The First Time

Cecilia 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 Cecilia discuss: 

Donald Trump is Destroying My Marriage - article in NY Magazine that inspired Everything's Fine  

Cecilia'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 No one has ever published an unpublished manuscript.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: 

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: 

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:

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: 

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!