Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Latest Episodes:

[Hayley Krischer, inner stuff]: True confessions about how “horrible” writing can feel + why–and how–she wrote her next novel in longhand Ep 1066 Apr 10, 2024

Show notes

In this episode I'm talking with Hayley Krischer, author of the upcoming “Where Are You, Echo Blue?”, which is poised to be the beach read of the summer, about the squishier side of creativity– including:

The steps Hayley takes–and the tools she uses–to immerse herself in the world of her novels and inside her characters’ psyches

What she does when she’s feeling stuck

How good it feels when you connect with someone who loved your work in the real world

The YA author Hayley fan-girled all over when she realized he was also an audience member at a reading she was attending

How writing and editing can feel “horrible,” “like torture”--and the parts that make Hayley feel like jumping for joy

How her inner critic loves to tell her she should be able to write a novel while also taking five-mile hikes every day

How the months between when you’re done working on a manuscript and the book is published is a tough time, mentally–and how to navigate it

The self-care practices helping Hayley through (the journaling practice, the supplements, the breathing exercise that helps her sleep)

Busting the myth that writers make a lot of money and how hard it is to make a bestseller list

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Hayley Krischer, Practical Matters]: The power of just keeping going + how to capture those great ideas that come when you’re not at your desk Ep 1065 Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

This week I am talking with journalist and novelist Haley Krischer. Haley's journalism has won awards and appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, and Elle, among other places. She has profiled celebrities like Tatum O'Neill and Celine Dion and Gabrielle Union, and she's reported on trends through a feminist lens. Haley's first two novels were for young adults: “Something Happened to Allie Greenleaf” and “The Falling Girls.” This summer, her first adult novel is coming out: “Where Are You, Echo Blue?” It's about a journalist's obsessive search for a missing Hollywood starlet. And I for one am so looking forward to packing that on my summer vacation.

We covered:

Which former child actor/celebrities Hayley obsessively researched for her upcoming book, “Where Are You, Echo Blue?”

How she found herself working at the Boston Globe in college and found all the journalists “these grimy, sexy, fascinating people”

The brilliant wisdom she tells her kids about power of just keeping going.

The circular editorial career that led her to being an author

The “pure insanity” that keeps her coming back to the page

The writing program Hayley signed up for that took the story she’d been working on for 20 years and could never sell and helped her revise it into a form that sold to a major publisher in four days (her first YA novel, “Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf”

The exact mechanical pencil she used to write her upcoming YA novel that’s coming out in 2025

The author that inspired Hayley to write a novel in longhand

Why you should never trust yourself to remember that great idea and the myriad ways Hayley captures those ideas, wherever they may happen

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Jennifer Fink: What’s coming up]: The lure of leaving it all behind and becoming a flight attendant + the Post-It note sayings that light the path Ep 1064 Apr 05, 2024

Show notes

In part three of my conversation with author of Building Boys, Jennifer Fink, we talk about the mind trip that is beginning to envision retirement.

I have to point out that this is the third interview in a row where my guest mentions that they have a phrase written on a Post-It note hanging above their computer monitor. In addition to sharing what she’s written on her Post-It notes (plural–there are two), Jennifer shares some of her go to shows, snacks, and songs.

The lure of leaving it all behind and becoming a flight attendant: “After raising teenagers, unruly passengers? Cinch”

The Building Boys Book Club Jennifer is currently dreaming up

What’s written on the Post-It note above her computer (there are two of them, actually)

Finding ways to connect more directly with the people who value your skills and expertise

Thinking about retirement, and having more regular access to scuba diving

Envisioning being able to work only on the things closest to your heart and having plenty of time for relationships

The Netflix show the world went crazy over a couple years ago that Jennifer just discovered

The secret to making movie-theater-caliber popcorn

Her go-to Pandora station

Why December 23rd is the best day of her year, hands down

Connect with Jennifer:

At her website: buildingboys.net

At her Substack (email newsletter): buildingboys.substack.com

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Jennifer Fink, inner stuff]: Dealing with internalized trolls + aqua aerobics! Ep 1063 Apr 03, 2024

Show notes

In this episode I'm talking with Jennifer about the squishier side of creativity–the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that affect your work, even if you're not fully conscious of it, including:

Finding the inspiration to write about controversial subjects in today’s age of nasty comments and trolling

Jennifer’s trick for keeping herself accountable and not avoiding writing about the hard stuff

The power of talking to other writers

The things her inner critic says, and how it gets louder when she’s doing the work that’s closest to her heart

The trick for getting things down on the page–and how that seeming blather transforms into ‘readable chapters’

The beauties and drawbacks of living in a rural area

The dichotomy of having a virtual job with a big network while living in a small, somewhat isolated town

Becoming a cliche as you grow older: “I started aqua aerobics recently”

Continuing to work when your body may have other plans

The caregiving sandwich

Dealing with the claustrophobia of being in a transitional period, or what Jennifer calls a hallway

Her list of three collective illusions Jennifer wishes we’d wake up from

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Jennifer Fink, Practical Matters]: Writing what you know + the book she found at the library that launched her writing career EP 1062 Apr 01, 2024

Show notes

Today I am talking with Jennifer Fink, an award winning freelance writer who covers parenting, education, and health for magazines and websites. started her career as a registered nurse, but shortly after her oldest son, and as you'll find out, she has four boys, pivoted to writing full time. Her most recent book is called Building Boys, Raising Great Guys in a World that Misunderstands Males. She is also the co host of the podcast “On Boys,” which covers, you guessed it, real talk about parenting, teaching, and reaching tomorrow's men. Although Jennifer's writing career is clearly going great, she does maintain her nursing license just in case.

