The First Time

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 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 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 Marrapodi about 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:

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

Events: 

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.

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 

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: 

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

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

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 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!