Award-winning novelist, writing coach, and manuscript editor John DeDakis is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of six mystery-suspense-thriller novels. John is a former White House correspondent and regularly leads writing workshops at literary centers and writers’ conferences. He is also the host of the video podcast “One-to-One with John DeDakis”.

Among other things, John and Carter discuss John’s career in politics and journalism, how former journalists struggle with letting themselves “make things up” when writing fiction, and knowing when to get feedback from others. At the end of their conversation, they make up a creepy story using a line from Harlan Coben’s No Second Chance.

Lori Roy is an award-winning novelist. Her debut novel, Bent Road, was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Until She Comes Home was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. Let Me Die in His Footsteps was named one of the best fifteen mystery novels of 2015 by Oline Cogdill and received the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, making Roy the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best First Novel and Best Novel—and only the third person ever to have done so. Gone Too Long was named a People magazine Book of the Week, was named one of the Best Books of Summer 2019, and was excerpted by Oprah magazine.

Among other things, Lori and Carter discuss seeing writing as building a career instead of just a hobby, becoming more comfortable with the writing process over time, and how Lori studies screenwriting to improve her structure and dialogue. At the end of their conversation, they make up a suspenseful story using a line from Greg Iles’s Cemetery Road.

Mary Bly, writing under the pen name Eloisa James, is a tenured Shakespeare professor at Fordham University who also writes best-selling Regency and Georgian romance novels. Her novels are published in 30 countries and have sold approximately 7 million copies worldwide. She also wrote a bestselling memoir about the year her family spent in France, Paris in Love.

Among other things, Mary and Carter discuss how Mary’s work in academia influenced her to write under a different name, breaking into the romance genre after studying Shakespeare, and how reader expectations of romance characters have changed. At the end of their conversation, they make up a hilarious story using a line from Kristen Perrin’s How to Solve Your Own Murder.