The Truth.

This is The Truth. I'm Jonathan Mitchell.

And for the past few stories, we've been releasing conversations in between episodes, where we talk with writers about where the stories came from and the ideas inside them.

And today I'm talking with writer Mary MacDonald, who wrote The Spot Off the Side of the Highway.

And this will be a spoiler-filled conversation.

This is really intended to be listened to after you've heard this story.

So please go listen to it first if you haven't already.

We'll talk with Mary after the break.

And if you'd like to listen to our show without interruptions,

go to the truthpodcast.supp That supportingcast.fm.

I've been working with Mary MacDonald since 2018.

The first story she wrote for the truth was called Murder at Cakeery Bakery.

And she's written many, many stories since.

Last fall, she wrote The joke.

And many of her stories are very Last fall, she wrote The Joke, and many of her stories

are very funny and slightly demented, but her latest is not a comedy, yet it still has her

same sense of irony and richly observed characters. A lot of times stories start with characters

for me, but really the character that started this

story for me was the spot, I would say.

I remember you pitching a story where it was all from the spot's point of view.

Yeah, from the spot's point of view, which isn't exactly how he ended up telling it,

but the visceral, like, idea

...