The First Time: Recent Episodes
The First Time Podcast
A podcast about the first time you...publish a book.
One part reality show, one part writers’ master class. Debut novelists Katherine Collette and Kate Mildenhall get practical advice from Australian writers on all the firsts: agents, editors, social media, reviews and if you need to get your nails done to match your book cover. And Kate makes Katherine spill the beans on all her feels in the lead up to the September launch of Katherine’s debut novel, The Helpline.
The First Time podcast is supported by partners RMIT University, Writers Victoria and ACT Writers Centre.
In this special episode, Kate and Katherine seek out advice from the best as they both prepare to launch brand new books for kids. They are delighted to be chatting with author, illustrator and current Australian Children's Laureate, Sally Rippin.
How to launch a MG book and why it's different from launching an adult book, the art of illustration, taking the business side of author life seriously, the problem with the word 'lucky', how to be a good industry citizen, the difference between 'learning to read' and 'reading to learn' and Sally's advice on writing a cracking kids book.
Kate & Katherine also chat a little about their new books and upcoming events:* Find out about Katherine Collette's middle grade novel The Too Tall Tales of Alma T. Best: Out of Bounds and check out her events on instagram and coaching info. * Check out Kate Mildenhall's debut picture book To Stir With Love, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft out on Oct 3. Kate will be touring the book over October and November - find events via this tour page or on her instagram.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com
This special live recording of The First Time Podcast took place on May 23, 2024 at Carriageworks on Gadigal Land for the Sydney Writers Festival. Podcast co-host, Kate Mildenhall spoke to guests Melanie Saward, James Colley and Charlotte Wood about their books, their paths to publication and the writing life.
Melanie Saward is a proud Bigambul and Wakka Wakka woman. She is a writer, editor and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich), Queensland. Her debut novel Burn was published by Affirm Press in September 2023. She's widely published in literary journals and anthologies and is currently awaiting sign off on her PhD. In July, her first romantic comedy novel, Love Unleashed, will be published by Penguin Random House.
James Colley is the author of the debut romantic comedy novel The Next Big Thing from Pantera Press. He's the head writer of ABC TV's Gruen and Question Everything.
Charlotte Wood is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her books have won or been shortlisted for various prizes including the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Award for Fiction. Her latest novel is Stone Yard Devotional which has been shortlisted for Age Book of the Year, ABIA Literary fiction of the year, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com
This episode of The Next Step is with Nat Kringoudis. It’s the episode where Katherine FINALLY gets to talk about both ice baths and fasting. Fasting can be problematic for some people so if you feel like food restriction discussions are triggering, maybe sit this one out.
Nat Kringoudis is a health care practitioner, she’s also a two times best selling author, Speaker and all-round natural fertility expert. She’s the founder of Melbourne women’s health clinic, The Pagoda Tree and host of The Wellness Collective podcast.
Nat is one of those people that’s consistently ahead of the curve. She does a lot of self-experimentation when it comes to health (as discussed in this episode) and has a huge following on social media – if you’re an Instagram person definitely follow her. In addition to health stuff, Nat also talks about how she's built an audience and businesses around that audience.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
Laurie Kilmartin is a stand-up comedian and an Emmy-nominated and award-winning comedy writer. She was a staff writer for all 11 years of CONAN and has performed standup on CONAN, Late Late Show w/James Corden, and Comedy Central.
Laurie Kilmartin is also on Twitter. A lot of people are on Twitter or have been on Twitter, but she’s the kind of tweeter that makes you wish Twitter was still a thing . For example, she life tweeted her dad’s death in a way that was both heart wrenching and hilarious.
In addition to being very, very funny, Laurie is super candid in this episode about the reality of making a living as a comedian. Her newest special, “Cis Woke Grief Slut,” is currently available in Australia via Tubi.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
Sarah Pound is the creator of @wholesomebysarah. You’ve probably heard of her before, you may also have cooked her food. Sarah shares easy weeknight recipes on Insta where she a cult following of more than 700,000 people. You can also get Sarah’s meal kids in Woolworths around the country.
Sarah recently released her first cookbook also called ‘Wholesome by Sarah’. When pre-orders of her cookbook were announced to her within hours it was the #1 bestselling on Amazon Australia. It stayed in the #1 spot for more than a week. It went through multiple re-prints before it was even released, a pretty incredible achievement!
Sarah and Katherine talk about bouncing back from failure, growing her following on social media and how sometimes she wishes her passion (i.e. cooking) didn't correlate so much with traditional gender roles.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This episode of The Next Step is sponsored by Fremantle Press and How to Avoid a Happy Life by Julia Lawrinson.
Have you ever wanted to own your own business but not known where to begin? Like, literally all you know is that you WANT a business and nothing else? This interview with coach and entrepreneur Luisa Zhou is for you.
Luisa Zhou is the founder of LuisaZhou.com, which teaches people how to go from employee to entrepreneur, and scale their businesses to 6- and 7-figures. She’s helped thousands of people make their first $10K to $100K in less than a year.
Luisa has appeared in numerous online and print publications including Forbes, Business Insider, Money, Inc, Entrepreneur, Success magazine, and more.
In this interview, Katherine mentions the content Luisa puts out for free via her YouTube channel – if you're keen to explore that, here are some places to start:
- Starting your coaching business in less than 24 hours (YouTube)
- How to put together your first coaching package (YouTube)
- All you need is this one sentence marketing plan (YouTube)
Books mentioned:* Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz * Think and Grow Rich (mentioned in the context of auto-suggestion) by Napoleon Hill
Show notes for this episode are available at katherinecollette.com.
You can subscribe to The Next Step / The First Time via your podcast app and if you like what you hear, please leave a review! If you don't like what you hear, recommend us to someone you hate.
Get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This episode is sponsored by Fremantle Press and the book People Want to Shoot Me by Wayne Bergmann and Madelaine Dickie.
Brigid Delaney is currently a political speechwriter. She was a journalist for The Guardian, and wrote popular weekly column, 'Brigid Delaney's Diary',’ which we little a little about in this interview. She wrote that column for eight years. It is so good. Like unbelievably and consistently funny, it’s stood the test of time. Read the cheese story and the mansion story mentioned in the episode—they’re incredible!
Brigid also wrote Wellmania, the book that the Netflix series is based. But the main thing that Katherine and Brigid talk a lot in this interview about is stoicism, which is the focus of her most recent book, Reasons Not to Worry.
Katherine has wanted to speak to Brigid about stoicism for a long time. Brigid wrote an article about stoicism when COVID first started, and it felt like it offered a sort of solace that wasn’t anywhere else. The concepts are so useful, particularly for creatives and people putting art/writing into the world.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This episode is sponsored by Fremantle Press and Marie O'Rourke's book 'Kintsugi'.
It's surprising how much the discussion about thoughts and thinking in basketball can apply to creativity. This episode is with BriAnna Garza, a professional basketball shooting coach. She currently coaches players in the (American) NBA, WNBA (as well as the NCAA and youth players) on both shot development and thought development.
BriAnna is also the founder/owner of Shooters Shoot— a mentorship program that focuses on the same two things. The training model was inspired by BriAnna’s passion for coaching both the science and the mindset of shooting.
Katherine first learned of BriAnna via Instagram. You MUST follow her! True to her philosophy, her Insta is half basketball and half thought development. It's super interesting and a lot of what she talks about can be adapted to the creative realm.
Katherine and BriAnna discuss A LOT including:
- neutral thinking
- the role of emotion
- visualisation - how to to do it and how to get the most out of it
- the importance of a 'culture of error'
- the Pygmalion Effect
and more...
Many listeners to the show would have heard Katherine talk about Ben Crowe, BriAnna reminds her of Ben Crowe, except she’s young – not that he’s old -- and a woman. But she has a similar way of thinking that's about inspiring people to do and be their best and live with purpose.
KC is such a big fan of BriAnna and thinks you will be too, after hearing her speak.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This episode is sponsored by New South and Anna Jacobson's book 'How to Knit a Human'.
Jack Druce is a comedian. Katherine thinks he's the best comedian in Australia (he's also the most humble). If you have the chance to see his stand up, GO. He's not at the Melbourne Comedy Festival this year unfortunately, but you can see his stand up special Rat Paradise on YouTube. It featured in New York Magazine.
Katherine gets excited telling people about Jack Druce because he’s genuinely hilarious and she knows they’re going to like him if they go see him, and somehow she thinks this reflects well on her. As if people will go to one of his shows and enjoy his comedy but mostly what they’ll take away from the experience is the thought ‘Wow Katherine has great taste’...
Jack has headlined shows nationwide, including Splendour in the Grass. He’s written for Channel 10’s The Project and appeared at comedy festivals all over Australia. Since 2022, Jack’s been building a following making high quality sketch comedy on Youtube.
Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This interview is with Jessica Weisberg. Jessica Weisberg is an award-winning writer and producer. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, Harper’s, and Atavist, among other publications, and been nominated for a National Magazine Award. She ran the features unit at Vice News Tonight on HBO, for which she was nominated for an Emmy, and is a senior producer at Serial Podcast. Her first book, Asking for a Friend, came out in 2018.
Katherine read it last year and LOVED it. The book is about advice givers – people who have offered up advice to others throughout time.
Some examples of prominent advice givers featured are: * Dale Carnegie who wrote, How to Win Friends and Influence People * Cheryl Strayed, author of Dear Sugar * Dear Abby, a popular newspaper column in 1950’s * Life coach Martha Back
The books is super interesting, as is Jessica. We talk about a bunch of stuff including the fact that her intention for the book was to take advice givers seriously.
Check out show notes for this episode, subscribe for regular updates or get in touch via katherinecollette.com or Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
This interview is with Mia Freedman. Mia Freedman needs no introduction! But we'll introduce her anyway.
Mia Freedman is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of the Mamamia Women’s Media Company in Australia.She very famously started Mamamia sitting at her kitchen table in the the aftermath of walking away from a big job in TV that was a TOTAL disaster.
Mamamia now has an audience of more than six and a half million women every month and is also the largest women’s podcast network in the world, with over 173 million listens and 52 different shows. Mia has written multiple books, include Strife, which was the inspiration for the recently released TV series of the same name on Binge.
She also founded Lady Start up, is a business activation course for women.
She’s great on Instagram and she got a newsletter called Babble that might even be home to her best work.
Mia Freedman is someone who’s consistently ahead of the curve, she takes very interesting next steps. And she’s a big of supporter of women – that’s a thing that comes across in this interview.
Welcome to the very first episode of The First Time podcast's spin off series, The Next Step. The Next Step is all about figuring out what to do next in life. This episode is on manifestation. It's a bit woo woo but probably it’s less woo woo that you might expect.
Longer time listeners of The First Time podcast might remember Katherine mentioning To Be Magnetic last season. To Be Magnetic ('TBM') describes itself as a modern guide to manifestation. Jessica Gill is TBM's chief content officer and co-host of the TBM podcast, EXPANDED.
Check out show notes for this episode or subscribe for regular updates via katherinecollette.com or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.
It's finally arrived! Many of you will know that The First Time is taking a break in its current format this year BUT! Katherine is hosting a spin off series called The Next Step.
The Next Step is figuratively (but also literally in this case) what happens after The First Time. It’s about figuring out what to do next in life...
It'll still feature interviews with writers but other creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs as well.
This the teaser episode, the first proper episode will drop on Wednesday 13th March, right here!
Show notes for The Next Step will be available via katherinecollette.com or you can get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
Welcome to the last episode in Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) as of next week with The Next Step.
The Next Step is figuratively but also literally in this case, what happens after The First Time. It’s about figuring out what to do next in life. The Next Step will will still feature interviews with writers but other creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs as well. First episode will drop on on Wednesday 13th March!
This episode we talk to pop culture, TV writer and Real Housewives guru, Brian Moylan.
Brian Moylan is the New York Times best-selling author of The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives and has written about television and pop culture for the New York Times, The Guardian, Vice, NBC News, and a few outlets that are NSFW.
Katherine and Brian discuss:
- Early writing life, including what to be aware of when writing obituaries
- Recapping Real Housewives episodes
- What you're critiquing when you're critiquing reality TV
- Engaging with criticism of your own work
- His book The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives.
- Challenges writing a book when all your interviewees are told not to talk to you
- Whether The Real Housewives is good for women (as suggested by Gloria Steinem) or bad for women (as suggested by Roxanne Gay)
Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
This episode Katherine speaks to author Garry Disher. Garry is the author of more than 50 books across multiple genres including crime thrillers, general/literary novels and fiction for children and teenagers. They discuss how he researches his novels, perseverance, and how you need to write with a blue pen in order for the magic to happen.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
This is a conversation Kate has been dying to have for awhile now - keen for the lowdown on The Letdown and generally a massive fan of Alison Bell's work.
Alison is the co-creator/co-writer/producer/director and star of the award winning ABC and Netflix co-production The Letdown. Together with her co-writer, Sarah Scheller, Alison won the 2016 AACTA Award for Best Television Screenplay.The Letdown also won the AACTA Award for Best Comedy Program for both seasons 1 + 2 (20017 + 2019). Alison’s performance was recognised with the AACTA for Best Comedy Performer for her work in the second season of The Letdown, her fourth performance nomination. Other nominations include the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Television Comedy or Drama for her TV directorial debut, (The Letdown).
In 2021, Alison developed and led the writing team on the critically acclaimed Binge series, LOVE ME.. The show picked up 7 Logie nominations. She wrote and starred in an episode of Summer Love, an ABC anthology series, which aired in August 2022, and in the ABC drama, Significant Others, airing October 2022. She has worked as an assessor for Playwriting Australia, a script consultant on theatre productions and short films and has contributed pieces to Marie Claire and Vogue Australia. She’s worked with production companies both here and in the US, including Sharon Horgan’s Merman, the FX Network, Kapital Entertainment, EKO, Giant Dwarf, Wooden Horse, Endemol Shine and the ABC. Prior to making The Letdown Alison was best known for her dramatic work on the stage, for which she won multiple Helpmann and Greenroom Awards, as well as her starring role in the AACTA Award winning comedy Laid. She has guest starred in many Australian series and her US credits include the HBO’s The Leftovers, No Activity for CBS All Access and the reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories on AppleTV+.
Alison is currently appearing in the MTC production of What If If Only this August and September in a double bill.
The conversation covers: * Alison's early love of stories and when she found drama * having the mindset for an artistic career - (and a healthy acknowledgement for 'luck') * the impact of having kids on an artistic career * Alison's interview with Jemma Birrell on the excellent The Secret Life of Writers podcast where she talks about unfinished manuscripts and 'learning by doing' * the 'mini bible' used to pitch for screen * How and why The Letdown was such a success * How Alison and co-writer Sarah Scheller mined their own and their friends' experiences of motherhood for The Letdown * Becoming an 'accidental' show runner * Writing for screen * Adapting books for screen and the disappointment when you 'miss the moment' * On guilt - (as discussed with Ash Devenport in The Design Files) * Not pushing yourself until 'you're broken' - 'it's okay to be a little bit rubbish at things' * Working with Back to Back theatre
Alison's advice: Truth. Truth is the most interesting thing. The human experience in its truest form.
Alison's debut recommendation: Room for a Stranger - Melanie Cheng
Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
Kate travelled to Castlemaine to record this interview in person with Cate Kennedy in her beautiful home amongst overflowing bookshelves. Kate attempted to edit down this episode, she really did, but Cate Kennedy just shares so much writing wisdom it was hard not to just give you the uncut super long version! Settle in with a cuppa if you can.
Cate Kennedy has published several collections of both poetry and fiction. Her story collections Like a House on FireandDark Rootsare widely studied in Australia and her poetry collections includeThe Taste of River Water, Signs of Other Fires, Joyflight, and Crucible and Other Poems. She is a two-time winner of The Age Short Story Competition, and a recipient of the 2013 Steele Rudd Award, the 2002 Vincent Bucklet Poetry Prize, and the 2001 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, among others. Her highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, won the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 2010 and she is also the author of travel memoir Sing and Don’t Cry.
Kennedy works as a writing teacher and advisor on the faculty of Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program in Portland, Oregon, and received her PhD in Creative Writing from LaTrobe University in 2021. She lives in Castlemaine, Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung country.
Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
This episode Kate talk to someone she has wanted to speak with for ages: New York Times and internationally bestselling author Amie Kaufman! Not only has Amie's multi-award winning work been translated into nearly thirty languages, and is in development for film and TV, but she is incredibly experienced in talking and teaching about writing and the strange world of BEING a writer.
Raised in Australia and Ireland, Amie has degrees in literature, law, history and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. Her series include The Illuminae Files, The Aurora Cycle, the Other Side of the Sky duology, The Starbound Trilogy, the Unearthed duology and The Elementals Trilogy. Her work has taken home multiple Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, a Gold Inky, made multiple best-of lists and been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Check out Amie's podcasts Amie Kaufman On Writing and Pub Dates with Kate J. Armstrong and her newsletter Finding North.
Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the seas 6 finale, you'll now that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back flying solo in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
We are thrilled to present this conversation with Australian literary legend - Tim Winton. This is a conversation Kate has been hoping to have since...well, since she was sixteen years old. The interview covers Winton's latest project - the television documentary Ningaloo - along with his writing life and environmental advocacy.
