Teddy Jones, "Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds" (Stoney Creek, 2026)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: New Books Network — Teddy Jones on "Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds"

Guest: Teddy Jones
Host: JP Gottlieb
Original Airdate: March 31, 2026
Book Discussed: Far From Uncertain (Stoney Creek, 2026)
Episode Length: ~24 minutes

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into Teddy Jones's novel Far From Uncertain, which centers on a 90-year-old nurse recounting her tumultuous youth of poverty, violence, and survival in early 20th-century Texas. Set across dual timelines, the story examines trauma, resilience, moral ambiguity, and the power of retelling personal history through the character’s confessional interview with a young reporter. The conversation explores Jones's creative process, historical research, character development, and broader themes of empathy and survival.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Inspiration for the Novel and Connections to Previous Work

• Jones reveals that the impetus for Far From Uncertain stemmed from an unresolved thread in her previous novel, A Family of Good Women. A character left beaten in a ditch sparked her imagination, prompting the question: "What happened to her?" (02:57)
• The novel became a means to answer that question for herself, tracing the woman's origins and fate.

Structural Choices and the Dual Timeline

• Jones was inspired by Allan Gurganus’s structure in Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, using a storytelling framework that intercuts past and present (03:48).
• She expresses her enjoyment in experimenting with novel structure:

  “It kind of fascinated me, the possibility. I like to fool with structure a little bit.” (03:48, Teddy Jones)

Researching Historical Texas Life

• Jones leaned on earlier research but also sought new material in the Briscoe Center for American History and microfilm records of small-town newspapers to capture accurate details—prices, food, daily life.

  “It was important for me to know what the price of pork was at a particular time and...what kind of food and drink people might be consuming.” (05:10, Teddy Jones)

Main Characters and Their Dynamics

• Margaret: The 90-year-old nurse, protagonist as an elder. She’s compelling for her desire to share her story and the conviction that it carries a lesson.
• Charles Bailey: The young reporter assigned to interview Margaret. He has roots in the Panhandle and is drawn in by her candor and vibrancy, unlike his own stern grandmother.

  “She holds him hostage in a way...She fascinated him.” (06:51, Teddy Jones)

• Frankie: Margaret’s younger self, a girl fleeing abuse in Uncertain, Texas.

  “Her brothers were abusing her sexually as well as making her life miserable...her father...encouraged that. Her mother was too downtrodden...to do anything about it.” (08:17, Teddy Jones)

• Dix: A gambler who offers Frankie escape—a complicated, morally ambiguous “rescuer.” Jones refuses to paint him as all good or bad:

  “I don’t want a villain to be all bad and I don’t want a hero to be all good.” (09:28, Teddy Jones)

Themes: Survival, Trauma, and Empathy

• The narrative probes cycles of abuse, grooming, addiction, and the ways such things existed before they had names:

  “It’s beneficial to help a reader know that [grooming] wasn’t invented in the 20th or 21st century.” (16:23, Teddy Jones)

• Jones highlights how her protagonist, through hardship, finds her “core of will” and develops a deep empathy for others:

  “I think that’s what I like best about her—she learned over time, even though she had to commit some awful acts, to be a really good and empathetic person.” (20:54, Teddy Jones)

Authenticity in Setting and Character

• The setting—Uncertain, Texas—is real, which delighted Jones when she discovered it existed.
• Jones met a former mayor of Uncertain at a workshop, affirming her choice:

  “As it turns out, he is from—you won’t believe it—Uncertain, Texas! And he had been the mayor of Uncertainty.” (15:14, Teddy Jones)

Ethics and Agency in Storytelling

• The book’s structure, with Margaret demanding Charles understand her story, is designed to move the narrative from personal trauma to collective awareness and advocacy.