Jennifer’s start as a nurse

How taking her baby to story time at the public library ended up launching her writing career

The book that showed her how to start freelance writing

How it started/how it’s going in terms of why she started writing about boys vs. why she does it now

A quick look into why boys are struggling lately

How an unexpected divorce launched her writing business to the next level (“failure was not an option”)

In praise of morning pages (a practice Jennifer learned in Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”)

Her focus and productivity hacks

Why she gets outside every day–even during a Wisconsin winter

A rumor about coffee with cream in it that Jennifer is choosing to ignore

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Antonia Angress: What’s coming up]: “I aspire to get to a place where I can be a hermit and let my work stand on its own” Ep 1061 Mar 29, 2024

Show notes

In this final part of my interview with Antonia Angress, author of "Sirens & Muses," we peek at what’s coming around the bend for her and I get her answers to my fast five questions.

We talked about:

- The novels about motherhood Antonia is reading to prepare for when her baby is born

- The pressure on young women authors to be likable, available, and approachable

- The two writers Antonia looks to for inspiration on being successful while “resisting the machinations of publicity that can devour you”

- Getting better at not squandering time, vacuuming the rugs

- The Pulitzer finalist Antonia devoured in a couple of days

- What it’s like when your husband becomes a Swiftie in his 30s, when you’ve been on board since your teens

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Antonia Angress, inner stuff]: Throwing away the work that isn’t working + adapting to the public speaking side of being a writer Ep 1060 Mar 27, 2024

Show notes

In this episode I'm talking with Antonia about the squishier side of creativity–the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that affect your work, even if you're not fully conscious of it, including:

- The part of the writing process that Antonia relishes

- The specific point in the book-writing process where Antonia focuses on making her sentences pretty

- How she only kept “a few paragraphs” from the first draft of her second novel (!!)

- Adapting to the public speaking portion of being a writer

- The thing her graduate school professor told her when she was halfway through writing her first novel and having a crisis of confidence

- The two things that can happen after her inner critic has told her the stuff she’s writing is no good

- How she views her first novel, looking back

- The “toxic narrative” about how you have to suffer for your art

- Continually working to be OK with resting (especially as an about-to-be mother)

- Antonia’s plug for therapy

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Antonia Angress, Practical Matters]: The self-doubt that never goes away, and how to keep writing despite it Ep 1059 Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

This week I am talking to writer Antonia Angress. Antonia is the author of "Sirens & Muses," which starts off as a campus novel set at a New England art school, but then blooms into an exploration of the intersection of home and belonging versus individualism and seeking to stand out, set in the New York City art scene during the Occupy Wall Street era.

"Sirens & Muses" was named one of the best books of the year by Glamour Magazine and won the Minnesota Book Award, and Antonia was recently named one of the NEA's 2024 Creative Writing Fellows. I loved the book and I love that I get to ask Antonia my list of mildly invasive questions about why and how she does her particular creative work.

We covered:

- The advice she gives about the stuff you write that you end up deleting

- The fact that publishing a book “really doesn’t change your life”

- The importance of that feeling of being alone with your work

- The daily writing goal that keeps Antonia going (spoiler: it’s very small)

- How she manages her ‘internet junk food’ diet

- The practice that gets her ready to write

- What motivational phrase is on the Post-It note above her computer

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AirDoctorPro. Use promo code KATE at airdoctorpro.com to save up to $300 off an air purifier and receive a free 3-year warranty (an $87 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Daisy Alpert Florin, what’s coming up]: “I really do feel that having done the work of raising kids that now really anything is possible for me.” Ep 1058 Mar 22, 2024

Show notes

In this final part of my interview with Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year, we peek at what’s coming around the bend for her and I get her answers to my fast five questions.

We talked about:

The mega pop star who makes Daisy “want to get back to the page”

Daisy’s role models who show her how to “just keep getting up and keep going”

The benefits of being a mom to teenagers

The song by said mega pop star that gets Daisy riled up (in a good way)

The hardest question of them all–what meal would you have if someone said they’d make or order anything you want (it involves lots and lots of grease)

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Daisy Alpert Florin, inner stuff]: “Cloaking yourself” in fiction + getting over the idea that you don’t have the right pedigree Ep 1057 Mar 20, 2024

Show notes

In today’s portion of my interview with Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year, we talk about the mindset side of creating. (Honestly, these are always my favorite episodes!)

We covered:

How you can “cloak” your story by writing fiction–incorporating the feelings of things you’ve experienced if not the exact experiences themselves

Worrying that people are sick of hearing you talk

Getting over the voice that says “you don’t have the proper training to write a novel”

What’s on the inspirational Post-It note that Daisy keeps above her monitor

How it’s never too to be a debut author

Daisy’s “buoyancy” about the future now that her kids are teens and hard work of early parenting is behind her

The collective disillusions Daisy would like to evaporate

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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