Something about that little fox ignited both of us, and we decided to take the plunge and begin our book. Then, about five years ago, Alison sent out a poem about a small red fox in snow as her Poem of the Week.

“A book about two sisters,” Kathi answered.īoth of us had many other projects that occupied us, and the idea was tabled, although one of us would occasionally bring it up over the years. It was friend-love at first sight, and it was that very first week, when we were eating one of the many meals we ate together Between the Pillars, that Kathi suggested we write a book together. Kathi doesn’t remember that, but she does remember breakfast the next day, when the two of us loaded up our trays and scuttled to sit together at a small table between two huge pillars in the drafty dining hall, a table we sat at every day, three times a day, for each of the residencies we shared. Alison’s roller bag had gone missing at the airport, and she remembers Kathi tilting her head in sympathy and offering, in that beautiful Texas accent of hers, to lend her a pair of pajamas.

The collaboration that would become Maybe a Fox began many years ago in a freezing and dingy dorm at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we were new both to the faculty and to each other. How in the world do you write a novel with another person? Kathi and I just jumped in and figured it out as we went along (and along and along and along and along). You can see the producer and the sound engineer beyond the soundproof window, chatting and drinking coffee and eating malted milk balls, but everything’s silent where you are. You have to physically place your hands where you want them before you say a word, for example, because the sound mics are so sensitive that the tiny touch of your finger on your jeans will sound like wind. The booth is silent and you have to sit perfectly still. Click here for a sample of the audio version. Recording a book on audio is weird and fascinating.

For better and for worse, I did the recording. Maybe a Fox has also just been published in audio form. The book has so far gotten a bunch of starred reviews, which makes us happy, given that at a few points we were close to throwing in the towel (on the book, not our friendship). It began as a lark (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase, so thank you for letting me do so here), sparked by our friendship and a poem we both loved, but it took us one helluva long time to write it, as you will see if you read the below post we wrote about the process. My lovely friend Kathi Appelt and I wrote a novel together, Maybe a Fox, here on Indiebound and here on Amazon, which was published last week.

Maybe a fox by kathi appelt