Tim Winton has published twenty-nine books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.
Winton is the 2023 recipient of the The ABIA Lloyd O’Neil Award - presented for a lifetime of distinguished and outstanding service to publishing and literary culture.
Tim’s latest project is a three-part documentary series Ningaloo premiering in Australia on Tuesday 16 May at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
We're kicking off our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the seas 6 finale, you'll now that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back flying solo in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
In this episode, Katherine speaks to Chloe Hooper about writing about difficult things, nuance and approaching non-fiction like it's a thriller.
Chloe Hooper is a novelist and non-fiction writer. Her first novel, A Child’s Book of True Crime, became a New York Times Notable Book, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her non-fiction, including The Tall Man and The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire, have won literary awards and been widely published internationally. Her latest book is Bedtime Stories.
Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.
We're kicking off our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the seas 6 finale, you'll now that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back flying solo in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
This episode Katherine speakers to Sydney based author and podcaster Jessie Stephens. Jessie Stephens is an Executive Editor at Mamamia, Australia's largest independent women's media company. She co-hosts Mamamia's flagship podcast and winner of Australia's Best Podcast Series, Mamamia Out Loud. Jessie's debut book Heartsick based on three true stories was an international bestseller and her first novelSomething Bad Is Going to Happen came out in September this year.
Jessie and Katherine discuss:
Jessie's early writing life, including how Mia Freedman discovered her and sister Clare Stephen's work
How Jane Harper helped her get a US agent
Writing about (often bad) romantic relationships in your early twenties
An interview with Jessie on the podcast How to Be Happy hosted by Clare Stephens
The career/life tension between ambition and content
How she writes down the things she wants to achieve and often they come true
* Jealousy - both as she experiences and when she is the subject of other's jealousy
Jessie recommends Love and Virtue by Diana Reid and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter, @kmildenhall or @thefirsttimepod.
We're kicking off our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the seas 6 finale, you'll now that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back flying solo in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
This episode Katherine talks with internationally best selling award winning author Andy Griffiths about writing for children, his long time collaboration with illustrator Terry Denton and what the perfect % of anarchy is within a story.
Andy Griffiths is one of Australia's best known children's authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking, was published in 1997. In Australia, Andy and Terry’s books have sold over 10 million copies, won 80 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards—including Book of the Year for The 52-Storey Treehouse in 2015.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter, @kmildenhall or @thefirsttimepod.
We're kicking off our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.
If you listened to the seas 6 finale, you'll now that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back flying solo in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.
Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).
In this Masters Series interview, Katherine talks to best selling author, television writer and podcast host, RA Spratt. RA Spratt is Katherine's kids' favourite author. They LOVE her books and series: Nanny Piggins, Friday Barnes, Peski Kids and Shockingly Good Stories (in that order).
R.A. Spratt has also written for dozens of different television shows. In recent years she has specialized mainly in children’s animation, but she has also had extensive experience writing jokes, sketch comedy and political satire.
Her podcast ‘Bedtime Stories with R.A. Spratt’ was launched in February 2020 and has a huge following from around the world, with 2 million+ downloads.
R.A. Spratt lives in Bowral, Australia with her husband and two daughters. She is currently obsessed with Cross Fit and—according to (her) Instagram—has been the Fittest Childrens Author on Earth two years in a row.
Katherine and RA Spratt discuss:
- TV writing (not as much talking to each other as you might think)
- Writing comedy and the balance between wacky and the everyday
- Judgemental narrators
- Pragmatic writing advice, including doing market research on what people/kids want to read
- The evolution/non-evolution of characters in a series
- Her approach to writing mysteries - i.e. simplicity on the surface and elaborate-ness underneath
- Her philosophy of writing reassuring stories with a beginning middle and end for kids
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
It's a big ep. We debrief, reflect, recommend and share some rather big news about the pod in 2024.
We discuss:
- Things that have happened in writing and pod life for us since episode one of this season
- Fishing as a key theme of Katherine's year (and yes, the free fishing rods for Grade 4s is an actual thing)
- A delightful school visit for Katherine and why she's excited for 2024 and the publication of her first MG novel - Shellsville
- Kate reflects on a big year and the tour (and wrote about it here for The Bowerbird)
- Podcast highlight when Karen Comer organised a copy of Susie Anderson's the body country to Darcy Moore from Collingwood FC
- Kate's excited to share the news she's has her first PICTURE BOOK coming out in 2024! Stay tuned to her socials for details in the new year.
Some stats from Season 6
Total episodes: 47
* Featured Book: 23 eps
* Follow a First Timer: 8 eps with Megan Rogers
* Masters: 11 eps -* Cate Kennedy, Kevin Wilson, Amie Kaufman, RA spratt, Ling Ma, Brian Moylan, Alison Bell, Jessie Stephens, Tim Winton, Lucy Treloar, Richard Flanagan
* Hummingbird deep dives: 2
* Awkward convos:2 - on money and endorsements - we ran out of steam on these - too many other things to talk about but they are both in the most listened top 10!
* Festival convos: 2 - Write around the Murray and Willy Lit Fest
* The Debut Crew 2023 reels on instagram
* Since 28th November 2022, there have been 105k listens, an increase of 27% from the preceding twelve months and 322k all time listens
And finally - our big news. It's a two parter:
Firstly, we're taking a break from The First Time pod in this format in 2024. We love you and thank you SO MUCH for listening.
But! Don't delete The First Time feed just yet. Stay tuned for our summer series (from January) and Katherine will be kicking off something a little bit different in March 2024.
And that's it from us, for awhile at least!
Thank you so much for your listening, sharing and support over the last six seasons x
Continue to keep in touch with Katherine on instagram or via her newsletter and Kate on instagram and her newsletter.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
We are coming up to the last episode/s of the season and will have news about the podcast for next year very soon but for now, we're re-releasing an episode from earlier in the year with (American writer) Kevin Wilson... Enjoy!
Kevin Wilson has been on Katherine's interview wishlist oh about forever and FINALLY she got to speak to him. The discuss weirdness, including how Kevin writes about it with such tenderness, and talk a lot about art -- it's creation, secrecy vs publicness. Also, how often Kevin writes (answer: not very often).
Kevin Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Now is Not the Time to Panic, Nothing to See Here, which was a Read with Jenna book club selection; The Family Fang, which was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman; and Perfect Little World; as well as the story collections Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award; and Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons.
Among other things, Kevin and Katherine discuss this Time Magazine article: I Was Worried My Anxiety Would Prevent Me From Being a Good Father.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the m
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
In this, the EIGHTH and final episode of the series, we ask Megan questions from listeners, including:
● What was the best decision you made when you were trying to get published?● Did you and do you ever have moments of being stuck in your writing? Creatively stuck and emotionally stuck?
● How do you not allow stuck to become overwhelmed and then overwhelmed to become paralysed?
● How do you balance challenging a reader with taking care of the reader?
● In hindsight, which activities do you think had the most impact on the success of the book? Writing articles, visiting bookshops, etc?
● What was the greatest lessons in craft you’ve learned through writing your first novel. Has it changed your process for the next one?
● Do you have any rules you follow as an author out in the world? Like do you always share content online, do you send thank you to anyone, things like that?
The 'Follow a First Timer Series' is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This is a conversation Kate has been waiting years to have. She spoke to Richard Flanagan at the end of his most recent tour, in person at State Library Victoria.
Richard Flanagan's novels have received numerous honours and are published in forty-two countries. He won the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North and the Commonwealth Prize for Gould’s Book of Fish. A rapid on the Franklin River is named after him. His latest book is Question 7.
Kate and Richard discuss:
- wanting to be a writer at four years old and writing stories for his sister
- getting his debut novel Death of a River Guide written and published
- writing a 'memoir' for conman John Friedrich which Flanagan went on to fictionalise in his novel First Person
- On structure and form: 'A novel without form is like a jellyfish, it lacks spine and movement. A novel should be a Great White Pointer - it has to move and it has to excite and it has to surprise.'
- Working around writing with a young family
- Collaboration with his publisher Nikki Christer
- The influence of Yolgnu writer Siena Stubbs who introduced Flanagan to the idea of a 'fourth tense' in Yolgnu language
- Richard's article and speech Does Writing Matter in 2016
- Donating prizing money (and the picture with Abbott!) and his father's philosophy on money
- Richard says there 'needs to be a culture change in this country whereby there is a respect accorded writers'
Richard's debut recommendation: The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine are hidden away on a writing retreat in the mountains with Sydney writer Anna Downes.
Anna Downes is an actor-turned-writer, born in the UK and now based in Australia. She is the author of two bestselling novels, The Safe Place and The Shadow House, with a third Red River Road to be published in 2024. Anna lives on the NSW Central Coast just north of Sydney with her husband and two children. We've spoken to Anna before on the pod on author headshots and back in 2020 on motherhood, agent hunting and The Safe Place.
This episode the Featured book is brought to you by UQP and we’re delighted to be talking to Kirsty Jagger about her debut novel, Roseghetto.
Kirsty Jagger is a journalist by trade. In 2019, she won the inaugural Heyman Mentorship Award, established by acclaimed Australian author Kathryn Heyman for a writer from a background of social or economic disadvantage.
Roseghetto takes some inspiration from growing up in the housing commission estates of Sydney’s western suburbs.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate speaks to Melbourne author Lucy Treloar about her writing life.
Lucy Treloar was born in Malaysia and educated in England, Sweden and Melbourne. Her novel Salt Creek (2015) won the Dobbie Literary Award among others, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the UK's Walter Scott Prize. Wolfe Island (2019), her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's and NSW literary awards. She is a previous winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific region). Lucy's essays and short fiction have appeared in publications including The Saturday Paper, Meanjin, The Age, Overland, Best Australian Stories and Foundational Fictions in South Australian History. A graduate of the University of Melbourne and RMIT, Lucy lives in inner Melbourne with her family.
We’ve spoken to Lucy before on The First Time Podcast for Apollo Bay Word Fest’s Warm Winter Words in 2020.
Her third novel is Days of Innocence and Wonder, published by Pan Macmillan, October 2023.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
It's been a big week for the pod! Welcome to new listeners :)
In this episode's Featured Book segment, Kate speaks with Joanna Morrison about her debut novel The Ghost of Gracie Flynn. This segment is brought to you by Fremantle Press.
Joanna Morrison has a background in journalism and a PhD in Creative Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in Australian literary journals and anthologies. In 2020, The Ghost of Gracie Flynn was shortlisted for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award and was published by Fremantle press in 2022. Joanna lives in borloo/Perth with her husband, two sons and miniature schnauzer.
Links: * The First Time interview with Nardi Simpson * The First Time interview with Tim Winton * The First Time interview with Kevin Wilson * The First Time episode interview with Natasha Lester) and newsletter * Two Judgey Girls podcast (even just for the vocal fry) * The Opposite of Success by Eleanor Elliott Thomas (check out this reel too) * Jimmy Sharman's Boxers by Steve McGrath * Kind of Sort of Maybe... But Probably Not by Imbi Neeme * Beckham (documentary) * Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop * The House That Joy Built by Holly Ringland * Days of Innocence and Wonder by Lucy Treloar
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a Live recording of the First Time Publishing panel at the Write Around the Murray Festival on September 17, 2023.
Kate speaks with writers Kathryn Heyman, Irma Gold and Tim Napper about their first and subsequent publication experiences and what they have learned along the way.
Kathryn Heyman is the author of six novels including Storm and Grace and Captain Starlight's Apprentice which was serialised on BBC radio to an audience of two million and was published last year in a new edition. Her previous work has won the Wingate, Southern Arts and Arts Council of England Writing Awards in the UK and been nominated for awards including the Scottish Writer of the Year, the Orange Prize, the Edinburgh Fringe Critics Awards, the Kibble Prize and the West Australian Premier’s Literary Awards.Alongside her publishing career, she was for several years a frequent dramatist for stage and for BBC radio. Kathryn won the CAL Author Fellowship for her 2021 memoir Fury, which was one of the Guardian's 25 best books of the year. Fury was nominated for the international Folio Prize, shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and is in development as a feature film. Kathryn taught poetry and writing for the University of Oxford and is now the director of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program.
Irma Gold is a writer and full-time freelance book editor based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Breaking, won the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship and a Canberra Critics Circle Award, and was shortlisted for the ACT Notable Award for Fiction. Her short fiction has been widely published in literary journals, and her critically acclaimed collection of short stories is Two Steps Forward. She is also the author of five children’s picture books – including Where the Heart Is and Seree's Story and is co-host of the writing podcast, Secrets from the Green Room with author Karen Viggers.
T. R. Napper is a multi-award-winning speculative fiction author. His short fiction has appeared in annual 'Year's Best' anthologies, and he has been published in respected genre magazines in the US, the UK, Israel, Austria, Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs in Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period, he resided in the Old Quarter in Ha Noi for several years, the setting for his debut novel, 36 Streets. Napper earned his doctorate in creative writing for his thesis on Noir, Cyberpunk, and Asian Modernity. These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where – in addition to writing – he works as a Dungeon Master, running campaigns for young people with autism for a local charity.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Katherine speakers to Sydney based author and podcaster Jessie Stephens. Jessie Stephens is an Executive Editor at Mamamia, Australia's largest independent women's media company. She co-hosts Mamamia's flagship podcast and winner of Australia's Best Podcast Series, Mamamia Out Loud. Jessie's debut book Heartsick based on three true stories was an international bestseller and her first novelSomething Bad Is Going to Happen came out in September this year.
Jessie and Katherine discuss:
Jessie's early writing life, including how Mia Freedman discovered her and sister Clare Stephen's work
How Jane Harper helped her get a US agent
* Writing about (often bad) romantic relationships in your early twenties
An interview with Jessie on the podcast How to Be Happy hosted by Clare Stephens
The career/life tension between ambition and content
* How she writes down the things she wants to achieve and often they come true
* Jealousy - both as she experiences and when she is the subject of other's jealousy
Jessie recommends Love and Virtue by Diana Reid and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Katherine shares the lowdown on torture museums and Kryal Castle fun and we respond to some great listener questions (as best we can!)
Recommended reading and listening including:* Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth * Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan * Sidelines by Karen Viggers (released January 2024) * That Rom Com Pod from writers Clare Fletcher and Karina May * The Word Count from writers Fiona Taylor, Jo Dixon and Jacq Ellem
Our Featured Book segment this episode is brought to you by Fremantle Press and I’m delighted to be speaking to debut novelist Chenée Marrapodiabout her debut middle grade novel One Wrong Turn.
Chenée Marrapodi is a children’s author and journalist, based in Perth, Western Australia.Chenée has worked in the media industry for almost a decade and is currently a producer for Channel Nine News. She has also worked as a reporter for Channel Seven's Today Tonight, as well as in online news and radio. Chenée is also an experienced MC, and the host of the Writers off the Page podcast.
Lots of events coming up including:
- Kate will be in conversation with Amy Lovat Mistakes and Other Lovers, Nice Stack of Books Meeniyan. Sat Oct 14, bookings here.
- Kate will be touring in lutrawita/Tasmania and appearing at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart on Thursday 19th October and Petrarch's, Launceston on Friday 20 October.
- At the HNSA conference, Kate will appear on the Past, Present & Future: Bending Genres panel. In Sydney and online, Sunday 22nd October, 12.30pm, bookings here.
- Kate will host Holly Ringland for Readings talking her new book The House That Joy Built on Wed 25th October, 6pm, bookings here.
- And a Westside event in Yarraville, Tamara Oudyn interviews Kate on The Hummingbird Effect for the Sun Bookshop, Saturday 28th October 3pm, bookings here.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate & Katherine get excited about Katherine's upcoming trip to Kryall Castle, debrief on recent reads and Kate swoons over the amazing Stero Stories at Write around the Murray.
This episode the Featured Book is brought to you by Fremantle Press and we’re talking to writer and journalist Molly Schmidt. Molly is from the coastal town of Albany, Western Australia. She is passionate about producing stories that are inclusive of all members of her community.
Her first novel Salt River Road was written as part of her PhD under Miles Franklin Award winner Kim Scott—who has also been on this show—and novelist Brett D'Arcy. As part of the writing process, Molly collaborated with Noongar Elders to produce a work that actively pursues reconciliation.
She is a radio producer and journalist for the ABC, where her passion for storytelling is put to good use.
Molly's writing advice: Let yourself dream and make connections along the way
Molly's recommendation of a debut book: Old Boy by Georgia Tree.
Kate and Katherine mention:* Wifedom by Anna Funder * Queenie in Seven Moves by Zanni Louise * Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey * The Modern by Anna Kate Blair * Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood * Why We Are Here by Briohny Doyle * After the Forest by Kell Woods * One Piece on Netflix
Events: * Kate hosts Anna Kate Blair discussing her debut novel The Modern at Beaumaris Library on Monday October 2nd, 6.30pm. Free but please book here. * Katherine hosts Clare Fletcher at Robinsons Bookshop Glen Waverley on Friday 6th October - Bookings here * Kate hosts Charlotte Wood discussing her new novel Stone Yard Devotional at Cinema Nova for Readings Books on Wednesday 11th October, 6.30pm. Bookings here. * Kate joins an online panel on AI: Opportunities, Threats and Ethical Considerations for Authors with Tracey Spicer, Holden Sheppard and ASA CEO Olivia Lancaster. Thursday 26th October 7.30-9pm. Bookings here.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This is the episode to listen to if you're already read Kate Mildenhall's latest book, THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT OR if you don't mind knowing what happens before it happens. We discuss writing and plot choices, like was a *** always going to die and die in THAT way? Were the links between stories there from the beginning? WHy bogong moths? (and other great questions).
