Write-Off with Francesca Steele

My guest this week is Katherine Heiny, who I’m happy to report is as funny in person and she is on the page. When I first approached Katherine for this podcast she told me that she had 9 million insecurities but rejection wasn’t one of them, and I thought, ok, maybe she’s not right for Write-Off. But then she kept writing back over the next couple of days adding caveats and comments and it became clear that in fact she did have things to say about rejection but perhaps not things that we all usually think of. 

In a way that makes a lot of sense. Katherine had her first published short story - How To Give the Wrong Impression, about a woman secretly in love with her flatmate, published in The New Yorker when she was 25 and had recently finished a writing masters at Columbia. She’s since written a short story collection that is one my favourites ever, Single Carefree Mellow, and two novels, Standard Deviation, a tender, hilarious book about marriage and parenting that Kate Atkinson called "a marvel", and her latest recently released novel, Early Morning Riser, which is also so incredibly funny, wise and warm. Katherine is very good at finding the comedy in everyday life. 

But there were two decades between that precocious New Yorker success and the publication of Single Carefree Mellow - Katherine was in her forties with she became a debut author under her own name - and they were not always easy years. Katherine and I talked about how she writes jokes, writing YA under a pseudonym in her twenties, what it felt like to take years off from writing to raise her children and the meanest knock backs she’s ever had.

Just a reminder that you can find and buy books by all my guests here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/francescasteele

You can find me on Twitter here: @francescasteele

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

Andy Weir is best known for his novel The Martian, a very clever and funny book about an astronaut stranded on Mars, which was made into a (2015) Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon.

Andy had two failed novels behind him before he self-published The Martian and even when it became an e-book bestseller didn't think to find an agent because earlier attempts had left him feeling like he wasn't good enough. (An agent an traditional publisher later approached him.) We talk about Andy's struggle with rejection and about his new (third published) book, Project Hail Mary, which is also a very funny and inventive space mission story.

Many thanks to Scott Elliott for his editing advice (and sorry for the tinny audio in this one, Scott!) and thanks also to Robin Stannard for my lovely logo.

You can find and buy books by all my guests at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/francescasteele

Find me on Twitter: @francescasteele #writeoff

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

Anna Hope has written three very successful novels, the last of which, Expectation, was published to much fanfare in 2019 and which has been optioned for film. But before that Anna experienced plenty of rejection as an actor, and then when she turned to writing her first novel failed to sell.

Anna was such a joy to speak to and she felt like the perfect first guest for Write-Off, talking openly and honestly about quite how difficult that experience was and how she got through it to become the hugely successful novelist she is today.

Anna's novels are Wake, The Ballroom and Expectation and you can find them in all good bookshops as well as my own online bookstore link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/francescasteel

Many thanks to Scott Elliott for his invaluable podcast advice, and to Robin Stannard for my lovely Write-Off logo.

Find me on Twitter @francescasteele #writeoff.

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

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