Natter

Gill Perdue and Catherine Murphy join Kate and Michelle on this week’s episode of Natter to discuss FEAR, a stunning new anthology of original short stories from 32 of Ireland’s leading women crime writers, with proceeds going to Women’s Aid.

A moving conversation about fear, female friendship, the craft of the short story and why stories matter so much.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

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Emily Hourican joins Kate and Michelle on this week’s episode of Natter to discuss her latest novel, A House in Winter, inspired by the remarkable story of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon being trapped inside an Irish country house following an IRA attack in 1965.

Emily shares the fascinating research process behind bringing real historical figures to life on the page, where fact ends and fiction begins, and why the smallest details from old newspapers and memoirs can unlock an entire era.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fantastic Sheila Bugler joins Kate and Michelle on this week’s episode of Natter to discuss her latest book, “The Stepmother”. This is Sheila’s eleventh novel and in this episode she shares an insight into her unique writing style of not plotting the book in advance and not knowing what she will write for the next chapter.

Sheila shares her writing journey and how it’s changed after publishing eleven novels.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the sixth season of Natter! To kick off season six, we are joined by the brilliant Vicki Notaro. Vicki speaks with us about her latest book. “Anywhere But Here”. This page turner, depicts three women who are fed up with their everyday lives and escape to Donegal along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Vicki speaks with us about the inspiration behind the book & why she chose Donegal, the changing landscape of journalism, the leap of bravery it takes to go into becoming an author and how she structures her year to write a new book annually. 

This is a Natter you won’t want to miss!

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen join Kate and Michelle to talk about their latest novel, Our Deadly Summer, a darkly funny thriller following two best friends who spend a summer at a Long Island country club in the early 2000's, witness something they should never have seen, and spend the next twenty years trying to forget it.

The duo share how their own J1 experiences and the reckless freedom of life before smartphones shaped the book, why they deliberately set it in a pre-tracking, pre-social media world and what it felt like to take their writing in a new direction while holding onto the warmth and female friendship that has always defined their work.

They also open up about how their co-writing process actually works, from flipping a coin to decide who writes the dreaded first chapter, to editing each other's work so thoroughly that they often forget who wrote what, to the discipline required to keep moving when a deadline is closing in.

A warm, funny and refreshingly candid conversation about creative partnership, nostalgia, female friendship and what it really takes to keep writing.

Key takeaways for writers:

• Starting is always the hardest part.
• Co-writing demands that you let go of being precious about your own words, the book matters more than who wrote which line.
• Writing simultaneously rather than waiting for the other person to finish keeps momentum going and beats procrastination.
• Dual timelines and shifting perspectives are exciting but difficult. Expect to rewrite yourself into corners and out of them again.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caroline Foran joins Kate and Michelle to discuss her new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety, a practical roadmap for anyone who has ever felt frightened by their own mind and desperate for a way through.

Caroline shares the story behind the book, why she designed it as a sequential road map rather than a menu of options and why she is more confident about this book than anything she has written before. She explains why anxiety is not something to be cured but overcome and what that distinction actually means in practice.

She also unpacks two of the book's most illuminating ideas: why morning anxiety is so much more intense than most people expect, and the very real neurological reason for it, and why scrolling through social media is one of the worst things an anxious nervous system can do, even when it feels like a way to relax.

Caroline opens up about her own journey from being physically crippled by anxiety in her twenties, to the extraordinary role her mother played in pulling her through, challenges of parenting and what that has required her to unlearn about parenting.

A warm and deeply honest conversation about anxiety, self-compassion, the nervous system and what it really means to get your life back.

Key takeaways for anyone living with anxiety:

• Anxiety is not a flaw or a failing. It is a nervous system response that can be meaningfully overcome.
• The foundational work matters. Skipping to the fix without laying the groundwork is why so many people go backwards.
• Morning cortisol is biological, not personal. Moving your body is an effective response.
• Social media is a slot machine for your nervous system. Even knowing that, stepping back is hard but the difference is immediate.
• Self-compassion is not a platitude. Meeting yourself where you are is the only real starting point.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Louise O'Neill joins Kate and Michelle to discuss her new novel, Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?, a story of twin sisters, a Hollywood casting that changes everything and the discovery of a storage unit twenty years later that forces Chelsea to ask whether she ever really knew her sister at all.

