When Ted Galdi and I chatted, he was home in New York City. Throughout his neighborhood, he said, people would be partying until one o’clock and beyond. Just a typical Wednesday night.
But not him. Instead, he was talking shop with me. And if he wasn’t talking about writing, he’d be working on his new book. Or on the promotion of a preexisting book. This nights-and-weekends strategy is how Ted works around his day job, something he’s been doing for at least seven years through several novels and a slew of short stories.
We dive deep on how concepts that intrigue us as individuals — what it might be like to have a 250 IQ, the problem of evil, the chance of an afterlife — can work in a thriller book without slowing the pace or overshadowing the plot.
Ted’s first book, Elixir, tells the story of a genius who solves an Ebola crisis. In 2014, Ted didn’t seek an agent or publisher, but Googled “how to put a book out.” It worked. But have things stayed so simple?
By the end, I can’t resist asking my standard question about the state of publishing. We ponder where the industry will go from here, and Ted lays out his response to increased competition, and why we should be optimistic about the future…