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
In this, the SEVENTH episode of the series we catch up with Megan to talk about what marketing, publicity and events have been like for The Heart is a Star.
The 'Follow a First Timer Series' is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine discuss how The Hummingbird Book tour came together and give tips for what to do/think about if you're an author wanting to do the same. They talk about the books they've reading and the podcast Kate's obsessed with (hint: it involves someone shitting* on the floor of a wedding)
*Their word, not ours
This episode the Featured Book is brought to you be Fremantle Press and we’re very, very excited to be talking to Emma Young about her novel, The Disorganisation of Celia Stone.
After five years in bookselling, Emma retrained as a journalist and has been reporting since 2011: first for community papers, then as a state wide digital journalist for WAtoday. Her work also regularly appears in sister publications the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Her debut novel, The Last Bookshop was shortlisted for the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award in 2019.
Emma's writing advice: Don't edit as you go, your aim is to finish. Also -- don't give up.
Emma's debut book recommendation is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Sign up to Emma's newsletter here
Perth events:
September 21 Emma in conversation at Bull Creek Library. Bookings and details
September 28 Emma in conversation at Open Book, Mosman Park. Bookings and details
Kate and Katherine mention:
- The logistics of book tours. Kate mentions this post by US writer, Alicia Kennedy and this post on getting invited to writers festivals by Australian writer Anna Featherstone.
Reading
* Love Match by Clare Fletcher
* Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
* Happy Millionth Birthday by RWR McDonald
* The Big Year, A Tale of Man Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik
Listening
Kate LOVED the podcast Who S** On The Floor at My Wedding and the story behind it
* Secrets From the Green Room, this episode with Chris Flynn
Watching
* Real Housewives of New York
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine catch up on why they are in their sweats, ice baths, tour shenanigans, morning pages and their general chatter.
Our Featured Book in this episode is One Day We're All Going to Die by playwright and debut novelist Elise Esther Hearst. This segment is brought to you by HQ/Harper Collins.
Elise Esther Hearst is a Melbourne-based author and playwright. Elise trained in London at the Royal Court Theatre and her plays include Bright World, co-written with Andrea James (Theatreworks), The Mesh (Red Stitch) and The Sea Project (Griffin Theatre) which was shortlisted for the Griffin Award.
In 2019–20, Elise was a resident writer at Melbourne Theatre Company and is currently working on a commission for Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2020 Elise’s non-fiction story, ‘Naming Rights’ was published in the 2020 edition of Antithesis Journal and she was a guest at the 2021 Jewish Book Week.
Elise’s debut novel, One Day We Are All Going To Die, is a fast-paced, sexy and darkly humorous story about a 27-year-old single Jewish woman in Melbourne who must learn to reconcile family and cultural expectations with her own desires.
Kate and Katherine mention:
- Kate chatted with Hannah Kent for an event at at Matilda Books in the Adelaide Hills and mentions her interview for the podcast
- An incredible Canberra Writers Festival event with Isy Oderberg (Hard to Bear), Dr Neela Janakiramanan (The Registrar) and Gabrielle Jackson (Pain and Prejudice)
- Kate chatted to Astrid Edwards about The Hummingbird Effect - you can listen now on The Garret Podcast
- Paul Dalgarno's A Country of Eternal Light
- Mirandi Riwoe's new novel Sunbirds
- talking about books with spoilers
- Katherine's enjoying doing morning pages (re-inspired by Natasha Lester's excellent newsletter Bijoux)
- Kate's loving her new up-sized note book with no lines (also an excellent pen)
Reading
* One Song by AJ Betts
* Beatrix & Fred by Emily Spurr
* Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore (recommended by Jason at Imprints Booksellers in Adelaide)
* The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Listening
* Read This - new podcast from The Monthly with Michael Williams. Katherine loved eps with Helen Garner and Anne Funder & Kate loved the chat with Christos Tsiolkas
Watching
* Kate and the fam are finally watching Ted Lasso and LOVING IT
* Katherine's loving Collin from Accounts
* On fun meet-cutes Kate re-recommends Sharon Horgan's Catastrophe and Bad Sisters
Coming up
* Mark Smith is hosting Kate at Heads and Tales Bookshop on Sept 7 at Barwon Heads
* Kate will be at Port Fairy Literary Weekend Sept 8-10 and at Write Around the Murray Sept 15-17
* Katherine will be chatting to Nick Bhasin for Eltham Bookshop on Sept 28
* Katherine will be hosting the Melbourne launch of Clare Fletcher's Love Match at Robinsons Bookshop on Friday Oct 6
This is a conversation Kate has been dying to have for awhile now - keen for the lowdown on The Letdown and generally a massive fan of Alison Bell's work.
Alison is the co-creator/co-writer/producer/director and star of the award winning ABC and Netflix co-production The Letdown. Together with her co-writer, Sarah Scheller, Alison won the 2016 AACTA Award for Best Television Screenplay.The Letdown also won the AACTA Award for Best Comedy Program for both seasons 1 + 2 (20017 + 2019). Alison’s performance was recognised with the AACTA for Best Comedy Performer for her work in the second season of The Letdown, her fourth performance nomination. Other nominations include the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Television Comedy or Drama for her TV directorial debut, (The Letdown).
In 2021, Alison developed and led the writing team on the critically acclaimed Binge series, LOVE ME.. The show picked up 7 Logie nominations. She wrote and starred in an episode of Summer Love, an ABC anthology series, which aired in August 2022, and in the ABC drama, Significant Others, airing October 2022. She has worked as an assessor for Playwriting Australia, a script consultant on theatre productions and short films and has contributed pieces to Marie Claire and Vogue Australia. She’s worked with production companies both here and in the US, including Sharon Horgan’s Merman, the FX Network, Kapital Entertainment, EKO, Giant Dwarf, Wooden Horse, Endemol Shine and the ABC. Prior to making The Letdown Alison was best known for her dramatic work on the stage, for which she won multiple Helpmann and Greenroom Awards, as well as her starring role in the AACTA Award winning comedy Laid. She has guest starred in many Australian series and her US credits include the HBO’s The Leftovers, No Activity for CBS All Access and the reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories on AppleTV+.
Alison is currently appearing in the MTC production of What If If Only this August and September in a double bill.
The conversation covers: * Alison's early love of stories and when she found drama * having the mindset for an artistic career - (and a healthy acknowledgement for 'luck') * the impact of having kids on an artistic career * Alison's interview with Jemma Birrell on the excellent The Secret Life of Writers podcast where she talks about unfinished manuscripts and 'learning by doing' * the 'mini bible' used to pitch for screen * How and why The Letdown was such a success * How Alison and co-writer Sarah Scheller mined their own and their friends' experiences of motherhood for The Letdown * Becoming an 'accidental' show runner * Writing for screen * Adapting books for screen and the disappointment when you 'miss the moment' * On guilt - (as discussed with Ash Devenport in The Design Files) * Not pushing yourself until 'you're broken' - 'it's okay to be a little bit rubbish at things' * Working with Back to Back theatre
Alison's advice: Truth. Truth is the most interesting thing. The human experience in its truest form.
Alison's debut recommendation: Room for a Stranger - Melanie Cheng
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
In this, the SIXTH episode of the series we catch up with Megan three months after her book has come out. We talk highs, lows and the many in-betweens.
The 'Follow a First Timer Series' is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Cecelia Rabess previously worked as a data scientist at Google and as an associate at Goldman Sachs. Her nonfiction has been featured in McSweeneys, FiveThirtyEight, Fast Company and FlowingData, among other places. Everything’s Fine is her debut novel.
Katherine and Cecelia discuss:
- Early writing life
- Donald Trump is Destroying My Marriage - article in NY Magazine that inspired Everything's Fine
- Writing an 'opposites attract' love story, when the opposites part is that people are on opposing sides of the political spectrum
- Working to humanise Josh
- Wringing out your prose, making it as clean as possible
- How she went about getting an agent
- Having your book be at the centre of a Tiktok controversy and her theories on why this happened
- Writing infographs for McSweeneys
Cecelia's writing advice: It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you have to finish. No one has ever published an unpublished manuscript.
Debut book recommendation: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode the Featured Book is brought to you by Text Publishing, and we are delighted to be talking to Loraine Peck about her novel, THE DOUBLE BIND.
From magician’s assistant to crime novelist, it’s all about mastering the art of subterfuge for Loraine Peck, whose love of crime fiction propelled her to write the kind of book she loves to read.The Second Son, Loraine’s debut, won the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction from the Australian Crime Writers Association.It was shortlisted for two Davitt Awards by Sisters in Crime and for a Danger Award by BAD Crime Sydney. Her second novel, The Double Bind was released in April 2023.
We also catch up with Kate, who is part way through The Hummingbird Effect book tour and talk events, launches, writing people and of course, pizza gate.
The hosts mention:
- Yellowface by R.F Kuang
- Imbi Neeme's 'Best Launch Ever' sign
- The Barbie movie
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode was recorded as part of Willy Lit Fest 2023 and features Katherine talking with Pip Finkemeyer about her INCREDIBLE debut Sad Girl Novel.
Pip Finkemeyer’s fiction has been listed for the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, the Disquiet Literary Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
She co-founded the Berlin-based zine Nothing To See Here, and completed a Masters in Publishing and Editing at RMIT.
She lives in Naarm/Melbourne, and Sad Girl Novel is her first novel.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Finally! We get to go behind the scenes and hear all about Kate Mildenhall's latest book, THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT. This episode focuses on writing process, voice and how Kate magically weaved the stories in this book together. Stay tuned and read the book in preparation for a future, spoiler-riddled deep dive, to be released in a few weeks' time.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This week, writer and one-time Agony Aunt for the podcast, Charlotte Wood, returns to talk about the creative collaboration involved in the new stage adaptation of her novel The Weekend. Also discussed, Charlotte's forthcoming novel Stone Yard Devotional and her advice to Kate on keeping calm during the book tour rollercoaster.
Sydneysiders can see The Weekend at Belvoir St Theatre from August 5 to September 3. Tickets and information here.
Our Featured Segment in this episode is brought to you by Hachette and Kate speaks to Wergaia and Wemba Wemba writer Susie Anderson about her debut poetry collection the body country.
Susie Anderson's poetry and non-fiction writing about art, artists, memory, place and love has been published widely in print and online. In 2018, she was runner-up in the Overland Poetry Prize and awarded the Emerging Writer’s Fellowship at State Library Victoria; in 2019, she was awarded a Writer’s Victoria Neilma Sidney Grant and was a recipient of the Overland Writers Residency. In 2020, she edited the online journal, Tell Me Like You Mean It Volume 4, for Australian Poetry and Cordite Poetry Review. Anderson was the 2021 black&write fellowship winner.
She grew up in Horsham, Victoria and is currently based on Boon Wurrung land.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
The ink is dry and Katherine shares her news about her brand new two book deal! Kate's back from Bali and feeling all the nerves and excitement with only a couple of weeks until her third novel THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT hits shelves. Waterslides, ru-ro book recommendations and creative writing emergencies - we go everywhere!
This episode the featured book is brought to you by Text Publishing and we’re talking to Robyn Dennison about her debut novel Blind Spot.
Robyn Dennison’s fiction has appeared in Australian literary journals, including as a runner-up for the Overland VU Short Story Prize. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, where she teaches creative writing. Blind Spot, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Text Prize.
In this special Feature Episode brought to you by Penguin Books Australia, we speak to four debut authors about their new books.
Erin Riley is a writer and social worker who has spent most of the last decade working alongside marginalised populations in community aged care in and around Sydney. Erin brings a queer lived experience to their professional work and to their writing. They were a Penguin Random House Australia Write It fellow in 2021, and have been published in various publications including Kill Your Darlings and Bent Street. Erin lives in Sydney with their partner and Remy the dog. A Real Piece of Work is their debut book.
Vidya Madabushi is an Indian writer living in Sydney. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney, and her first novel, Bystanders, was published in India in 2015. Bystanders was shortlisted for the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize, and a previous version was longlisted for the Australian Vogel Award. In 2018, Vidya received the Writing NSW Grant for Fiction for the creation of this novel. The Days Toppled Over is her Australian debut.
Annette Higgs is a writer living in Sydney, Australia. She was born and grew up in Tasmania, leaving on her 18th birthday to study literature and law at the Australian National University in Canberra. She has lived, worked and studied in Sydney, London and Italy, and holds a Doctor of Arts from the University of Sydney. A Pushcart nominee, her short work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Australia, the USA, the UK and India. Her novel On a Bright Hillside in Paradise won the 2022 Penguin Literary Prize.
Nick Bhasin is a writer and editor based in Sydney, but originally from the US. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, Junkee and McSweeney’s and he has occasionally appeared on ABC Melbourne radio as a cultural attaché. He won the US music game show Name That Tune and his satirical parenting blog ‘Daddy’s Little Miracle’ was selected to join the New York Times’ parenting section’s blogroll. Nick has worked as an editor for Junkee, 10 Daily, SBS, Foxtel Magazine and OK! Magazine. He has a tremendous speaking voice. I Look Forward to Hearing From You is his debut novel.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode we talk to pop culture, TV writer and Real Housewives guru, Brian Moylan.
Brian Moylan is the New York Times best-selling author of The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives and has written about television and pop culture for the New York Times, The Guardian, Vice, NBC News, and a few outlets that are NSFW.
Katherine and Brian discuss:
- Early writing life, including what to be aware of when writing obituaries
- Recapping Real Housewives episodes
- What you're critiquing when you're critiquing reality TV
- Engaging with criticism of your own work
- His book The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives.
- Challenges writing a book when all your interviewees are told not to talk to you
- Whether The Real Housewives is good for women (as suggested by Gloria Steinem) or bad for women (as suggested by Roxanne Gay)
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Ling Ma is a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah and Kansas. She is the author of the novel Severance, which received the 2018 Kirkus Prize, the Whiting Award and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award and the 2022 short story collection Bliss Montage which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The Story Prize. Ma’s Stories and excerpts have appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Granta, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vice, and more. She has been, until recently as we discuss in the interview, an assistant professor of practice in the Arts at University of Chicago. Ling Ma was awarded a 2023 Windham Campbell prize for literature in the fiction category. She spoke to me from her home in Chicago where she lives with her family.
The conversation covers:
- the feeling when a story seems to come from beyond you
- the genesis of Severance and the feeling of anger about 'work'
- working as a fact checker for Playboy magazine
- the space between realism and the absurd and how Ling plays here
- wanting to be an archeologist and the idea of 'surfacing' a story (similar to George Saunders' 'dropped orb' that he discusses in our interview)
- how Ling guides workshopping processes in her creative writing classes
- putting boundaries around the 'public' side of being an author, including staying off social media
- how winning the Windham Campbell prize has changed Ling's life (a prize also won by one of our previous guests Helen Garner)
Ling's advice: There are no creative writing emergencies.
Ling's recommended debut book: the short story collection Skinship by Yoon Choi
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode our featured book is brought to you by Hachette and we’re very excited to talk to MARGARET MEYER about her debut novel THE WITCHING TIDE.
Margaret Meyer was born in Canada, grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Norwich England. She worked in publishing and literature promotion before retraining in a second career as a mental health therapist. In 2020 she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. The Witching Tide is her first novel.
Kate and Katherine discuss:
- The Debut Crew 2023 reels on our insta. If you are a debut author for 2024, Lisa Kenway has done a call out for a Debut Crew 2024 so let her know if you are keen!
- The Melbourne launch for Kate's new novel The Hummingbird Effect is on Friday August 4th at Trades Hall. Bookings here and keep an eye out here for national and regional tour dates.
- The story of the viral tweet on parents and reading from Poppy Gee.
- Kate's reading and loving Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and Crudo by Olivia Laing and rewatching The Letdown and Love Me in advance of her upcoming interview with writer, producer and actor Alison Bell.
- Most Talkative by Andy Cohen (Audible version)
- Elizabeth Gilbert's announcement delaying publication of The Snow Forest (Instagram)
- Alone Australia
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Oh we go so many places in this ep: starting new projects, Kryall Castle school holiday plans, The Little Mermaid, how to land an ending on a tv series, great books, and old school video stores.
Our Featured Book this week is Untethered by debut novelist, Ayesha Inoon. This segment is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Ayesha Inoon is a Sri Lankan-Australian writer with a unique cultural perspective, which she brings to her writing. Born in Colombo, she travelled widely and worked as a journalist in Sri Lanka before immigrating to Australia in 2013. Winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize 2022, her debut novel, Untethered, is partly based on her experiences as an immigrant Muslim woman. Ayesha was a recipient of the inaugural 2019 Penguin Random House Write It Fellowship for an early draft of this novel. In 2020 she was selected for the Rosie Scott Writing Residency in NSW, and in September 2022 she was awarded a KSP fellowship by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre in WA to work on her second novel.