  “She’s been waiting all these years to tell someone who might be able to do something influential...The weak or those who are...invisible need to be protected from those who are stronger and who would prey upon them.” (12:36, Teddy Jones)

Depiction of Crime and Survival Skills

• Frankie’s criminal acts—pickpocketing and gambling—are taught by Dix and absorbed almost as a craft or game by her adolescent self:

  “He gave her pointers...she was an apt pupil...it was a game.” (18:42, Teddy Jones)

Addiction and Vulnerability

• Dix drugs Frankie with laudanum, a common and legal narcotic at the time, perpetuating her dependency:

  “It could become addictive very quickly...it was a way of keeping her enthralled to him.” (17:18, Teddy Jones)

Future Projects

• Jones is working on a new novel, Rise to the Occasion, set for release next spring, and another historically-set novel:

  “...this is set in 1961, same year I graduated from high school. And so now I’m a piece of historical.” (22:11, Teddy Jones)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Writing Characters:

  “I don’t want a villain to be all bad and I don’t want a hero to be all good.” (09:28, Teddy Jones)

• On Naming Trauma:

  “It’s beneficial to help a reader know that [grooming] wasn’t invented in the 20th or 21st century.” (16:23, Teddy Jones)

• On Empathy and Growth:

  “She learned over time, even though she had to commit some awful acts, to be a really good and empathetic person.” (20:54, Teddy Jones)

• On Real Places Inspiring Fiction:

  “He is from—you won’t believe it—Uncertain, Texas! And he had been the mayor of Uncertainty.” (15:14, Teddy Jones)

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Selected Timestamps

• 02:57 – Jones discusses the inspiration behind writing Far From Uncertain
• 03:48 – Why she chose a dual timeline structure
• 05:10 – Historical research and use of local newspapers for authenticity
• 06:28 – Introduction of Charles Bailey, the young reporter
• 08:17 – Frankie's family origins and the trauma she endured
• 09:28 – On not making Dix or Frankie one-dimensional
• 15:14 – Jones’s encounter with the mayor of Uncertain, Texas
• 16:23 – Discussion of “grooming” and historic abuse
• 17:18 – Usage and impact of laudanum upon Frankie
• 18:42 – Frankie being taught to steal and survive
• 20:54 – Frankie's growth into empathy and goodness
• 22:11 – Teasing her upcoming novel and reflecting on writing “historical” fiction from her own lifetime

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Summary

This episode offers a thoughtful, sometimes harrowing deep dive into the making of Far From Uncertain and its central themes: the shaping of identity through trauma, the ambiguity of good and evil, and the legacy of resilience. Teddy Jones’s candor and reflective approach provide an engaging exploration not only of her fictional world but also of the social history that informs it—reminding listeners that the struggle for agency and dignity is a timeless one.

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Transcript

[Commercial Narrator]

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[JP Gottlieb]

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[Teddy Jones]

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[Teddy Jones]

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[JP Gottlieb]

Learn [e-mail] M365 copilot Welcome to the New Books Network. Margaret started early that morning, up by 6am after her morning coffee, the one cup she allowed herself. She showered and dressed, put on a bit of makeup, brightening her cheeks, emphasizing her eyes with the material touch of mascara. Applying light lipstick the mirror told her she was ready to take advantage of the perfect opportunity. She'd waited years for the right time to tell what she'd kept silent about. 75 years to be exact. This is GP Gotley, host for New Books and Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network. Today I'm talking to Teddy Jones about her stunning new novel, Far from uncertain. It's 2000 and a 90 year old nurse is telling the hardscrabble life of a young girl who grew up in poverty, escaped a violent home to run off with a gambler, was groomed by the man calling himself her husband, and had to continuously use her wits in order to survive. This is a moving, heartbreaking historical novel about perseverance and the courage of one woman to fight for her survival. Hi Teddy, thanks for joining me.

[Teddy Jones]

Oh, thanks so Much for inviting me.

[JP Gottlieb]

So what was your impetus for writing this novel and how long did it take to write?

[Teddy Jones]

I didn't intend to write this novel when I wrote the previous one, but at the end of A Family of Good Women, which was set in 1929 in Borger, Texas, there was a character who was left beaten in a ditch with her newborn near her. And later it occurred to me, probably because it'd been a long time between my writing the other one and having a contract to have it published. And it occurred to me that I wondered what happened to that woman. And so that was the stimulus for writing the book, was to answer for myself the question of who was she and where did she come from and what happened to her? And so that's where it came from.

[JP Gottlieb]

Why a dual timeline?

