No guest this month, so Ted revisits a previous solo pod, during which he talked about the challenges of navigating the months in between when you submit your final manuscript and when the book actually comes out. In that episode, he shared how, for him, a big part of managing those challenges involves getting started on a new project.Well, it’s now been a year since that finished manuscript was published as his second novel, and the work in progress he introduced on that podcast is something he’s been wrestling with through a series of starts and stops for even longer. As a result, it’s probably a good moment to rethink what he previously referred to as “the in-between time.”Working Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
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18:42
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18:42
Those Places Between Like and Love
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 the novel All That Life Can Afford, the Reese’s Book Club pick for April 2025. Considering the closest Ted has come to that latter honor is watching Big Little Lies, he starts the conversation by asking Emily what it was like to find out Reese had selected her book. (Spoiler: pretty freakin’ exciting.) Emily then shares a little bit about All That Life Can Afford, a story with a main character whose idealized version of London doesn’t quite track with her reality when she moves there after college. The role of the city proves to be a great segue to ask Jennifer about The Common, as it is a magazine devoted to deepening “our individual and collective sense of place.” Both Jennifer and Emily go on to talk about the relationship of their editorial work to their own writing, the difference in the writing challenge between novels and short stories (besides, you know, the length), how they’ve helped each other grow as writers, and the books they’re working on now.Episode Links:Jennifer’s WebsiteEmily’s WebsiteThe CommonWorking Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
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34:59
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34:59
In Pursuit of What Works This Time
Ted is joined by Maggie Su, whose debut novel, Blob: A Love Story, was published in January to praise from The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly (starred review), The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and Goodreads, among others.Maggie and Ted begin by discussing the short story and dramatic origins of Blob, which is a work of speculative fiction about a young woman who tries to mold a sentient blob into her perfect partner. The conversation then turns to the challenge of starting again from scratch for book number two, a project where Maggie has found that some but not all of the practices she used to create Blob are useful to her this time around.Still speculative fiction, this new novel is more inspired by the horror genre, and Maggie explains why she’s taking it as an opportunity to push herself to depart from writing in the first person. She and Ted talk about the nuances of trying to tell a story from different POV styles, the relevance of her work as a journal editor to her own writing process, and finding the particular feedback environment that suits your own creativity. Episode Links:Maggie’s Debut: Blob: A Love StoryMaggie’s Instagram: @litmagrejectWorking Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
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31:08
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31:08
Telling Something Good and True
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 WebsiteThe Bookshelf (Annie’s bookstore)From the Front Porch Podcast (plus wherever you get your pods)Working Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
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36:23
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36:23
Why We Keep Climbing Through It
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 WebsiteOf the Publishing Persuasion Podcast (+ wherever you get your pods)Working Drafts episodes and info for requesting transcripts as well as more details about Ted and his books are available on his website, thetedfox.com.
Novelist/humorist/coffee enthusiast Ted Fox (SCHOOLED, DATE WEEK) talks with other writers about their work—not so much the books they’ve published (although those definitely come up) but more what they’re writing right now, aka their works in progress, their working drafts, their open Word documents making them want to throw their computers out a window. Covering the good, the bad, and the daunting word counts, these are conversations about the craft of writing meant to be both fun and helpful. New episodes released each month on the 15th.
South Africa