The First Time

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 novel Something 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: 
 
 

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:

Follow a First Timer: 8 eps with Megan Rogers 

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:

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 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!