Ayesha lives in Canberra with her two children.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this Masters Series interview, Katherine talks to best selling author, television writer and podcast host, RA Spratt. RA Spratt is Katherine's kids' favourite author. They LOVE her books and series: Nanny Piggins, Friday Barnes, Peski Kids and Shockingly Good Stories (in that order).
R.A. Spratt has also written for dozens of different television shows. In recent years she has specialized mainly in children’s animation, but she has also had extensive experience writing jokes, sketch comedy and political satire.
Her podcast ‘Bedtime Stories with R.A. Spratt’ was launched in February 2020 and has a huge following from around the world, with 2 million+ downloads.
R.A. Spratt lives in Bowral, Australia with her husband and two daughters. She is currently obsessed with Cross Fit and—according to (her) Instagram—has been the Fittest Childrens Author on Earth two years in a row.
Katherine and RA Spratt discuss:
- TV writing (not as much talking to each other as you might think)
- Writing comedy and the balance between wacky and the everyday
- Judgemental narrators
- Pragmatic writing advice, including doing market research on what people/kids want to read
- The evolution/non-evolution of characters in a series
- Her approach to writing mysteries - i.e. simplicity on the surface and elaborate-ness underneath
- Her philosophy of writing reassuring stories with a beginning middle and end for kids
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Today's ep is another awkward convo - one we've been looking forward to for awhile! We talk about endorsements - aka praise, puffs and blurbs. How do you ask for an endorsement, what do authors think about the 'endorsement machine', how many are too many and can we do without them? We chat about 'Fool's Gold' - a Sydney Review of Books article by Catriona Menzies Pike and Kate has sought comment from a number of past guests - early and established career writers - about all their endorsement feels. We also chat about reviews and recommendations on social media, what we pay attention to and what we ignore, and what this all means for the industry.
Our Featured Book segment is brought to you by Allen and Unwin and Kate chats to Amy Taylor about her debut novel Search History.
Amy Taylor is based in Naarm/ Melbourne (Naarm). An adapted chapter of her debut novel was selected as a winner in the 2021 Ultimo Prize for best emerging writers in Australia under 30 years of age. Search History is her first novel.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
In this, the FIFTH episode of the series, recorded prior to The Heart is a Star being released, Megan talks about failure and what success might look like as an author.
This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode our featured book is brought to you by Text Publishing and we’re so excited to talk to TARA CALABY about her debut novel HOUSE OF LONGING.
Tara Calaby lives in Gippsland with her wife and far too many books. She is currently a PhD candidate at La Trobe University, researching the social worlds of women in Victorian lunatic asylums.
Her speculative and historical short stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies.
Tara recommends A Million Things by Emily Spurr. (Note: You will cry!!)
You can find Tara on her website, Twitter and Instagram.
Kate and Katherine discuss: * The cover reveal for The Hummingbird Effect * On Waiting, from Madeline Dore's newsletter * Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood by Alexandra Collier * Motherhood by Sheila Heti * The Swift Dark Tide by Katia Ariel * Till Death Do Us Part (article in The Good Weekend) by Fenella Souter * Yo'ure Welcome podcast with Hilary Rushford Collyer (these three episodes) * Musician, writer and advocate, Eliza Hull (editor of We've Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents) has a new single out - Running Underwater - fab video clip featuring Roya the Destroyer
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Katherine drops some very exciting news! And Kate and Katherine catch up on reading recommendations, more on authors and money and how they feel about AI.
Our Featured Book this week is The Rush by Michelle Prak and the segment is brought to you by Simon & Schuster.
Michelle Prak (known to some of you on socials as Prakky!) is a professional communicator with a thirty-year career in corporate communication, social media, politics and journalism. Writing has been the backbone of much of her work and she has written several short stories and self-published commercial women's fiction titles. She lives in Adelaide and lectures in public relations and social media at the University of South Australia. The Rush is her first thriller.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
We are thrilled to present this conversation with Australian literary legend - Tim Winton. This is a conversation Kate has been hoping to have since...well, since she was sixteen years old. The interview covers Winton's latest project - the television documentary Ningaloo - along with his writing life and environmental advocacy.
Tim Winton has published twenty-nine books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.
Winton is the 2023 recipient of the The ABIA Lloyd O’Neil Award - presented for a lifetime of distinguished and outstanding service to publishing and literary culture.
Tim’s latest project is a three-part documentary series Ningaloo premiering in Australia on Tuesday 16 May at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate's been wanting to speak to New York Times and internationally bestselling authorAmie Kaufman for ages! Not only has her multi-award winning work been translated into nearly thirty languages, and is in development for film and TV, but Amie is incredibly experienced in talking and teaching about writing and the strange world of BEING a writer.
Raised in Australia and Ireland, Amie has degrees in literature, law, history and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. Her series include The Illuminae Files, The Aurora Cycle, the Other Side of the Sky duology, The Starbound Trilogy, the Unearthed duology and The Elementals Trilogy. Her work has taken home multiple Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, a Gold Inky, made multiple best-of lists and been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Check out Amie's podcasts Amie Kaufman On Writing and Pub Dates with Kate J. Armstrong and her newsletter Finding North.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
The theme of this FOURTH episode is Megan's publication week feels, including her first festival experience, her big Melbourne launch and some jam-packed days of bookshop visits.
This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
After last episode's recording fail, there's a lot to discuss! Kate's dipping her toe into TIKTOK, Katherine's reading a LOT of uplifting fiction/non-fiction, plus the hosts talk debut author experiences -- have things changed since their books came out?
This episode the featured book is brought to you by BFredericksPR and Gregory Ladner.
Gregory Ladner is one of Australia’s most enduring fashion designers, with a career spanning over four decades across Australia, Europe, and Asia.
From humble beginnings designing outfits and dressing his teddy, to studying fashion at university, Gregory has worked as an Australian couturier, for legendary Melbourne institute Le Louvre and as an international designer who once worked in Hong Kong. Gregory was the creator and designer of the hugely successful fashion accessory company, Gregory Ladner, which is still available in major department stores around the country.
We're delighted to talk to Gregory about his memoir A Boy and his Bear.
Gregory has a number of events coming up including:
BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL:
1. May 10th, panel event called Best Dressed, with Deni Todorovic (Love This for You) moderated by Carody Culver of the Griffith Review. Book here.
2. May 11th, panel even called Funny About That with Sita Walker (The God of No Good) Siang Lu (The Whitewash)and Alexandra Collier (Inconceivable) moderator Jonaton O’Brien. Book here.
BOOK LAUNCH & SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY FASHION DESIGNER GREGOR LADNER
Friday 12 May,* 6 – 8pm
* GalleryOne93, 93 Poinciana Ave, Tewantin, Queensland
* More information here (GalleryOne93)
* More information here (Annie's Books)
* Fundraising event in support of The Children’s Hospital Foundation, Queensland.
Things the hosts discuss:
- Kate's experiments with TIKTOK. Listeners! Tell us about your TIKTOK experiences!
- Bookpeople gift card via article from Books and Publishing
- Avid Reader book subscriptions
- Molly's Cottage book boxes (see Insta)
- The Little Book Room bookclubs for children (they also do subscriptions)
- 'When do I earn out?' (Publishing calculator) - developed by Hana Lee via article by Australian Society for Authors (ASA)
- Inconceivable by Ally Collier
- 'Bookseller Survey Finds Debut Authors Struggle with Lack of Support' (article)
- 2022 National Book Survey of Australian Authors
- Amie Kaufman’s brand new YA fantasy Isle of the Gods! Amie’s excellent substack and podcast.
- Royals by Tegan Bennett Daylight.
- Michelle Prak’s The Rush
- Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
- Prettier if She Smiled More by Toni Jordan
- Pardon my French by Rachel Mogan McIntosh
- The Dressmakersof Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffe
- This interview with Anna Kendrick on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard (you can only listen on Spotify)
- Beef
- Dance moms
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Look, we're all about vulnerability and awkward, so it's a delight to have shared our recording fail on insta this week and for Kate to publicly accept responsibility for her failure to press record. We promise that next week we'll re-record ALL of our recommendations and discussion on the industry and get it to you ears.
Our Featured Segment this week is brought to you by Brio Books and we are delighted to speak with Alison Ferguson about her space-fic novel GREY NOMAD.
Alison Ferguson completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in writing in the early 70s but was led astray by the need to make a living. After qualifying and working as a speech pathologist, she completed a PhD in Linguistics and moved into academia—researching, lecturing, and publishing in the area of clinical linguistics. Besides metamorphosing into a science fiction she is trying knit less and walk more.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine catch up in the aftermath of Kate's trip to Newcastle Writers Festival, in which she managed to lose (and ultimately find) both her laptop and her luggage. The discuss festival etiquette and recommends things to read, including everything by Kevin Wilson (check out last week's episode!!).
This episode our featured book segment is brought to you by Allen and Unwin and we’re talking to Madelaine Lucas about her debut novel Thirst For Salt.
Madelaine Lucas is the author of Thirst For Salt and a senior editor of NOON. Born in 1990, she was raised in Melbourne and Sydney as the daughter of a visual artist and a rock ‘n’ roll musician. In 2015, she moved to New York to complete her MFA in fiction at Columbia University, where she now teaches in the undergraduate and graduate writing programs.
Her essays and interviews have appeared in publications such as Paris Review Daily, The Believer, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Lifted Brow and Meanjin, and her fiction has been awarded the Elizabeth Jolley Prize and the Overland/Victoria University Emerging Writer’s Prize.
She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog, Pancho.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kevin Wilson has been on Katherine's interview wishlist oh about forever and FINALLY she got to speak to him. The discuss weirdness, including how Kevin writes about it with such tenderness, and talk a lot about art -- it's creation, secrecy vs publicness. Also, how often Kevin writes (answer: not very often).
Kevin Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Now is Not the Time to Panic, Nothing to See Here, which was a Read with Jenna book club selection; The Family Fang, which was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman; and Perfect Little World; as well as the story collections Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award; and Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons.
Among other things, Kevin and Katherine discuss this Time Magazine article: I Was Worried My Anxiety Would Prevent Me From Being a Good Father.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way.Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
The theme of this THIRD episode is editing and social media.
This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
The words 'author headshot' can strike fear into the hearts of the toughest writers. Kate and Katherine recently toughened up: Kate wanted new headshots ahead of the new book coming out and the podcast needed some updating from 2018. In this episode they talk through past photoshoot experiences, what they've learned over time and what worked in their last excellent shoot with Gemma Carr.
As part of the episode, Kate talks to author Anna Downes about her experiences of headshots - first as an actor, and then as an author.
Anna Downes grew up in Sheffield, UK. She studied drama at Manchester before winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and moving to London to pursue an acting career that included credits in EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, and Dalziel and Pascoe, as well as a long-running stage production of The Dresser in London’s West End. Anna’s bestselling debut novel, The Safe Place, was published simultaneously in Australia, the US and the UK in mid-2020. The Shadow House is her keenly anticipated second book. Anna now lives on the Central Coast with her husband and two children. We also spoke to Anna back in S3, you can check out the episode here.
Kate then chats to photographer Gemma Carr about what makes a great headshot, how to be best prepared for a photoshoot and her advice for choosing a photographer who will make you you feel like YOU.
This episode our featured book segment is brought to you by Hachette and we are delighted to be talking to Catherine Therese about her debut novel Things She Would have Said Herself.
Catherine Therese is an award-winning writer, designer and educator whose lifelong passion for articulating the interior lives of people and places has inspired a diverse career in Europe and Australia, where she has lived, worked and published widely across the arts. Her memoir, The Weight of Silence, was a The Age and Sydney Morning Herald Book of the Year, a Varuna Fellowship recipient and finalist in the National Biography and ABIA awards. Her recently released novel, Things She Would Have Said Herself, is a keening portrait of a world and a woman, Leslie Bird, coming of age and to the boil, as the family she loves and loathes implodes.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine catch up on what they've been reading and listening to including:
- The Publishing Rodeo podcast - specifically this episode 'Anatomy of a Best Seller (Part 2)'
- 'My mentor John Hughes taught me how to write. Then he plagiarised my work' by Joseph Earp
- Reasons Not to Worry by Brigid Delaney
- Catriona Menzies Pike on blurbing in SRB
- Dress Rehearsals by Madison Godfrey
- The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop
- Secrets from the Green Room podcast episode with Canberra booksellers
The Featured Book segment in this episode is brought to you by Hardie Grant and we talk to Jasper Peach about their new book You’ll be a Wonderful Parent: Advice and Encouragement for Rainbow Families of all kinds.
Jasper Peach lives on stolen Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Castlemaine, Victoria, with their wife and two children. They are a trans, non-binary and disabled writer, editor and broadcaster. Jasper served as guest co-editor for Archer Magazine’s 16th edition, and their work appears in HireUp, the Sydney Morning Herald, SBS Voices and We’ve Got This, a book about parenting with a disability.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate (finally!) has some book news! And responds to a listener question on defining the stages of the editing process.
Our featured book segment is brought to you by Affirm Press and we are delighted to be talking to Pip Williams about her second novel, THE BOOKBINDER OF JERICHO.
Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive. She is the author of the memoir One Italian Summer, published by Affirm Press to wide acclaim. Her first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words was published in 2020 and became an international bestseller.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate travelled to Castlemaine to record this interview in person with Cate Kennedy in her beautiful home amongst overflowing bookshelves. Kate attempted to edit down this episode, she really did, but Cate Kennedy just shares so much writing wisdom it was hard not to just give you the uncut super long version! Settle in with a cuppa if you can.
Cate Kennedy has published several collections of both poetry and fiction. Her story collections Like a House on FireandDark Rootsare widely studied in Australia and her poetry collections includeThe Taste of River Water, Signs of Other Fires, Joyflight, and Crucible and Other Poems. She is a two-time winner of The Age Short Story Competition, and a recipient of the 2013 Steele Rudd Award, the 2002 Vincent Bucklet Poetry Prize, and the 2001 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, among others. Her highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, won the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 2010 and she is also the author of travel memoir Sing and Don’t Cry.
Kennedy works as a writing teacher and advisor on the faculty of Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program in Portland, Oregon, and received her PhD in Creative Writing from LaTrobe University in 2021. She lives in Castlemaine, Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung country.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way.
Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
The theme of this second episode is about writing process and her pathway to publication.
This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode the hosts talk money. They discuss the writing incomes, the podcast's 'money story' and how it's changed over time, including the move to having some paid content. Also -- the difference between publicity and marketing, which FINALLY the two of them seem to be across.
Our Featured Book is brought to you by Hachette and we are delighted to be talking to Eleanor Shearer about her debut novel River Sing Me Home.
Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate on the English coast so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. For her master’s degree in politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations, and her fieldwork in St. Lucia and Barbados helped inspire her debut novel, River Sing Me Home.
Eleanor recommends debut novel 28 Questions by Indyana Schneider.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience.
One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves...
We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way.
Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star.
This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins.
Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Oh it’s exciting to be back. It’s a typically BIG ep as we kick off Season Six and we go lots of places: summer fishing, social media blackouts, teeth, horoscopes, childhood confessions, exciting 2023 news (which we can’t actually tell you…yet) and a bunch of things we’ve been reading, watching and listening to.
Our Featured Segment, brought to you by Harper Collins, is with debut novellist Jo Dixon. Jo lives in rural Lutrawita, Tasmania where she now writes full-time while wrangling a property and immense gardens. The House of Now and Then is her debut novel.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In the twelfth episode of our summer series Katherine speaks to Dervla McTiernan how her writing life began, the importance of setting in crime writing, good vs bad, and all the stuff -- from Plottr to Scrivener and Goodnotes -- she uses to write. Enjoy!
Award-winning, number one bestseller Dervla McTiernan has established herself as one of the biggest names in crime fiction. Her books have garnered critical acclaim around the world and sold over 400,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand alone.
Dervla’s book include The Ruin, The Scholar and The Good Turn (all part of the Cormac Reilly detective series). Her most recent book is The Murder Rule.
Dervla spent twelve years working as a lawyer. Following the global financial crisis, she moved from Ireland to Australia and turned her hand to writing. Dervla is a member of the Sisters in Crime and Crime Writers Association, and lives in Perth, Australia, with her husband and two children.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In our eleventh episode of our Summer Series, Katherine speaks with multi-award winning author Kim Scott about history, identity, culture and language, particularly of his ancestors the Noongar people.
Kim Scott grew up on the south coast of Western Australia. As a descendant of those who first created human society along that edge of ocean, he is proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar. His second novel, Benang: From the Heart, won the 1999 Western Australian Premier's Book Award, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award. His third novel, That Deadman Dance, also won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2011, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. His latest book, published in 2017 is Taboo.
Kim lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, and is currently Professor of Writing at the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In the tenth episode of our Summer Series, Kate speaks with Australian Fiction Queen, Liane Moriarty in a wide ranging conversation about her career, writing process and dealing with Hollywood.
Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of nine internationally bestselling novels, Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story and the number one New York Times bestsellers The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty, Nine Perfect Strangers and her most recent Apples Never Fall. Her books have sold over twenty million copies worldwide, including three million in Australia and New Zealand. Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers have both been adapted into phenomenally successful television series and a number of Moriarty’s other books are in the process of adaptation or production. She is also the author of a children’s book series Nicola Berry and the Petrifying Problem with Princess Petronella.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our sixth episode of our Summer Series, Katherine speaks with Australian Children's Laureate (22-23) Gabrielle Wang.
