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 Story
• Maggie’s Instagram: @litmagreject

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.