[Teddy Jones]

It kind of fascinated me, the possibility. I like to fool with structure a little bit. And I had read Alan Gerganis book A Long, Long Time Ago, the Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. And so that was also similar in. In that it had a long, long period, lots and lots of material from her earlier life, the, the widow, and yet her dealing with the young woman to whom she was telling the story. And so it occurred to me that that might be an interesting way to try it. And so that's what I tried.

[JP Gottlieb]

It was. It was. What kind of research did you do to learn about Texas from before that area of the Panhandle, before Prohibition?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, I had done a good deal of research for the previous book, and so I had that available, which was a large part of it. But I also did a combination of research at the Briscoe center in Austin at the University of Texas. It's the center for American History, and they have archives there that furnished a great deal of information that was useful. And of course, the usual Internet search about early day oil fields and those kinds of things. And then of actual copies or before they digitized them, microfilm copies of local newspapers from small towns that are mentioned in the book, telling me facts about what those towns were like at the time. And that was, I thought, very important for me in making certain that I had prices right, that I had what kind of food and drink people might be consuming, all kinds of things that you can find in local newspapers, because back in those years, particularly up until, oh, I would say even the 40s, the newspapers, local newspapers actually had news, not just local news, and. And they told a great deal. And it was important for me to know what the price of pork was at a particular time and how much the things that she did whenever she went to Wichita Falls and any of these other places cost. So that was the reason. I mean, the way in which I sought information to back the story as I developed it.

[JP Gottlieb]

So can you introduce Charles Bailey, the reporter sent to interview Margaret, and tell us why he's interested?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, he's young, and he's interested in his own career, of course, but he also has a close tie to the Panhandle region because he grew up there with his grandparents after his parents died. And so he is more than capable of doing exactly what he was sent there to do, which was to create a feature story about the oldest living nurse practicing nurse in the Texas Panhandle, Margaret. And he was fascinated by her because she holds him hostage in a way. She says, I will, but I won't until you listen to this story. And so he's intrigued, and I think he was interested because for one reason, she reminded him that everyone who's natty is not like his grandmother, because his grandmother was a very stern person. And here's Margaret, who's delightful. And so she fascinated him. And I think that that's part of why he was interested in doing the story.

[JP Gottlieb]

And then she starts telling the story that we come to understand is the woman from your previous book named Frankie. Can you introduce her? We learn immediately that her older brothers are awful and her parents inattentive. It's hard to imagine how that kind of behavior was allowed. But can you talk about them?

[Teddy Jones]

Yes. Let me tell you where she's from. To begin with, she grew up to the age of 15 in a town called Uncertain, Texas, which, in fact, is an actual town still.

[JP Gottlieb]

Is it really?

[Teddy Jones]

It is. If you look on the eastern side of the map of Texas, over by Caddo Lake, there's a little berg, and it's still alive. And that town is called Uncertain. And that just tickled me to death. I thought, oh, it's. I'm going to use that. And so she was 15 in 1925 when she decided, because her brothers were abusing her sexually as well as completely making her life miserable in other ways, and her father, at least tacitly, encouraged that. And her mother was too downtrodden, I suppose, to do anything about it. So whenever they decided that they'd go to the carnival that was being held the Fourth of July, she was happy to go. And she had vowed as she left, at least mentally, that she was going to leave home that day and never return. And she and her brothers set out for the fair.

[JP Gottlieb]

And that's how she ends up with Dix.

[Teddy Jones]

Yes.

[JP Gottlieb]

Running away with Dix even though she knows nothing about him.

[Teddy Jones]

Well, she's 15. That's one problem.

[JP Gottlieb]

Right. Can you say something about him?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, I didn't. You know, I don't want a villain to be all bad and I don't want a hero to be all good. And so it didn't seem out of the ordinary for him to be solicitous of her and interested in actually trying to help her get away from where she was. And the fact that she was ready for an adventure anyway, even absent the concerns back at the house, but that they just hit it off and they she was fascinated by him. He thought she was beautiful and he knew she was awfully young and he was who he was. He admitted right away that he was gambler and he was it was going to be an adventure and so they were ready to go. And he grew up. Of course we has a little bit of his backstory, which was that he grew up on the streets in New Orleans and he came from poor circumstances himself. And so when he had learned what he learned growing up, how to gamble well and how to avoid physical labor at all costs. And besides that, he was good looking. And so I think that that's probably enough to tell you about the and there was enough reason for her to decide when she was up on top of the Ferris wheel with them, that when it came to the bottom, she was going with them. And that was it.

