiagnosed ADD, writing without thinking of the odds of getting published, and getting reviewed by the New York Times. At the end of their conversation, they make up a fast-paced story using a line from Sean Eads’ Seventeen Stitches.