Gabrielle Wang is an award-winning author and illustrator of more than 20 novels and picture books for children and young adults. She was born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. As a result, Gabrielle’s books are a blend of both Australian and Chinese culture, with a touch of fantasy. In March 2022 Gabrielle was named the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022-2023.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In the eighth episode of our Summer Series, Kate and Katherine get schooled by Kate's talented friend, marketing/social media expert Shay Gardner on ALL things social media. This episode was so popular and birthed the phrase 'bring the salad'.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In the seventh episode of our Summer Series, Kate speaks with internationally bestselling author, Sarah Winman.
Sarah Winman grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Weber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to act in theatre, film and television. Her first novel, When God Was a Rabbitwas an international bestseller, her second A Year of Marvellous Wayswas a Sunday Times bestseller and Tin Man was shortlisted for the Costa Novel award 2018. Her latest novel – the bestseller Still Life -was published in 2020.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our sixth episode of our Summer Series, Katherine speaks with bestselling Australian author, Natasha Lester
Natasha Lester is the internationally bestselling author of A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, Her Mother's Secret, The Paris Seamstress, The French Photographer, The Paris Secret and The Riviera House, and a former marketing executive for L'Oreal. Her novels have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our fifth episode of our Summer Series, Kate talks to much loved Australian literary legend, Tony Birch.
Tony Birch is a novelist, short story writer, poet and academic. He is the author of three novels: Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSWs Premier’s Prize for Indigenous writing and also shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award.
He is also the author of five short story collections, Shadowboxing, Father’s Day, ThePromise, Common People and Dark as Last Night. His most recent publication is the poetry collection, Whisper Songs. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony is a much loved member of the Australian lit world, a regular guest at writers’ festivals, and a climate justice campaigner. He lives in Melbourne.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our fourth episode of our Summer Series we revisit our most popular ep ever! Kate speaks to Literary Queen, Helen Garner.
Helen Garner’s first book, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977. She is well known for her novels, short stories, journalism and essays, and for several influential works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. The first volume of her diaries, Yellow Notebook was published by Text in 2019, followed by One Day I’ll Remember This in 2020 and most recently How to End a Story in 2021. Helen lives in Melbourne.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our third episode of our Summer Series, we revisit Kate's conversation with Madeleine Dore which was a hugely popular ep to kick off 2022. We hope you can apply her energy to your 2023 new year!
Madeleine Dore is a freelance writer, interviewer and founder of Extraordinary Routines. Since 2014, Dore has been asking creative thinkers how they navigate their days on her popular blog Extraordinary Routines and podcast Routines & Ruts. Her interviews, life-experiments, and articles have appeared in Sunday Life, Womankind, BBC, and more and her latest offering is her first book, I Didn’t Do the Thing Today: On letting go of productivity guilt, published in Australia and the in the US in January 2022.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
In our second episode of our Summer Series, we revisit Katherine's conversation with Benjamin Law.
Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law, Gaysia, the Quarterly Essay: Moral Panic 101 and editor of Growing up Queer in Australia. He created and co-wrote three seasons of the award winning SBS TV series The Family Law and wrote the sold-out MTC play Torch the Place. He co-hosts Stop Everything! on the ABC’s Radio National and interviews public figures for Good Weekend.
Benjamin and Katherine discuss his rules for writing about family, why writing letters to the editor can be misleadingly lucrative and what he thinks about when he writes humour.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
Welcome to our Summer Series! First off we take you back to our very first ever episode in 2018 where we discuss just what The First Time Podcast is all about (or at least what we planned back then!).
Then we chat to Claire G Coleman. Claire G Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family belong to the south coast of Western Australia. She writes fiction, essays, poetry and art criticism while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. Born in Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar (Perth), away from her ancestral country she has lived most of her life in Victoria and most of that in and around Naarm (Melbourne). During an extended circuit of the continent she wrote a novel, influenced by certain experiences gained on the road. She has won a Black&Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship for that novel, Terra Nullius. Terra Nullius was published in Australia by Hachette Australia and in North America by Small Beer Press. And was shortlisted for numerous awards including The Stella Prize 2018, ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writers 2018, the Aurealis Award for a Science Fiction Novel 2017 and was Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017
Since we first spoke to Claire, she has been incredibly busy. Her second novel,
The Old Lie, was written in response to what she learned when traveling and was published in 2019 by Hachette Australia. Lies, Damned Lies, Claire's first non-fiction book, unpacking the effects of the history of Australia's colonisation, was released on the 1st of September 2021. In 2022, Claire’s third novel Enclave was published by Hachette.
Check out this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you brand new episodes from March 2023!
We are thrilled to bring you this special episode with Kurdish-Iranian journalist, writer, filmmaker and refugee advocate Behrouz Boochani.
The episode includes conversations Kate had with Behrouz in Aotearoa at Verb Wellington and in Naarm, Melbourne ahead of his sold out event at The Wheeler Centre. At Behrouz's request, Kate also spoke to his translators and collaborators Omid Tofighian & Moones Mansoubi about how they work together, the making of the new book Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani and the current situation in Iran.
We feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to speak to Boochani, Tofighian & Mansoubi about their work to bring the stories of Manus Prison to the global community.
Associate Professor Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University and Tarbiat Modares University, both in Tehran; he holds a Masters degree in political science, political geography and geopolitics.
Moones Mansoubi is a translator and Community Arts and Cultural Development worker based in Sydney. Her work is dedicated mainly to supporting and collaborating with migrants and people seeking asylum in Australia.
Omid Tofighian is an award winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate. His publications include the translation of Boochani’s award winning No Friend But the Mountains: Writings from Manus Prison.
Boochani was a writer for the Kurdish language magazine Werya; is Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW; non-resident Visiting Scholar at the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre (SAPMiC), University of Sydney; Honorary Member of PEN International; and winner of an Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya award for journalism.
He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his writing also features in The Saturday Paper, Huffington Post, New Matilda, The Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Boochani is also co-director (with Arash Kamali Sarvestani) of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh's play Manus.
Boochani's book, No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature in addition to the Nonfiction category. He has also won the Special Award at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the National Biography Prize. It has been published in 18 languages in 23 countries and is currently being adapted for both stage and screen.
Behrouz has been appointed adjunct associate professor in the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of NSW and visiting professor at Birkbeck Law School at the University of London.
He was a political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea for almost seven years. In November 2019 Behrouz escaped to New Zealand. He now resides in Wellington, New Zealand.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
It's the last episode of a pretty epic season! Kate and Katherine talk the year that was for both of them, plus what they've been reading, watching and listening to. It's not a 'best of' list but it's a great list. Things that get mentioned include:* The First Time interview with Kim Scott * The First Time interview with Chloe Hooper * Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmun * This is Dating (podcast) * Interview with Esther Perel on the Dumbo Feather podcast * If Books Could Kill (podcast) * The Mel Robbins Podcast * Crafting with Ursula from Between the Covers Podcast - particularly episodes with Lidia Yuknavitch (Kate's fave 'new to me' writer of the year!) and adrienne maree brown * Babel by RF Kuang * Bliss Montage by Ling Ma. Kate's been impressed with short story collections this year including Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls by Anne Casey Hardy (who we spoke to here), You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead and Here be Leviathans by Chris Flynn * Kate's looking forward to putting Amy Thunig's Tell Me Again in the Summer book stack * Kate loved watching Beforeigners, Stranger Things and just finished 1899
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
A very special, final Master Series episode for Season 5! Kate was THRILLED to have the opportunity to speak to literary legend George Saunders. They discuss his early writing life, his model for revising, advice to writers, why he loves teaching and his Story Club community and his latest collection Liberation Day.
George Saunders is the author of eleven books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English, and was a finalist for the Golden Man Booker. His stories have appeared regularly in The New Yorker since 1992. The short story collection Tenth of December was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the inaugural Folio Prize in 2013 (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short story collection).
He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
Saunders has taught, since 1997, in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University. His book based on the fiction course he teaches - A Swim in the Pond in the Rain is MUCH discussed on this podcast, and combined with his very popular Story Club newsletter and community has made him one of THE most lauded writers on writing. His latest book is the short story collection Liberation Day.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Katherine speaks to poet and writer Allen C. Jones about basketball, poetry, metaphor mapping and his debut novel, Her Death Was Also Water.
Allen C. Jones is an award-winning writer from California. He has lived and taught in Spain, Mexico, Korea, China, and presently serves as associate professor of literature in Norway. He earned an MFA in poetry from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. His work appears widely online and in print (links at allencjones.com). Allen’s novel, Her Death Was Also Water, was published by Midnight Sun Publishing in November 2022.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Our final Master Series of S5! And it's a LIVE one! Recorded at Readings Hawthorn with the fabulous Australian novelist and nature writer, Inga Simpson. We discuss her writing career, how to fall back in love with your craft, love of trees and Inga's latest book - 'the great Australian cricket novel - Willowman (Hachette Australia).
Inga Simpson is also the author of The Last Woman in the World (Hachette 2021), which was shortlisted for the Margaret and Colin Roderick literary Award and the Fiction Indie Book Award. Her first novel, Mr Wigg (Hachette 2013), was shortlisted for the Debut Fiction Indie Award. Nest (Hachette 2014) was longlisted for the Miles Franklin, the Stella Prize, and shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. And Where the Trees Were (Hachette 2016) was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, an ABIA Award, The Green Carnation Prize, and shortlisted for an Indie award. Understory: a life with trees (Hachette 2017), Inga's first book-length work of nature writing, was shortlisted for the Adelaide Writers Week prize for nonfiction. The Book of Australian Trees (Lothian 2021) illustrated by Alicia Rogerson is Inga's first book for children.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate is home and insufferably glowy after her residency, handing in her MS and the fabulous Verb Wellington festival. Katherine is 'very happy for her.' Lots of mentions this ep, including: * Verb Wellington * Bad Diaries Salon * Meeting Behrouz Boochani - author of No Friend but the Mountains and his new book Freedom, Only Freedom * Esther Perel in Where Should We Begin. * Heather Rose - Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here * Nagi Maehashi - RecipeTin Eats Dinner * Allen C Jones - Her Death Was Also Water * Coco Solid - How to Loiter in a Turf War * Dr Hinemoa Elder - Wawata, Moon Dreaming * Kate de Goldi - Eddy, Eddy * The Mysterious Bendict Society * Katherine is speaking with Allen C Jones at Eltham Bookshop, Nov Thursday 17th. 6.30pm about his new novel Her Death Was Also Water. * Kate will be in Sydney for Writing NSW Talking the Talk Wed 23rd November. 6.30pm. Bookings here.
This episode our featured book segment is brought to you by Harlequin and we are delighted to be talking to Anna Snoekstra about her new novel OUT OF BREATH.
Anna Snoekstra is an award-winning author and screenwriter who lives in Naarm/Melbourne. She is the author of Only Daughter, Little Secrets and The Spite Game. Her novels have been published in over twenty countries and sixteen languages. She has written for The Guardian, Meanjin and LitHub and had short fiction published in The Saturday Paperand The Griffith Review. Her new novel Out of Breath is out now. Her first audio drama, This Isn’t Happening, is out with Audible early 2023.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode our featured book is brought to you by Allen and Unwin and we are delighted to be talking to Heather Rose about her memoir of loss and discovery, NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS HERE.
Heather Rose is the Australian author of eight novels, writing for both adults and children. Her books have been shortlisted, long-listed or won awards for literary fiction, crime fiction, fantasy/ sci fi and children’s literature. Her seventh novel - The Museum of Modern Love - won the 2017 Stella Prize and the Christina Stead Prize and her most recent, Bruny won the ABIA Fiction Book of the Year. Heather lives by the sea in Tasmania.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Our first international recording! Kate is logging on from the Michael King writers centre (i.e. her New Zealand residency) and has been walking up volcanos, writing in her journal and doing some work on her forthcoming book. Meanwhile Katherine is Melbourne and it is wet. It has been wet forever.
Lots of great things to read / watch / listen to including
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Returning to Adelaide by Anne Freeman
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Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
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Where Shall We Begin (podcast) by Esther Perele
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Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch
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Bad Sisters (Netflix)
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George Saunders Substack
This episode our featured book segment is brought to you by Affirm Press and we are delighted to be talking to Sean Wilson about his debut novel GEMINI FALLS.
Sean Wilson is a writer, playwright and communications professional from Perth, Western Australia. His short stories have been published in Australian and international journals, anthologies and literary magazines including Island and Narrative, and he was previously shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award by Sydney Theatre Company. He now lives in Melbourne with his fiancée. Gemini Falls is his first book.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine speaks to Dervla McTiernan how her writing life began, the importance of setting in crime writing, good vs bad, and all the stuff -- from Plottr to Scrivener and Goodnotes -- she uses to write. Enjoy!
Award-winning, number one bestseller Dervla McTiernan has established herself as one of the biggest names in crime fiction. Her books have garnered critical acclaim around the world and sold over 400,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand alone.
Dervla’s book include The Ruin, The Scholar and The Good Turn (all part of the Cormac Reilly detective series). Her most recent book is The Murder Rule.
Dervla spent twelve years working as a lawyer. Following the global financial crisis, she moved from Ireland to Australia and turned her hand to writing. Dervla is a member of the Sisters in Crime and Crime Writers Association, and lives in Perth, Australia, with her husband and two children.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate is about to head off to NZ for a long awaited residency (via Varuna the Writers House) and Katherine is making comics -- check out her 100 day challenge via Insta). The hosts talk data, creativity and what the best selling book of all time is (it might surprise you!). Lots of mentions this ep, including: * 'Writing and the Fluidity of Creative Practice', article in Kill Your Darlings * The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavich * Out of Breath by Anna Snoekstra * Emily St John Mandel on Sea of Tranquility on both Ezra Klein show (podcast) and with Claire Nichols on The Bookshow * Writing NSW YouTube * The Palace Papers by Tina Brown * Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout * Reasons Not to Worry by Brigid Delaney * The Settlement by Jock Serrong * Leaf Bookshop YouTube book reviews
This episode our featured book segment is brought to you by Hardie Grant and we are delighted to be talking to Jayne Tuttle about her second work of literary auto-fiction MY SWEET GUILLOTINE (2022).
Jayne Tuttle's first book was Paris or Die (2019). Paris or Die was developed into a solo theatre show with director John Bolton and performed in 2021 and 2022 in a variety of venues including La Mama in Melbourne.
Jayne graduated from the Lecoq theatre school in 2006 and went on to live and work in France as an actor, voice-over artist, playwright, translator and bilingual copywriter.
Jayne was awarded the Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship in 2021 from the Varuna Writer’s House.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate speaks with best selling and award winning Australian author and television presenter, Holly Ringland, about her creative process, writing through fear and grief, the road to publication for her debut novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and the writing of her new novel The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding.
Holly Ringland is the author of the international bestseller The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, which has been translated into thirty-one languages and is being adapted into a seven-part TV series starring Sigourney Weaver and produced by Amazon Prime and Bruna Papandrea's Made Up Stories. It will screen in more than 240 countries and territories in 2023. In 2019, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart won the Australian Book Industry Award General Fiction Book of the Year. In 2021, Holly co-hosted an eight-episode ABC TV series, Back to Nature, alongside Aaron Pedersen and wrote her latest novel from her vintage caravan writing studio, Frenchie.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This special bonus episode was recorded with Ben Hunter from Booktopia's 'Tell Me What to Read' podcast. Ben, Kate and Katherine review and recommend some of their favourite debut reads from this year. (It's by no means a definitive list!)
Books mentioned include:
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr |
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len |
Sunbathing by Isobel Beech |
Everything Feels Like the End of the World by Else Fitzgerald |
Found, Wanting by Natasha Sholl |
Every Version of You by Grace Chan |
The Whitewash by Siang Lu |
The Natural History of Love by Caroline Petit |
The Furies by Mandy Beaumont |
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien |
Wake by Shelley Burr |
Denizen by James McKenzie Watson |
Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor |
The Torrent by Dinuka McKenzie |
Banjawarn by Josh Kemp |
Show Me Where it Hurts by Kylie Maslen |
Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine |
Hovering by Rhett Davis |
Gemini Falls by Sean Wilson |
The Upwelling by Lystra Rose |
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Subscribe to Tell Me What to Read wherever you get our podcasts (links here), join the Facebook group or follow on Insta or Twitter.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine catch up -- It's school holidays which means no writing is getting done but there's lots of reading and listening and general book talk. Katherine's obsessed with life coaches, maybe Kate will be too soon? The hosts talk academics and serendipity and The Artists Way gets mentioned for oh about the hundredth time. Enjoy!
Today our featured book segment is brought to you by Scribner and we are delighted to be talking to Anne Casey Hardy about her new collection of stories CAUTIONARY TALES FOR EXCITABLE GIRLS.
