824. Dani Vee and Megan Jacobson - The Waiting Game, Writing and Trad Wives
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What is The Waiting Place and why is it special to the author?
Welcome to 2026, a brand new year of episodes with authors, illustrators, and publishers. Thank you for listening to the Words and Nerds podcast, a podcast with more than 1.5 million downloads. I'm Dani Vee, your host, and on this podcast, we chat about our love of books, different pathways to publication, and how our experiences shape our creativity. We are an inclusive podcast. We support mental health and love a fireside chat. Check out our 2026 spin-offs, Date With A Debut, Queer Rights Sessions and Radelaide Reads, supporting local and debut authors and LGBTQIA creatives. You can rate the podcast or leave a comment on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Gin & Co, author website design specialists.
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Megan Jacobson is an award-winning YA author, picture book author, ABC journalist and former TV screenwriter. Her first novel, Yellow, was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards in 2017. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Real Children's Choice Awards and shortlisted for the Davitt Awards Young Adult and Best Debut categories. and the Audible version had a starred review and was ranked a top 10 audiobook of 2026 by the US Magazine and website School Library Journal. Her second novel, The Build-Up Season, won the 2018 Australian Family Therapist's Award for Children's Literature, was shortlisted for the 2018 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, and shortlisted for the 2019 Real Children's Choice Awards.
Her debut picture book, Big Love, was a 2022 CBCA Notable Book, was featured on TV, Play School Storytime, and featured on the ABC Kids Listen Bedtime Stories podcast. Her next picture book, The Big Box of Feelings, was published by Walker Books, and today we talk about her latest YA novel, The Waiting Place, published by Hachette. Welcome back to the podcast, Megan, and congratulations on this very unique and cool book, The Waiting Place. Tell me, first of all, why is this book special?
Oh, thank you so much. This is special because I have been writing these characters since I was a teenager. Wow.
How did a car ride become the breakthrough moment for the novel?
I won a writing short story competition in high school called the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year. And one of like the stories were these characters, the Emily, her sister, Sarah, who is pregnant, and their dad. And I've had short stories in anthologies with these characters. They just would not leave me alone. And I've been trying to write the book for a very long time because I had the characters and I had the situation. But I didn't have a story. And it wasn't until I had been working on another novel that just wasn't working out. And then I was driving and the story for this one came to me. And it hit me in such a visceral way. I was driving and I had to pull over and I sort of started crying and I'm like, this is my story.
And then when it came, it came out in such a flow. I've never had that before. So this one is a bit of a special book because, I mean, these characters have been haunting me for such a long time. It's just really lovely to set them free and have them, you know, living out in the world.
Wow. I love that story. And you know what? It's funny because a lot of people talk about ideas coming to them in the shower, but a lot of mine come to me when I'm driving. And because I work from home so much, I'm wondering if I'm missing out on those ideas that come to me when I'm driving.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is The Waiting Place and why is it special to the author?
0:00–3:19
2
How did a car ride become the breakthrough moment for the novel?
3:19–7:40
3
What is the elevator‑pitch summary of the cult‑like world in the book?
7:40–12:03
4
How does the story explore the pressure on teen girls to suppress their voice?
12:03–16:18
5
What metaphor do the insects and butterflies represent for the protagonist?
16:18–20:13
6
How does the author critique the ‘trad‑wife’ movement and its hidden realities?
20:13–23:32
7
How has the author’s writing process changed with motherhood and multiple jobs?
23:32–28:37
8
Why does the author keep writing and what does she hope readers, especially teens, take away?
28:37–31:44