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[JP Gottlieb]

You do something interesting here after you introduce these characters of coming back to the future now. And we see Margaret asking Charles if he understands what the story is about, and she tells him she'll ask again at the end. So my question is, why is it important to her that he understands what the story is about?

[Teddy Jones]

She's been waiting all these years to tell someone who might be able to do something that would be influential. And she sees something in Charles, or at least she sees a glimmer of hope that in him there is someone who could, in fact, find an audience who could demonstrate a concern for this concern that she has, which is that the weak or those who are inaudible, who are invisible, need to be protected from those who are stronger and who would prey upon them. And so that is why, when she had waited all this time, she took the opportunity to tell this young man this story and to emphasize to him from the beginning and then again to the end what it was all about. So that he doesn't believe that it's just a story told by no woman about a bad life. This is. It's important to her. And she thinks she struck up on the right person to do something important with it.

[JP Gottlieb]

Dix is like an interesting combination of lots of different things, but he's honest. He's honest with Frankie, telling her that liquor and gambling is what he does. Not that she knows what that means, but it kind of contrasts with his later behavior. But he's honest. What do you think?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, and that's part of my attempt to make certain that he's around a character rather than a caricature.

[JP Gottlieb]

Yeah, so she notices that. So she's traveling. They're traveling together and getting as far away from uncertainty. Your title with brilliant title. Far from Uncertain. And she notices that the land, the landscape is different. I love that you put all the senses in many of the different situations. She remembers the smell of decay and foul water at home. So uncertain. I'm wondering if you've heard from the Chamber of Commerce yet from Uncertain, because

[Teddy Jones]

they may not have a Chamber of Commerce. Here's something funny, though. I'll tell you this. So I was at a workshop the first time I went to a workshop at the Larry McMurtry Literary center two years ago. And so people with all kinds of interest in some poets, some were writing memoir. I writing short stories at that time. And this man introduces himself. He has a short strangle. And as it turns out, he. He is from, I don't. You won't believe it, Uncertain Texas. And he had been the mayor of Uncertainty. Wow. And I thought, oh, my goodness. This. Yes, thank you. Yeah, it's great. So it emphasized me that it was important that I know about. He was sitting right over there at a table next to me.

[JP Gottlieb]

Well, maybe it was a suburb of uncertainty.

[Teddy Jones]

No, there's no suburbs to that.

[JP Gottlieb]

So Dick's is very sweet to Frankie, but she promises herself that she'll leave if he ever changes. And then he takes money to let her dance with someone. And she doesn't realize, but everything he's been doing is a kind of grooming technique at a time before we knew what that was.

[Teddy Jones]

That's exactly right.

[JP Gottlieb]

Right. So you never say what's happening, but we in this world today, I wonder if we read the story 20 years ago, if we would have known any of us readers. Because it wasn't named back then.

[Teddy Jones]

Right.

[JP Gottlieb]

But it existed.

[Teddy Jones]

It's become important, I think, in people's minds to be able to name, label things. And there are times when it. Things are labeled inappropriately. But I think that this represents precisely what you're talking about, what is called grooming. And I think that it's. It's beneficial to help a reader know that it wasn't invented in the 20th or the 21st century.

[JP Gottlieb]

Right. We have that feeling that it was. No, it's always been around, just wasn't. But it has to have a name for us to grapple with it, to know how to fight it, if. Right. Until until now. Until just a few years ago, really. So Frankie at the time is still only 16, and there didn't seem to be rules about kids being in school. And then they get married, but it's not clear if they're really married. And Dix basically drugs her, so can you talk about that?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, times when she might be anxious. He has available to him not only alcohol in the form of liquor, that's basically the illicit liquor that they're hauling, but also it was possible to go to a druggist and purchase laudanum, or he could have gotten it on the. On the circuit. I would imagine. And laudanum was not at all uncommon, as, of course, it's opium. And it became. It could become addictive very quickly. It was commonly used by prostitutes, was commonly even prescribed for females for the things that, at that time, physicians didn't really know what to call whenever women had various illnesses and ailments, but it seemed to make them calm and to suffer less. And I think that women. That was a standard thing to do with women during that period of time, at least in terms of the kinds of care they might have received. So it wasn't all that out of the ordinary, but it was a way of keeping her enthralled to him as she became addicted.