Anne Casey-Hardy was born in Fremantle and grew up in Melbourne as the eldest of seven children. She won the 2018 Peter Carey Short Story Award, was shortlisted for the 2019 VU/Overland Short Story Prize and was awarded a 2021 Varuna Residential Fellowship. Her short stories and poetry have been published in Meanjin Quarterly, Island Magazine, Overland Journal, Westerly Magazine and several anthologies.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate speaks with internationally acclaimed Australian author, Margo Lanagan about her writing career in which she has written a formidable number of award winning titles spanning children's lit, YA, fantasy, realism and speculative fiction and including the short story collection Black Juice, the novel Tender Morsels and the NYT bestselling Zeroes trilogy with Scott Westerfeld and Deborah Biancotti.
Margo has been a judge of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Australian–Vogel’s Literary Award. She served on the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts for three years. She has been an instructor at six residential Clarion workshops, in Brisbane, Seattle and (with Maureen F. McHugh) San Diego. She has also conducted numerous creative writing workshops both for school groups and for adult writers.
In this conversation Lanagan discusses playing with language, the hierarchy of lit stripes, scrapbooking, what to do when a novel falls apart in your hands and so much more.
Check out the full transcript of the interview and show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine Catch Up PLUS Featured Book CUT by Susan White
Kate has been gadding about at Melbourne Writers Festival, Katherine is still waiting to hear back re her MG novel and they have an epic number of reading and listening recommendations. Diaries, upcoming events, a desperate plea to get a contact for the Duffer Brothers...it's a full ep.
This episode's featured book segment is brought to you by AFFIRM PRESS and we talk to Susan White about her new novel (and first for adults) CUT, how her time as a doctor in hospitals informed the exploration of misogyny and sexism in her novel and the writing advice she loves most.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate speaks with Australian author, editor and climate activist, Sophie Cunningham, about her career spanning editing, publishing, industry advocacy and the writing of novels, essays and other non-fiction works.
Cunningham's latest novel is This Devastating Fever, published in 2022 by Ultimo Press and she discusses its long road from genesis to finished product. The conversation also covers how and why Cunningham writers about the climate crisis, her love of walking and drawing (especially trees) and why she loves debut novels.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Our main interview this episode is with writer and critic Kylie Maslen. We talk about what writing looks like from a disabled perspective, balancing being vulnerable with inflicting further trauma on yourself, and of course memes!
Kylie's work has appeared in The Guardian, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Adelaide Review, Crikey and Junkee, among other outlets. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Kill Your Darlings New Critics Award, and her essay ‘I’m Trying to Tell You I’m Not Okay’ was longlisted for the Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fiction Lab Prize for Experimental Non-fiction. Kylie’s first book, ‘Show me Where it Hurts’ was shortlisted for the Victorian Premiers Non Fiction award in 2021. She contributed to the recently released MELBOURNE ON FILM collection with Black Inc. Kylie lives in Adelaide on Kaurna Country.
This episode's featured book segment is brought to you by Penguin and we are talk to James Mckenzie Watson about his debut novel DENIZEN, writing rural mental health and how he was helped by his fabulous podcast James and Ashley Stay Home.
This episode's featured book is Marshmallow, the second novel from Victoria Hannan. This segment is brought to you by Hachette.
Victoria Hannan is a writer and photographer. Her first novel, Kokomo was the 2019 winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and her second novel Marshmallow is out now. We spoke to Victoria in Season 4 and you can find out more about her initial path to publication in that convo (https://thefirsttimepodcast.com/2021/05/04/victoria-hannan-on-the-highs-and-lows/)
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode, Katherine speaks to multi-award winning author Kim Scott about history, identity, culture and language, particularly of his ancestors the Noongar people.
Kim Scott grew up on the south coast of Western Australia. As a descendant of those who first created human society along that edge of ocean, he is proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar.
His second novel, Benang: From the Heart, won the 1999 Western Australian Premier's Book Award, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award. His third novel, That Deadman Dance, also won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2011, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. His latest book, published in 2017 is Taboo.
Kim lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, and is currently Professor of Writing at the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine has pressed send on her MG novel, Kate is visiting an abattoir, they both wax lyrical about Jane McGonigal and encourage you to get your submissions in for the National Cultural Policy. We are also asking YOU, our listeners, to let us know who you want to hear from in Season SIX next year!!
This episode's featured book segment is brought to you by Penguin and we are talk to James Mckenzie Watson about his debut novel DENIZEN, writing rural mental health and how he was helped by his fabulous podcast James and Ashley Stay Home.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This is Part Two of a conversation Kate has with Melbourne literary icon, Christos Tsiolkas. In this second part they discuss dealing with the success of The Slap, paying attention to the 'happy accident' in his writing process, moving from certainty to doubt and the writing of his most recent book. He also shares his best advice for writers, and for being good industry citizens.
Christos Tsiolkas is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. His first novel Loaded was later made in to the feature film Head On and his later novels Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda and Damascus have won and been nominated for major awards. His most recent novel is 71/2.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This is Part One of a two part conversation Kate has with Melbourne literary icon, Christos Tsiolkas. In this first part they discuss Christos's early passion for reading and cinema, the influence of his parents, how he worked his way through the 'unmapable' space towards being a novelist & how he dealt with failure.
Christos Tsiolkas is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. His first novel Loaded was later made in to the feature film Head On and his later novels Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda and Damascus have won and been nominated for major awards. His most recent novel is 71/2.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine are IN THE SAME ROOM, hiding out beachside, going to book parties and working on their next books. Amid their bookish activities they take time out to discuss dealing with cancelled book events, how Katherine is progressing with her creative dates and (Katherine's) rules for criticising books that have sold 5 million copies. Heaps of recommendations and a few giggles as per usual.
This episode's featured book segment is brought to you by UWA Publishing and we are delighted to be talking to Josh Kemp about his debut novel, Australian gothic fiction, Banjawarn.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode, Katherine speaks to Chloe Hooper about writing about difficult things, nuance and approaching non-fiction like it's a thriller.
Chloe Hooper is a novelist and non-fiction writer. Her first novel, A Child’s Book of True Crime, became a New York Times Notable Book, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her non-fiction, including The Tall Man and The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire, have won literary awards and been widely published internationally. Her latest book is Bedtime Stories.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine bask in their respective Fiji/Darwin holiday glows. Katherine is newly obsessed with Julia Cameron's The Artists Way and Kate is similarly late to the party with Stranger Things. There's a lot of great books in the world at the moment and it feels like they mention every single one :)
This episode's featured book segment is brought to you by Ultimo Press and we are delighted to be talking to Alex Sarkis about her debut novel SOMETHING BLUE.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate speaks with best-selling Australian author, Liane Moriarty, in a wide ranging conversation about her career, writing process and dealing with Hollywood.
Liane Moriarty is the author of nine bestselling novels including Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers which have both been made into smash hit TV series and her most recent novel, Apples Never Fall.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine talks with Michelle Law. Michelle Law is a writer and actor working across print, theatre, film and television. She wrote the smash-hit play Single Asian Female, which has sold out seasons in Australia and was staged in New Zealand in 2021 (check out the upcoming show in Adelaide Nov 2022).
Michelle's screenwriting work includes the SBS show Homecoming Queens, which she co-created, co-wrote and stars in. Michelle contributes to Australian publications and anthologies. She has been awarded a Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award, and two Australian Writers Guild awards.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine catch up after WEEKS apart and discuss all the things including Katherine's Winter Solstice swim, grief-exhaustion, the Miles Franklin lit scandal, celeb memoirs and more.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Ultimo Press and we talk to writer Pirooz Jafari about his debut novel Forty Nights.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine talks with Hazel Edwards. Hazel Edwards is an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Her beloved picture book series 'There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake' has been hugely popular for almost forty years, inspiring a musical stage production and a short movie. Though that might be her best known work, Hazel has published over 220 books, across a wide of subjects and genres including easy reading books for newly independent readers, her memoir Not Just a Piece of Cake, non-fiction including Authorpreneurship (on the business of creativity), Writing a Non-Boring Family History and Non-Boring Travel Writing, plus multiple collaborations.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Scribe and Katherine talks to Kate Ryan about her debut novel The Golden Hour.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate talks with internationally bestselling Canadian author Michael Christie. They discuss writing his latest novel - the epic historical/spec fic novel Greenwood, living in the forest, and what he learned about writing via pro skateboarding and carpentry.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Hardie Grant and Katherine talks to writer Jackie Bailey about her debut novel The Eulogy.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine talks with internationally bestselling author Natasha Lester. They discuss historical fiction, what's involved in publishing a book a year and the role that luck (and Costco!) have played in Natasha's writing career.
Natasha Lester is the internationally bestselling author of A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, Her Mother's Secret, The Paris Seamstress, The French Photographer, The Paris Secret and The Riviera House, and a former marketing executive for L'Oreal. Her novels have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Katherine talks with award winning author and illustrator of more than 20 novels and picture books for children and young adults, Gabrielle Wang. They discuss rejection, how books can help fight racism and magical experiences in life.
Gabrielle Wang was born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. As a result, her books are a blend of both Australian and Chinese culture, with a touch of fantasy. Her latest book is Zadie Ma and the Dog who Chased the Moon. She also wrote A Ghost in my Suitcase and Ting Ting the Ghost Hunter and (highly recommend!!) and also Poppy and Pearlie from the Our Australian Girl Series. In March 2022 Gabrielle was named the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022 and 2023.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine talk about THAT review, transcripts (check out this transcript of The First Time's Fiona Murphy episode), plus what they’ve reading and watching. In a weird turn of events, Kate is the Kardashians latest fan!
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Text Publishing and we talk to writer Akuch Kuol Anyieth about her memoir Unknown: A Refugee’s Story.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode Kate talks with critically acclaimed Australian author Michelle de Kretser about her writing routine, taking risks, nourishing reading and why writing is a confidence trick.
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was fourteen. She is the author of seven novels and one work of non fiction. She has twice won the Miles Franklin award for her novels Questions of Travel and The Life to Come and her other novels, including The Lost Dog have been won and been nominated for many awards. De kretser wrote On Shirely Hazzard for Black Inc’s Writers on Writing series in 2019. Her latest novel is Scary Monsters.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine talk covid (ugh, again), retreat/workshop envy and what they're reading / watching / listening to.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Harper Collins Australia and we talk to award winning writer and journalist Felicity McLean about her new book Red.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Katherine talks with internationally best selling award winning author Andy Griffiths about writing for children, his long time collaboration with illustrator Terry Denton and what the perfect % of anarchy is within a story.
Andy Griffiths is one of Australia's best known children's authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking, was published in 1997. In Australia, Andy and Terry’s books have sold over 10 million copies, won 80 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards—including Book of the Year for The 52-Storey Treehouse in 2015.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine catch up and talk about all the stuff, including Alice Walker's journals, Jennifer Egan's new novel The Candy House, Sentimental Garbage podcast (again) and The Writers Room podcast, (not the Charlotte Wood one [also excellent] the one that's about the writing of the TV series And Just Like That.)
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Affirm Press and we talk to author Caroline Petit about her new book The Natural History of Love.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This is a special live podcast, recorded at the Wheeler Centre in April
- Kate and Katherine interview fellow second time authors Yumna Kassab and
Robert Lukins about the joys and anxieties inherent in the writing and
publishing process.
This event was presented as part of Mic Drops, a Wheeler
Centre original series celebrating all things audible that brings together
podcasting’s best and brightest to share their thoughts and insights on the art
(and business) of listening.
The bookseller for this event was The Hill of Content bookshop.
Kate speaks with literary critic, academic and research, Bernadette Brennan. Among many publications, Brennan has published an award winning literary biography of Helen Garner - A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work - and most recently Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears. They discuss research in literary archives, the ives of Garner and Mears, the state of literary criticism in Australia and what Brennan has learned as a judge of the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Katherine sympathises with Kate about her covid cancellations and they talk the history of efficiency, books they are loving and an iso-worthy list of binge watching recommendations.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Affirm Press and we talk to author Katherine Tamiko Arguile about new book Meshi: A personal history of Japanese food.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode we talk to writer of many things, Benjamin Law.
Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law, Gaysia, the Quarterly Essay: Moral Panic 101 and editor of Growing up Queer in Australia. He created and co-wrote three seasons of the award winning SBS TV series The Family Law and wrote the sold-out MTC play Torch the Place. He co-hosts Stop Everything! on the ABC’s Radio National and interviews public figures for Good Weekend.
Benjamin and Katherine discuss his rules for writing about family, why writing letters to the editor can be misleadingly lucrative and what he thinks about when he writes humour.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine talk wordle strategies, the paths of lost novels (nod to Jane Rawson) and correspondence between famous authors.
The Featured Book segment is brought to you by Ultimo Press and we talk to author Natasha Sholl about her grief memoir, 'Found, Wanting'.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In our second episode of our new Masters Series, Kate speaks to British writer, Sarah Winman. Previously an actor, Winman is the author of three novels - A YEAR OF MARVELLOUS WAYS, TIN MAN and her latest, bestselling STILL LIFE. They discuss how Winman's acting experience has influenced her writing, the romance of a new idea, writing dialogue, research and some of her literary inspirations.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
The Competition was launched two days ago, it's a recap of all the feels. Plus, what the hosts have been watching, listening to and of course, reading.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Here it is! The very first episode of our brand new Masters Series. To kick off the season Kate speaks to writer, academic and activist, Tony Birch. He is the author of three novels, five short story collections and a collection of poetry. They discuss Tony's early publications, maps, writing place, short stories, confidence and the two traits of any good writer.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate is fresh off the plane from Adelaide Writers Festival and has been posting blow by blow account of every glorious moment/person she met on Instagram. One of us cooks a cake for a well-known literary person and we introduce our new 'Masters Series'.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine catch up and talk about the aftermath of book release, including a perplexingly bad restaurant, reviews and and a quote by Ella Baxter. Kate mentions she is writing but gives nothing else away. Plus, book recommendations!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
In keeping with the second book-related mini series -- this episode we talk publicity with Text publicist and all round excellent human Jane Watkins. She answers many burning questions including: What impact has COVID had? What is 'author care'? And of course, how is everything different when you're pitching authors for the second time?
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Get out your pens and pencils because this is an epic lesson in social media! Kate and Katherine talk to marketing, social media and fashion/lifestyle guru, Shay Gardner. This episode is, frankly, a gift to authors wanting to navigate the world of Instagram and other online entities. It's choc-full of great advice on what to do, why and how it all works. The word 'algorithm' is used many times.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
It's been a while since the Kate and Katherine caught up and there's a lot of excitement amid all the heat and humidity. As always, there's much much talk of books, including one particular one that comes out Feb 1st: The Competition!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
We're doing something a little bit different the next couple of episodes, in the lead up to Katherine's book The Competition coming out (Feb 2022). (You can pre-order at your local bookshop or here!!).
We're starting with a three-part mini deep dive – no spoilers – but a kind of 'behind the scenes', then we'll have some interviews with experts on social media and publicity on what to do when your book comes out. It's a bit like what we did in the early days of the podcast...
This is part 3 of the mini deep dives: first time vs. second time
We're doing something a little bit different the next couple of episodes, in the lead up to Katherine's book The Competition coming out (Feb 2022). (You can pre-order at your local bookshop or here!!).
We're starting with a three-part mini deep dive – no spoilers – but a kind of 'behind the scenes', then we'll have some interviews with experts on social media and publicity on what to do when your book comes out. It's a bit like what we did in the early days of the podcast...
This is part 2 of the mini deep dive: The writing process
We're doing something a little bit different the next couple of episodes, in the lead up to Katherine's book The Competition coming out (Feb 2022). (You can pre-order at your local bookshop or here!!).
We're starting with a three-part deep dive – no spoilers – but a kind of 'behind the scenes', then we'll have some interviews with experts on social media and publicity on what to do when your book comes out. It's a bit like what we did in the early days of the podcast...
