Pieces of this short story were rather entertaining, but overall it just didn't give me enough substance. I did fall into a small rabbit hole of attempting to discover if this was written with true life influence as there were a couple of points that led me to think that the basis for the story line was related to the creation of Atwood's collaborative work, Fourteen Days.

There were a few references that allude to another author being problematic and wanting to be a part of Fern's short story collection that seem to point towards Neal Shusterman. There are two references that seem to point to Shusterman's novels Scythe and Dry along with descriptions of the problem author as being very famous and likable. It does also mention him to be a bit conceited, but I don't know enough about Shusterman as a person to say whether this character train would also point to the author. Now, whether or not my "tea theory" is really the case I cannot say, as no internet searches led to additional information to any of this, but knowing Atwood and her writing style I wouldn't be surprised to know that there are a few context clues lurking.