In the first episode of First Word's first season (!) Tasmanian novelist Erin Hortle and I sat down together to get really in-depth about the practical process of writing and editing (hot tip: have a clean room!), the shifting landscape of feminist literature, surfing, Tim Winton, and the sometimes indistinct line between writing fiction and writing nonfiction.

The ABC conversation with Ben Folds, about the musician who asked the muse to come back at a more convenient time? That’s with Richard Fidler of the ABC, and the musician was Tom Waits. The catalysing text she mentions in this episode, that convinced her that one could in fact compose the mood of the surf, is Breath by Tim Winton. At one point I refer to Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino (and highly recommend it), and also semi-accurately quote Ira Glass on the “taste gap”.

Erin’s essays that I refer to in this episode are ‘The problem of sexiness in surf culture’ in Kill Your Darlings, and ‘Historicising ambergris in the anthropocene’ in the Australian Humanities Review.

Her debut novel is The Octopus and I, and you can buy it here.