Stay tuned! (And stay well)
A special episode to kick of 2022! Kate speaks to writer and podcaster, Madeleine Dore about her creative career and her brand new book I Didn't Do the Thing Today: On letting go of productivity guilt. If you're keen for other writerly things to kick off your year, join Kate in her online workshop Basics for Beginners with Writers Victoria on Jan 29, 2022. And subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don't miss our deep dive on Katherine's new book The Competition in the lead up to its release on Feb 1st!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
It's the end of season four! We're looking back on the year that was, with best reads, best listens, best watches... Best everything basically.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
For our final interview of Season 4, Kate speaks to the woman herself - lit world legend, Helen Garner. They discuss diaries, editing, triangles, criticism, marriage, motherhood, sublime joy and how Garner pulled together her most recent, explosive volume of diaries - How to End a Story. It's a warm and clever and wonderful conversation and Kate just manages to hold her fangirling in.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate speaks to acclaimed novelist, lit journal co-founder and now screenwriter, Hannah Kent. They discuss the importance of lit communities, second book wobbles, making boundaries and why Kent is no longer wedded to the historical archive. Absolutely no spoilers re Kent's latest novel DEVOTION, but definitely excellent advice and writerly wisdom.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine are out of lockdown (again) and they take a moment to reflect on the last eighteen months and how the hell they are going to get their writing routines back on track. Some recommendations, events and general giddiness are Katherine's upcoming NEW RELEASE!!!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Katherine speaks to author Garry Disher. Garry is the author of more than 50 books across multiple genres including crime thrillers, general/literary novels and fiction for children and teenagers. They discuss how he researches his novels, perseverance, and how you need to write with a blue pen in order for the magic to happen.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Katherine speaks to writer and author, Madeleine Ryan. They discuss Ryan's first novel A Room Called Earth, intuition, labels and Tarot.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine are nearly out of lockdown and this episode is unscripted, general delirium. Plus, a considerable amount of gushing over Brendan Cowell.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Kate speaks to writer, playwright and actor Brendan Cowell. And okay, maybe she fangirls a bit. They discuss creativity in lockdown, toxic masculinity, poetry, football, success and the writing of Cowell's latest novel, PLUM. They are also joined by Brendan's mum, Yvonne Cowell, who is ace.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Katherine speaks with author Anna Buist, who has arguably the most varied writing career of any guest on the show so far. They discuss erotic fiction, mental health, planning, plotting and co-writing novels.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine talk to award winning best selling author (and our former Agony Aunt) Charlotte Wood about her new book The Luminous Solution, which is all about creativity, resilience and the inner life.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Update Description
Kate finally speaks to Claire Christian, the author of Kate's most recommended 2020 book IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE, NONI BLAKE, (aka The Orgasm Book Lady). They discuss how Claire moves from playwriting to novel writing, what women want, writing humour, finding voice, how to find pleasure in Instagram and SO MUCH MORE.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate speaks to US writer, Maggie Shipstead. They discuss Shipstead's latest novel, the Booker longlisted novel GREAT CIRCLE, and Shipstead's writing process, addiction to awe and travel writing adventures.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine chat about failure, mudlarking and the real housewives TV show. Also: writing exercises for when you're feeling creatively challenged.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Katherine speaks to best selling, award winning author Pip Williams. They discuss William’s novel DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS, language, history and biases and omissions based on gender and class. Also, navigating being an author when you’re not on social media!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine are reasonably joyful in this episode, which covers such topics as mini bottles of wine, mandarins and surprise surprise books.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Kate speaks to award winning Melbourne writer, Alice Pung. They discuss Pung's latest novel ONE HUNDRED DAYS, writing about class, the impact of motherhood and how her writing process has changed over time.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Kate and Katherine talk great books, great listens and other inspiring things.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Katherine speaks to author Jane Riley about persistence and how, even if it takes a while, it does ultimately pay off. They discuss Kindle bestsellers, books coming out just prior to and during lockdown/s and how writers need to ask themselves questions.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Kate and Katherine talk about what they've been doing, which is not a lot. Kate is considering egging someone and needs a personal assistant. Katherine is reading a lot of Maeve Binchy and... No, that's it. Just a LOT of Maeve.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Kate speaks to Melbourne crime writer Iain Ryan, author of The Spiral. They discuss the rules of crime fiction, writing to the point of shame, self publishing vs traditional publishing and the Taylor Swift Theory. There is a some explicit content at the 20 minute mark, so maybe keep those earpods in! Kate also laughs. A lot.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).
Kate speaks to best-selling children's author and now non-fiction writer, Ailsa Wild. They discuss Wild's latest project - a story of nursing and caring during the Covid pandemic, along with how she creates her best-selling kid's books, and her top tips for school visits.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
It's Kate's birthday! She's a hundred years old! Okay, she's forty. Katherine has specific questions and Kate admits she loves the word 'skitterish'. She also wants to be reincarnated as a coastal cushion bush...
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
Katherine speaks to best-selling, multi-award winning writer Sarah Krasnostein. They discuss the ethics of writing about other people, how awkward it can be and ghosts.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!
This special episode is brought to you in collaboration with Yarra Valley Writers Festival for the series I Didn't Plan it This Way: Conversations about misguided moments, failed ideas and books that stayed in the bottom draw.
In this conversation, Kate Mildenhall talks with journalist and writer Rick Morton (MY YEAR OF LIVING VULNERABLY) about failure, kindness, outlaw motorcycle gangs and what he has learned from making mistakes.
Rick Morton is one of the guests appearing at the 2021 Yarra Valley Writers Festival taking place July 16 - 18 in Warburton. Tickets and full program here.
This special episode is brought to you in collaboration with Yarra Valley Writers Festival for the series I Didn't Plan it This Way: Conversations about misguided moments, failed ideas and books that stayed in the bottom draw.
In this conversation, Kate Mildenhall talks with author Meg Mason about how her latest novel SORROW AND BLISS went from broken book to international bestseller.
Meg Mason is one of the guests appearing at the 2021 Yarra Valley Writers Festival taking place July 16 - 18 in Warburton. Tickets and full program here.
This special episode is brought to you in collaboration with Yarra Valley Writers Festival for the series I Didn't Plan it This Way: Conversations about misguided moments, failed ideas and books that stayed in the bottom draw.
In this conversation, Kate Mildenhall talks with author Sally Hepworth (THE GOOD SISTER) about saying no, reading one star reviews and the swingers party she took her husband to...for research.
Sally Hepworth is one of the guests appearing at the 2021 Yarra Valley Writers Festival taking place July 16 - 18 in Warburton. Tickets and full program here.
This special episode is brought to you in collaboration with Yarra Valley Writers Festival for the series I Didn't Plan it This Way: Conversations about misguided moments, failed ideas and books that stayed in the bottom draw.
In this conversation, Kate Mildenhall talks with writer and actor Michael Veitch (HELLSHIP) about failed interviews, horror gigs, bad reviews and the failures that put him on the right path.
Michael Veitch is one of the guests appearing at the 2021 Yarra Valley Writers Festival taking place July 16 - 18 in Warburton. Tickets and full program here.
This special episode is brought to you in collaboration with Yarra Valley Writers Festival for the series I Didn't Plan it This Way: Conversations about misguided moments, failed ideas and books that stayed in the bottom draw.
In this conversation, Kate Mildenhall talks with author Jessie Tu about musical failures, high expectations, review culture and the idea of failure in her debut novel A LONELY GIRL IS A DANGEROUS THING.
Jessie Tu is one of the guests appearing at the 2021 Yarra Valley Writers Festival taking place July 16 - 18 in Warburton. Tickets and full program here.
When deaf poet, author and essayist Fiona Murphy gets in touch, Kate and Katherine re-think a rant they had previously.
Check out show notes for this episode on at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Kate speaks with literary translator Stephanie Smee in a fascinating conversation about wordplay, reading in translation, and Smee's latest work ON THE LINE: NOTES FROM A FACTORY by Joseph Ponthus.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine DO NOT talk about lockdown. Check out show notes for this episode on at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Katherine speaks with The Second Son author Loraine Peck. They discuss excellent bios, writing crime, magic and vision boards.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine go deep on a festival post mortem after Kate wearily returns from a whirlwind book trip to WA. Highlights, dolphins, fashion tips, name dropping and a story that makes Katherine lose it. This week has it al. Check out show notes for this episode on at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate talks to political journalist, foreign correspondent and author Michael Brissenden. They discuss journalism, good story telling and--one of our faves--rejection.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine discuss the nitty gritty of editing. It's been so long Kate's forgotten what it even is and Katherine has a complicated method involving printing, spreadsheets and long division (thirds?). Check out show notes for this episode on at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode Katherine talks to author Victoria Hannan on the highs and lows of being a writer, and how the writing life is just one part of actual life. They discuss awards (Victoria was the winner of the Victorian Premiers Unpublished Manuscript Award 2019), retreats, massive word counts and wonderful-difficult moments.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode Kate and Katherine discuss first drafts... Are they always terrible? Does anyone listen to other authors play lists? Do you like long descriptions of trees? And other questions such as this.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In our first interview for S4, Kate speaks with Evelyn Araluen - poet, academic, co-editor of Overland Literary Journal and author of Dropbear.They discuss Evelyn's creative practice, how she edited Dropbear with Ellen Van Neerven, why learning Bundjalung language changed the way she writes, and her advice on becoming part of the writing community.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
It’s a whole new season and a whole new format but the same old hosts. Kate and Katherine haven’t spoken in oh about forever and there’s a lot to catch up on. Books they’ve been reading! Things they’ve been listening to! Other items! Unfortunately, they get a little ahead of themselves vis a vis TECHNOLOGY, which is a lesson in a) how to use a microphone and b) failure. Enjoy :)
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
And this is IT! Our final episode of Season Three! There are favourites, laughs, wisdom and news from our amazing Agony Aunt, Charlotte Wood, and relief that we now get to look forward to Season 4 in 2021!
Our final cracker interview for the season is with writer and all round literary superstar, Maxine Beneba Clarke. We talk being a poet laureate, the different creative processes in writing and illustrating diversity and her latest picture book WHEN WE SAY BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
We'll be having a break over the summer but look forward to getting back in your ears in 2021! Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Four via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
We argue about pronunciation, lament a SA lockdown that is already outdated and consider our Writing Year That Was.
Then Kate speaks with novelist Karen Wyld about her path to publication, diversity in publishing and her debut novel WHERE THE FRUIT FALLS.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a collaboration with Darebin's FUSE festival.
Our guest is writer and author of The Whippet newsletter, McKinley Valentine.
For information on this five-part FUSE series and the FUSE festival check out Darebin FUSE Spring 2020.
Show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod
We are out of lockdown!! (You'll note we recorded this one week before we are now even LESS locked down!) We talk about what we did first, how Katherine is coping with Book Two edits and how Kate blundered through an Instagram takeover.
Our Agony Aunt Charlotte Wood responds to a question from a writer who is feeling resentful of other writers getting all the attention. Then Kate speaks with Yuwaalaraay songwriter and now novelist, Nardi Simpson in a wonderful conversation about her new book SONG OF THE CROCODILE.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a collaboration with Darebin's FUSE festival.
Our guest is author of young adult and children's fiction, Leanne Hall.
For information on this five-part FUSE series and the FUSE festival check out Darebin FUSE Spring 2020.
Show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod
It seems fitting that in this our 100th (!!) episode, we do a deep dive into author and co-host Kate Mildenhall’s second novel #theMotherFault.
A warning: This one's riddles with spoilers so if you haven’t read the book yet, then a) what is wrong with you and b) I hope you don’t mind knowing Nick dies on the last page.
OR DOES HE?
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a collaboration with Darebin's FUSE festival.
Our guest is feminist writer, broadcaster and public speaker Clementine Ford.
For information on this five-part FUSE series and the FUSE festival check out Darebin FUSE Spring 2020.
Show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod
This episode the hosts do some podcast-related housekeeping (really the only kind they're into), and mark the end of #ConversationsWithFriends with a 'Best of'. It's like picking between your children!
Our Agony Aunt, Charlotte Wood, answers a question on author head shots and then Kate speaks with award winning, best selling author Trent Dalton about his latest novel All Our Shimmering Skies.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a collaboration with Darebin's FUSE festival.
Our guest is award-winning writer, historian and podcaster Dr Yves Rees.
For information on this five-part FUSE series and the FUSE festival (so much great stuff and it's all online this year!) check out Darebin FUSE Spring 2020.
Show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Kate's book has been out for three weeks and Katherine asks how it's going. The answer is, it's a rollercoaster. They also exchange interesting things that have piqued their interest this week. Our Agony Aunt, Charlotte Wood, answers a question on puffing and endorsements and then Kate speaks with debut novelist, Sam Coley about his Richell Prize winning State Highway One.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode is a collaboration with Darebin's FUSE festival.
Our guest is award-winning writer, stand-up comedian and actor Kate McLennan. Yes, that Kate McLennan!! Her work includes The Katering Show and Get Krack!n...
For information on this five-part FUSE series and the FUSE festival (so much great stuff and it's all online this year!) check out Darebin FUSE Spring 2020.
Show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
This episode marks one week since #TheMotherFault's come into the world. The hosts discuss what Kate's been doing and re-live the launch, which was moving, entertaining and given we're in lockdown, online!
Agony Aunt Charlotte Wood answers a question from 'Dispirited' about the quiet novel...
Then Katherine chats to Brisbane author Laura Elvery about her writing life and her STUNNING short story collection Ordinary Matter.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with agent and author Danielle Binks and author and bookseller Fiona Hardy.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with Ashley Kalagian Blunt and Sheila Ngoc Pham.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
In this episode:
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Kate and Katherine discuss the art of the interview
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Agony Aunt Charlotte Wood answers a question on self belief
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We feature Brisbane author Cass Moriarty
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with authors Rachel Mead and Katherine Tamiko Arguile.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with authors Mark Smith and Jock Serong.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode Kate and Katherine are feeling slightly more positive about life and lockdown. Maybe it's because winning author and creative powerhouse Charlotte Wood is their new new agony aunt. This week's question is from 'Little Fish' and is about what to expect from your agent.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with authors Jack Heath and Sam McGregor.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with Justine Sless and Noe Harsel.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
We indulge ourselves with a whinge about lockdown life in Melbourne, but endeavour to leave you on a high with some excellent news!
Then Kate speaks with award winning writer Zana Fraillon in a blissful face to face discussion (for the brief moment that was allowed!). They discuss feeling like you've 'fluked it', writing what burns and the creative process in Zana's backyard studio where she has most recently written The Lost Soul Atlas.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends #16 is with Bronwyn Birdsall and Sheree Strange.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This is a special episode brought to you in collaboration with the Apollo Bay Word Fest for their Warm Winter Words event. This interview with Tony Birch is the first of three linked interviews, followed by conversations with Lucy Treloar and Michael Veitch.
In this conversation, Kate and Tony discuss storytelling, the power of place, powerful Aboriginal women and his latest novel The White Girl.
The Warm Winter Words event at Apollo Bay Word Fest is supported by Writers Victoria and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust.
This is a special episode brought to you in collaboration with the Apollo Bay Word Fest for their Warm Winter Words event. This interview with Michael Veitch is the final of three linked interviews, after conversations with Lucy Treloar and Michael Veitch.
In this conversation, Kate and Michael talk tales of the high seas, interviewing wisdom, life in the Arts during a pandemic and his latest book, Hellship.
The Warm Winter Words event at Apollo Bay Word Fest is supported by Writers Victoria and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust.
This is a special episode brought to you in collaboration with the Apollo Bay Word Fest for their Warm Winter Words event. This interview with Lucy Treloar is the second of three linked interviews, the first with Tony Birch and the final with Michael Veitch.
In this conversation, Kate and Lucy discuss the inspiration in watery places, writing the past and the future and Lucy's latest novel, Wolfe Island.
The Warm Winter Words event at Apollo Bay Word Fest is supported by Writers Victoria and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust.
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with Lauren Draper and Susan White.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
Ah, Melbourne, here we are again. We lament the lockdown but get peppy on how we are going to do it better second time around.
Then Kate swoons over the opportunity to speak to OzLit royalty and one of her own literary idols, Kate Grenville. They discuss early rejection, the generosity of other writers, THAT discussion of historical fiction and her rules for editing.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with McKinley Valentine and Angus Hervey.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with Gabriel Bergmoser and Damian Robb.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
We can't believe we haven't devoted an entire chat to our experiences of motherhood and writing yet. But a listener emailed with a question about how to get writing done while in the motherhood trenches and so we couldn't hold off any longer.
Fittingly, our conversation in this episode is with debut author, Anna Downes, who speaks frankly about her experience post partum and how writing her blockbuster thriller THE SAFE PLACE pulled her through.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with Alice Robinson and Meg Mundell.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
It's a podcast, where we talk about other podcasts! So many great listening recommendations this episode.
Then Katherine talks to author Laura McPhee-Browne on short form fiction, covers and how the right bio can make a big difference.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with RWR McDonald and Katherine Kovacic.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode we listen in on a real life writers group: Emily Gale, Nina Kenwood and Bronte Coates.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
We share some of the listening, reading and donating we've been doing to support the #blacklivesmatter movement, focussing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and activists.
Then Kate talks to writer and literary critic Chris Flynn about creativity, criticism and why Liz Gilbert endorsed his new book, Mammoth.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode of Conversations with Friends is with YA author Poppy Nwosu and author of adult and children's fiction Sonya Bates.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This episode of Conversations with Friends with with authors Sally Piper and Shady Cosgrove.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
It's that time in the 'publication journey' where Kate has to start pitching some loosely book related articles to help with promo. She's determined to do it better this time around and asks Katherine for help.
Then Kate talks to Brisbane writer and bookseller, Krissy Kneen about lust in the time of coronavirus, her different approaches in writing for screen and the page and why the Brisbane Literary Mafia are the best writing crew.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of #Conversations with Friends, we listen in on authors Sean O'Beirne and Wayne Marshall.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
This week's a coming-out-of-lockdown catchup! The hosts talk covers (THE MOTHER FAULT IS BEAUTIFUL!), Space Stations and what is Tik Tok?
Then Katherine talks to #ownvoices YA author Kay Kerr.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of #Conversations with Friends, we listen in on multi-award winning and best selling authors Sarah Schmidt and Favel Parrett.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
The Conversations with Friends series is supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.
What's the best way to engage with your readers, once your book is out in the world? Are there rules? or just expectations? What are the best moments for authors, and for readers? We chat about how we'll approach chatting with readers this time around.
Then Kate talks to award winning and best selling author, Dr Anita Heiss.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode we listen in on award winning and bestselling author Jane Harper and her long time author and journalist friend Karina Kilmore. Bring your notepad, there’s lots of practical tips in this one! We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us! Update Description
Batter up! Let's talk pitching. Katherine just pitched her novel (as yet unnamed, to be released next year) to TV and film producers as part of the Queensland Writers Centre’s Adaptable program. How did it go? The hosts have tips for other people attempting this nerve racking exercise.