Louise unpacks how the Paris Hilton storage unit scandal influenced parts of the book, why she set it against the Y2K celebrity era, and what it meant to write about two women on opposite sides of a system that rewards compliance and punishes those who refuse to play along. She also reflects on the very real parallels between that era and what young women are navigating today.

She opens up honestly about handling the publicity of promoting new books, the tension between wanting your book to reach readers and balancing your energy levels during promotions and why being good at something doesn't always mean you enjoy it. Louise also talks about writing her memoir, due out in September.

A rich, wide-ranging conversation about sisterhood, navigating writing multiple books and holding onto hope when the world keeps giving you reasons not to.

Key takeaways for writers:

• Being good at publicity and enjoying it are two very different things, knowing the difference matters.
• Writing nonfiction requires finding a voice that is distinct from your fiction voice, even when it is your own.
• The most powerful character dynamics often come from showing two sides of the same experience.
• Holding onto hope is not naive, for writers exploring dark themes, it is essential.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bestselling Irish author Louise Nealon joins Kate and Michelle to talk about her much-anticipated new novel, Everything That Is Beautiful. A story of three women, an Irish wedding and the traumatic secret that has kept them from each other for years.

Louise unpacks how the novel came together, why she made truth itself the central tension of the book and what it means when people are right about something but still cause damage in the way they reveal it. She reflects on the fine line between honesty and being too harsh within families, and the question that sits at the heart of the novel!

She also opens up about the very real pressure of following a debut as celebrated as Snowflake. A deeply honest conversation about storytelling, the subjectivity of truth, imaginary friends and why the best writing often comes from getting out of your own way.

Key takeaways for writers:

• Placing impossibly high literary expectations on yourself is one of the fastest ways to stop writing altogether.
• Characters surprise you, the excitement of not knowing where they'll go is often what keeps you at the desk.
• A "scenes I'd like to see" document can be a more generative planning tool than a chapter-by-chapter outline.
• The sentences you agonise over most are sometimes the ones readers fly past.
• Finishing the book is the only thing you actually have to do, everything else follows from that.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bestselling Irish author Ruth O'Leary joins Kate and Michelle to discuss her latest novel, The Last Week of Him, the story of three women reunited in the west of Ireland after receiving a shocking WhatsApp message about the sudden death of their secondary school golden boy.

Ruth walks through exactly how the book came together, she also reflects on the central question she hopes the book raises for readers and book clubs: how well do we really know our friends when so much of our insight into their lives comes through social media? And does a difficult upbringing ever truly excuse the way we treat people?

Away from the page, Ruth shares stories from over twelve years working as a film and TV extra, from playing a nun beside Russell Crowe to running up Wicklow fields as a Viking.

A joyful, generous conversation about storytelling, friendship & writing.

Key takeaways for writers:

• A strong visual concept, can anchor an entire novel before you write a word.
• Using a tight timeframe as a structural scaffold keeps your plot grounded and your pacing sharp.
• Writing detailed character bios with reference images before drafting helps bring fictional people to vivid life.
• Location is not just backdrop, it actively shapes what your characters can and cannot do.
• Epilogues matter: if you are invested in your characters, your readers will be too.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After many years of writing, journalist and Sunday Times Ireland political editor Jennifer Bray finally landed her dream book deal and “The Lies Between Us” was worth every moment of the wait.

In this episode, Jen joins Kate and Michelle for an honest conversation about the long road to publication. She reflects on the early manuscripts that didn't make the cut, the emotional chaos of being on submission and why she believes persistence is the single most important quality a writer can have.

She also digs into the concept of the "thoughtful rejection", how detailed feedback from agents, though hard to hear, can completely redirect a writer's journey for the better.

A must-listen for anyone who has ever wondered whether to keep going. Spoiler: keep going.

Key takeaways for writers:

• Every unpublished manuscript teaches you something, don't dismiss the ones that don't make it.
• Treat detailed rejection feedback as a signpost, not a dead end.
• Research agents carefully and show you understand what they're looking for.
• Strong, believable characters are the foundation of great fiction.
• Persistence is one of the only things that separates published writers from unpublished ones.

Natter is proudly brought to you in association with Bookstation Ireland & IrishCentral.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.