Via her popular weekly column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Kate Halfpenny is known for speaking her mind, having an opinion and sharing it with the public.
And now she’s written a book about her life, marriage, mental health – and the toll her husband’s drinking took on all of it.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll get to hear the inside story of how one column Kate wrote created a maelstrom of fury, which in turn led to the writing of her magnificent memoir Boogie Wonderland.
Today I get to talk to Kate about how this book came about, how she dealt with online hate and how her decision to make a sea change from Melbourne's cosy hipster suburb of Collingwood to a sleepy ocean town led to a mid-life reckoning she neither expected nor wanted.
What we cover:
- The surprising column that landed Kate a book deal.
- Why vulnerability is her greatest storytelling strength.
- How she handles online hate (including serious threats).
- Mental health strategies for navigating public backlash.
- The reality of writing about your own life and the people in it.
- Tips for pitching stories and landing a column in major publications.
- How AI is changing the writing business and what Kate’s doing about it.
Bio:
Kate Halfpenny has spent four decades telling other people’s stories as an award-winning writer, editor and commentator for Who, Vogue, Marie Claire and ABC Radio. Her own plot twists include three kids, two husbands and one mission to talk honestly about midlife as a columnist for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and founder of Bad Mother Media.Post-pandemic, Kate fled Melbourne for Ocean Grove, a move which inspired her debut book Boogie Wonderland (Affirm Press). She boogie boards daily and has become unafraid of magpies. A former synchronised trampoline champ and tapestry fan who’s learning the Rocky theme on piano, she’s trying to break up with Botox and cooking.
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