Then Katherine talks to award winning and best selling author, Nick Earls.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Update Description
Old friends are the best kind of friends! In this episode, we get to listen in on Lauren Chater and Sarah-Jane Burton as they discuss their long time friendship. It's a story so good it could be made into a movie!
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
Katherine is flirting with the idea of setting her next book in the past and has a bunch of questions on research for Kate. How do you store your research notes, where do you even begin, how much can you play with the truth in your fiction? Then Kate speaks with Mirandi Riwoe about her new book STONE SKY GOLD MOUNTAIN, how outrage fuels her, and what her writing routine looks like We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of #ConversationswithFriends writers Imbi Neeme and Emilie Collyer play the Pineapple game (not its real name).
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
The hosts are giving recommendations and there's one rule: nothing book-related. Then Katherine speaks to Melissa Ferguson, author of The Shining Wall about science fiction and the challenges of writing the future. We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of #ConversationswithFriends writers Shivaun Plozza and Wai Chim discuss writing across genres and age groups, and the role of the author as self marketer. We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
We touch base about how we are coping with isolation and talk authors online: launches, videos and the etiquette of fan-girling in a zoom session. Then Kate speaks with writer, Sarah Bailey, about writing crime, routines and getting around procrastination. We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Welcome to our very first episode of Conversations with Friends: creative conversations between writing friends.
In this episode writers Thuy On & Nick Gadd discuss their shared love of words and their latest books.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us!
How on earth do you get the writing done at a time like this? Kate and Katherine have taken two different approaches so far and discuss what's working best for them. Then Kate speaks with writer, Alice Robinson, about how she's coping during #selfisolation, writing books about end-times, and how she found joy in the writing process.
We know you'll understand that this episode has a different quality of audio than you are used to from us. Eventually we'll get back to studio sound, but until then forgive us the odd crackle! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
In a throwback to a time that seems eons ago, Kate and Katherine discuss their plans and routines for getting the writing done in 2020. Then Kate speaks with debut writer, Emily Clements about writing memoir, publication day feels and telling your mum there is a lot of sex in your book. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Update Description
The hosts chat about how life is starting to change under Coronavirus and what we can do about (which is not a lot). Then Katherine speaks with Australian writer, Robert Lukins about their shared love of Adrian Mole, libraries and literary nemeses. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
How different is second time around when it comes to writing books? We talk about what it looks like now compared to when we were writing our debuts.
Then Kate speaks with debut writer, Mandy Beaumont about writing rage, rock n' roll book events and going into the world with confidence.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
We're back! It's the first episode of the season! Kate and Katherine catch up on what they've been reading and listening to over the summer break.
Then Katherine talks to bestselling Australian author Christian White about tension, readers and not having a Plan B.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
We're back! Brand new studio, amazing lineup of guests and two new books to get out into the world. A tiny teaser before we get into our new season very soon!
Check out previous seasons and show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Three via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635!
Thanks for joining us, we'll be back in your ears very soon!
It's the last episode for season two and the hosts reflect on their writing, reading and listening highlights for the year that was.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
The hosts talk about getting out of their comfort zones and what's pushed them this year. Then Katherine talks to Sydney-based author and criminal lawyer Sarah Hopkins.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This episode, Kate and Katherine catch up on events they've been doing.
Then Katherine speaks with Gerii Pleitez, author of On the Sunday, She Created God and founder of Kara Sevda Press.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Update Description
How do you support other writers and the writing community? We talk about what we do and what we love when others do for us.
Then Kate speaks with writer and mentor Charlotte Wood, an interview she's been looking forward to since the podcast began! They talk rejection, the writing craft and what looks different when you are eight books into a writing career.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
A super special live panel event at Glee Books in Sydney! Kate speaks with writers Cassie Hamer, Ashley Kalagian Blunt and John Purcell about their first time feels.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Update Description
This week we work out how to get professional. Like, what do you put in an email signature and exactly how important is a website?
Then Kate heads to Sydney to chat with author and bookseller, John Purcell, about how he's gone through the debut experience TWICE, how to write good sex and what really sells books.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This week we tax! Isn't there an app that could do it for us? Should you have a business account? Can you just use a shoe box for receipts? Whatever you do, don't take our advice, we are not professionals.
Then Katherine speaks with author Will Kostakis. There's a lot about schools: getting published when you're still going to one, visiting as an author, having visits cancel your visits for appalling reasons.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This week we indulge in sharing some fab listener feedback (after we console each other on our one and only two star review!). We also respond to a listener question about the specifics of the editing process.
Then Kate speaks with author and Gunai woman Jannali Jones at the Blak & Bright Festival. They discuss her #LoveOzYA debut MY FATHER'S SHADOW, how she juggles her career in law with her writing and her exploration of cultural identity.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
TW: In this episode we discuss eating disorders and also discuss the Black Saturday bushfires.
This week we talk confidence. How do you foster it? And if you don't have it, how can you write like you do?
Then Kate speaks with writer Alice Bishop about her debut collection A CONSTANT HUM, writing through trauma and the writers who inspire her.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Katherine's been in London and NY and Kate wants to know all the details. But is it wise to reveal all? They talk candidly about being...too candid.
Then Kate speaks with Brisbane writer Ben Hobson all about his second novel, why he's got a soundtrack to go with it and the highlights of his self-drive book tour.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
What's your relationship with audiobooks? This week we discuss our faves, our habits and why we couldn't handle listening to our own (but you should!). We also FINALLY discuss Kate's Big Book News!
Then we speak to author and Director of Writers Victoria, Angela Savage about writing her fourth novel, switching genres and being a great member of a writing community.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Puff quotes! What exactly are they? Kate had about a million for Skylarking. She's now navigating the awkward world of asking other authors to endorse her second novel. Meanwhile, Katherine got asked to do one herself. What did she learn?
Then we speak to author RWR McDonald about Faber Writing Academy, trilogies and writing on public transport.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
After a few weeks apart, the hosts catch up. Kate's big news is...well, we still can't tell you. But we promise to fill you in VERY SOON! But we can tell you what we've been reading and listening to and what Katherine has planned for her US and UK visits.
Then we speak to debut author Nina Kenwood about winning the Text prize, and what it's been like to bring her brand new book and brand new human into the world simultaneously (almost).
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
We are FINALLY back from our break and while we have news to share....we can't. Not yet, anyway. In lieu of that, we bring you a brand new deep dive on writers groups: how they work and how you might find yourself one. Then Kate speaks with Surf Coast #LoveOZYA writer, Mark Smith about how a short story turned into a trilogy, his top tips for school visits, and how to get your very own book banner.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
The hosts talk about international rights deals and how theirs came to be. Listeners get to hear who did the negotiations, what it was like for the authors and things to look out for. Then an announcement: The podcast is taking a short hiatus. Normal programming will resume in August. Katherine talks to Jane Watkins, who is not only a publicist at Text Publishing, but Katherine’s publicist. Listen in to hear about clammy hand holding, fee donations (IS ANYONE KEEPING A TRACK OF THIS?) and other insider insights! Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
After learning Tony Abbott only has one Word document on his computer and everything he’s ever written is in it, the hosts discuss their own writing processes. Katherine is all about Scrivener, spreadsheets and Om Writer whereas Kate’s approach is less technological. No surprises there. Kate also journals a lot… The document for her work in progress is MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND words. Then Katherine talks to Russian-born, Israeli-Australian novelist, short story writer, essayist, memoirist and former academic Lee Kofman. Lee is the author of three fiction books (published in Israel in Hebrew). She has edited two anthologies of personal essays by prominent Australian writers. Lee’s most recent book, Imperfect is a work of creative non-fiction. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This week we answer your questions! What steps did we take to get our manuscripts ready to submit? Were we spurned by mates who didn't turn up to our launches (and will we name and shame them)? And how are you supposed to deal with reviews on social media?
Then Kate speaks with writers Adut Wol Acek & Khalid Warsame about being contributors to the Growing Up African in Australia anthology and their writing lives.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This week the hosts do not talk about Kate's waiting. This does not get mentioned. Instead, they discuss professional development.
Then Katherine talks to Melbourne-based author Rajith Savanadasa about documentary theatre, hot desks and the Hachette/QWC manuscript development program.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
This time with everything!
This week Kate and Katherine discuss mentors. Kate sings the praises of both formal and informal mentors and Katherine laments a work mentorship that never got off the ground.
Then Kate speaks to writer of historical fiction for children, teens and adults (and mentor!), Kelly Gardiner. They cover everything from pirates to residencies to 'golden hours'. BYO notebook.
Check out the shownotes for this episode on our website: thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram at @thefirsttimepod
Katherine is confused about what to charge for a library gig. Also book clubs. As an author, do you go? Do you stay for dinner? And do you sign library books???
Then Kate speaks to award winning writer & critic, James Bradley, about how he copes with writing climate change, writing through broken books and depression, and his advice for those dreaming of a creative career.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks for joining us!
Katherine googles the most annoying questions you can ask authors and she and Kate go through each question, rating how irritating they find it. One of the most contentious is money and sales… No surprises there.
Then Katherine talks Bram Presser, author of The Book of Dirt about documentary fiction, hommus and Jewish punk rock.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
Katherine debriefs on how her hosting duties went (verdict: good, maybe not great?) and Kate checks in on her rejection tally so far this year and wonders what to do while waiting to hear back on submissions.
Then Kate speaks to award winning children's author, editor and publisher, Davina Bell. They talk about how Kate went in her pitch (eek!), what publishers are looking for and the secret to being a writer (hint: you already know this one).
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
Katherine’s been invited to do an event with Graeme Simsion, which let’s face it is pretty awesome but what’s she meant to actually do? She gets advice from Kate, who is as luck would have it, a pretty awesome host.
Then the hosts chat to award winning romance author, Sarah Mayberry. They talk about writing romance, euphemisms and independent publishing.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
What do you do when you're happy for your writer friends, but also feel maybe a teeny tiny bit 'weird' about their success? In this episode, Kate and Katherine discuss jealousy, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and the little known, AMO (Actually Missing Out).
Then the hosts chat to award winning writer, speaker and appearance activist, Carly Findlay. They talk about memoir, activism and love triumphing hate.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
Kate and Katherine are thrilled to be back in the studio and catching up over their summer reads (and listens) and their goals for the year as they embark on getting their second books out in the world.
The S2 interview guest list kicks off with J.P Pomare, debut author of the hugely anticipated psychological thriller CALL ME EVIE. They talk getting a foot in the door, writing for the marker and how far is too far with your literary agent.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know your literary goals for the year.
Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
And just like that we've reached the end of Season One! Kate and Katherine get a bit emotional and reflect on the season and what they've learned.
Then Kate speaks with Melbourne writer, Jamie Marina Lau, about her creative process, what honest writing feels like, and why representation is on her 'Why I Write' list.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you'd like to see more of in Season Two. Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Two via our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/user/overview?u=14470635! Thanks so much.
So what happened with our brilliant side business ideas? Kate & Katherine discuss progress on making cash to fund the podcast, and ultimately decide on an entirely different approach. But is it all just another way to avoid writing their next books?
Next, Kate speaks with Canberra writer & editor Irma Gold on writing for adults and children, her editing brain and how much of your heart is published with your book.
Check out show notes for this episode, including the link to our brand new Patreon page, on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
Kate and Katherine are still riding the publication high... This week they discuss what happens that first week your book is in the world. They cover everything from doing your first festival to visiting bookshops, going on TV and of course, working out what to wear.
Then, Katherine speaks with writing coach and counsellor Alison Manning about all the different emotions and neurosis writers can feel, and what to do about it.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
Finally, Katherine's launch of The Helpline! Kate remembers her own launch night and Katherine talks through her feels, her braids and why she went home early...(stay tuned for next week's episode, it involves A TELEVISION APPEARANCE!)
Then, Kate speaks with award winning Melbourne writer, Mark Brandi on his own TV appearance, what it has to do with his literary career, and why sensory deprivation works for his writing.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
This week Kate and Katherine talk about how to make money. Katherine has some inspired ideas. Kate is not an entrepreneur. Together they try and make it work. Then Katherine speaks to Melbourne writer, Emily Brewin, about hard work, writing routines and THAT phone call.
Check out the show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate talk feelings. Katherine looks at Goodreads and she's not happy. Will it feel like this forever? How do you ride the wave of post-release adrenaline? What does it feel like when everyone says nice things? And what if they say nothing at all?
Then, in a super special double episode, Kate interviews writers Annabel Smith and Jane Rawson on, well, everything, really. There is talk of first times, how not to stuff up a writers festival gig, why Twitter is like a party, how a writing community works, why they've hit a nerve with their blog series and SO much more.
Loads of links in the show notes for this one (double the fun!) that you can find on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate talk how we make money from writing. What is an advance? How do royalties work? Can you make a living? (We don't promise to definitively answer these questions, but we'll point you in the right direction.)
Then Kate interviews Senior Editor at Text Publishing, Mandy Brett, on what goes on in the secret world of editing. How do you get a foot in the door? What is an editor looking for? And what are the worst mistakes you can make when you submit a manuscript? Mandy has all the answers, and more.
Check out the CRAZY long show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode we talk about how we write. We cover routines (or lack thereof) and what's changed from first to second book. Then, Katherine speaks to 'triple threat' writer, editor and literary agent Danielle Binks, about Young Adult fiction and how she turned her love of books into a stellar career.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate chat about book covers. What they expected versus what they got, and how they dealt with that first box opening. Then, Katherine speaks with Canberra author, Karen Viggers, about combining writing with being a vet, the art of re-writing and how it feels to be a bestseller in France.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate talk book launches. How to have them, who to invite, what to say. And Katherine asks a big question...(and Kate maybe squeals a little in response). Then, Katherine speaks to bestselling Canberra author, Jack Heath, about his literary debut at seventeen and everything he's learned since then.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate talk about the the stories behind their books and which bits of them are actually true. Are they really tales of accidental publication and rags (or sewage) to riches? Or did our hosts just start to believe their own spin? Then, in an interview that traverses motherhood, how to write a trilogy and why its important to make writer friends, Kate speaks to Penni Russon about what's changed in the fourteen years (and six books) between her first and her most recent novels.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode Katherine and Kate talk editing, how they did it, who helped and what they learnt. Then Katherine interviews best-selling author, Graeme Simsion about how he wrote his smash hit THE ROSIE PROJECT and what he's learnt along the way.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode, Kate and Katherine discuss social media. Why it's scary, how they use it, what they could do better. And then, Kate speaks to the fabulous Toni Jordan about ideas on planes, why choosing a publisher is like dating and how she balances the creative and business sides of her writing career.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode, Kate and Katherine discuss making promotional YouTube videos. Katherine asks Kate about hers and they check other authors to see who has the most views. It's a little awkward. In the main event, we speak to agent Jacinta di Mase about second chances, pitching to publishers and what agents bring to the table.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this episode, Kate and Katherine discuss Author Talks. Katherine has to do one at the Word for Word festival at Geelong, but what is she even going to talk about? Then Kate speaks to author Melanie Cheng about writing her prize-winning debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, and how it came to be published. Mel also talks about how she prepares for speaking events, who helped her along the way and loads more!
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
A quick word (and a wry laugh) from Kate and Katherine as they explain the need for an unexpected break in transmission.
The First Time podcast will be back in September, bursting at the seams with fabulous guests and everything from behind the scenes as Katherine's book, The Helpline, heads out into the world.
Get in touch at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or follow along with us @thefirsttimepod on Twitter or Instagram.
In our first full length episode, Katherine and Kate chat about how The First Time came to be. Then Kate speaks with writer Claire G. Coleman on writing her acclaimed debut, Terra Nullius, on an iPad while travelling around the country, who and what helped along the way, and how she deals with literary prizes.
Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod and let us know what you think!
In this mini-ep, find out everything you need to know about the writing escapades of Kate Mildenhall and why she's hosting this podcast with her friend, Katherine Collette.
For more about Kate go to www.katemildenhall.com.
Let us know the story behind your first publication. The short story comp you won in Grade Six, the poem in a literary journal, an article online, or a book on the shelf, no publication is too big or too small! Get in touch via Twitter, Instagram or at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com.
And stay tuned for our first full-length episode and interview with a fabulous Australian writer...coming VERY SOON!
In this mini-ep, Katherine Collette gives you the background on who she is (a writer and sewerage engineer) and what happened to get her to this point (loads of hard work), just months away from the publication of her first novel, The Helpline.
Find out more about Katherine at https://www.katherinecollette.com/.
Get in touch via Twitter, Instagram or at www.thefirsttimepodcast.com and let us know your the story behind your writing, published or not!
We've been busy in the studio and we're nearly ready to launch! In this short trailer Kate and Katherine let you know what to expect in Season One and three fabulous writers give you a taste of the wisdom they share in upcoming interviews. Let us know on Twitter or Instagram @thefirsttimepod if you can guess the writers from their dulcet tones!
Go to www.thefirsttimepodcast.com to find out more, and stay tuned for upcoming mini-eps introducing your hosts.