The First Time

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:

Reasons Not to Worry by Brigid Delaney

Dress Rehearsals by Madison Godfrey

The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop

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 Fire and Dark Roots are widely studied in Australia and her poetry collections include The 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!