[JP Gottlieb]

Can you talk about how Dix teaches Frankie to pickpocket and gamble, to steal and gamble?

[Teddy Jones]

Well, watch me. I'll teach you. And so he. Then he gave her pointers, but he showed her how to do it, and then he realized that she was an apt pupil, and so he encouraged that. And she, of course, took to it because at the time, it was kind of fun. It was a game.

[JP Gottlieb]

She was.

[Teddy Jones]

We got to remember she's young, and she hadn't been out of the country much. And so this was in these towns where people were walking by with out a care in many cases. And men, because she was a beautiful young woman, would smile at her and ignore whatever she was doing and it be in favor of looking at her or perhaps getting close to her. And so she had it all going for in terms of being a perfect pickpocket. And. And so it was something that she enjoyed it. And she.

[JP Gottlieb]

She.

[Teddy Jones]

She was having a good time when she could earn her own money that way. And so, you know, we have to reckon that who she was, and she was learning both negative and positive things at the time that all this was going on.

[JP Gottlieb]

What about Frankie's story most intrigued you?

[Teddy Jones]

Her recovery way later, when she got to Dr. Head's hospital, I think was the thing that fascinated me most, because many people had waking up after having withdrawal symptoms. Clearly, he had had to basically withdraw her from the effects of the addiction. And this is all while she was completely unconscious. And so that went on, and then she was disfigured because all the things that had happened to her in terms of his cutting her face, all of that. And so that was there. And I mean, there was no reason for her to continue living if you. If she hadn't been a strong person with a great core of will that said, no, you're not gonna. You're not gonna Kill me. Because you. You. You've killed my baby, and you're not gonna kill me. And so I think that that. That was the part that. That's what I like best about her was when she had showed this great strength of will. And I also liked when she began to cultivate a sense of empathy for others that was more and more active. And I think that she had plenty of opportunity to do that. And it was important for her to try to do something for Dr. Head and for the nurses there and to be able to help the person in the waiting room who was in need of shoes, those kinds of things. I think that that's what I like the best about her, was that she learned over time, even though she had to commit or she did commit some awful acts, she learned over time to be really good and empathetic person. And so I thought that was important for her. I would have liked to have met her. Right, right.

[JP Gottlieb]

I've already told you that I read the book a couple months ago, and it's still. It's still with me. It's a really powerful story. So I'm wondering, and you said you picked up on it from the previous book you wrote. I'm wondering, is there another story from one of the characters in this book, or what are you working on next?

[Teddy Jones]

I have just signed a contract for another book that is already. The manuscript's already at the publishing company, and it's contemporary, and it is called Rise to the Occasion. And it is set in Jackson's Pond, which is the setting for several other books, several novels that I had written before, four, to be exact, that I had written before. And it will come out next spring. And right now I'm writing slowly on another one, which is. You know, it's funny to think about it. Things that are 50 years or more old are considered historical. Okay, this is 19. This is set in 1961, same year I graduated from high school. And so now I'm a piece of historical. I've got all kinds of facts from back then. So that's what I'm working on now. But the next one will be, of course, all the things that have to be done when it goes to the editing process and all that.

[JP Gottlieb]

Thank you so much for joining me. It's just been a pleasure talking to Teddy Jones, and I wish you the best of luck on all your books.

[Teddy Jones]

Oh, thank you so much. I've enjoyed visiting with you as well.

[JP Gottlieb]

And thank you for joining me again. This is JP Gottlieb, author of the Whip's Sipped Mystery series and host for New Books and Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network. Today, I've been talking to Teddy Jones about her gripping historical novel, Far From Uncertain. Hope you all have something moving to read today and and every day. Happy reading.

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