What an amazing journey it’s been. We started with a dream. We wanted to celebrate two things that we really love – cooking and reading. Wouldn’t it be fun, we thought, to cook a meal inspired by a book … and then invite the author of that book over to enjoy our feast and talk about their creative journey and inspirations.
We had no money. We had no time. We had no idea.
Yet the more we talked about it, the more excited we were at the possibilities. We began to imagine what authors we would invite, what recipes we could cook, what secrets we could learn.
And so we decided that we had to do it!
Three women, three different yet complementary talents, have come together to create a show that we hope will be filled with joy and passion and beauty.
We have been so lucky so far in this journey of ours. All the authors we most wanted have given up their time and travelled long distances to join us, and talk to us about their lives and their books. They were all incredibly patient with our mistakes!
And we’ve been so lucky with our audience too. We have had more than a thousand views for our first episode, more than 600 Facebook likes and 200 Youtube subscriptions and we’ve been twittering like women possessed! Our promise to our audience now is to keep refining the show and to try and reduce the number of great questions that keep hitting the cutting room floor because of unexpected noises, hiccoughs, dog whines, or random neighbourhood drills (including one mystery drill that proved to be Kate’s husband!) .
Most of you will already have seen the first episode featuring Graeme Simsion (author of The Rosie Project) and his wife Anne Buist (author of the Natalie King crime thrillers) who co-wrote a charming romantic comedy, Two Steps Forward, set on the French Camino . For those of you who missed it, you can check it out here.
Then we launched the Kelly Rimmer episode. Kelly is the USA Today bestselling women’s fiction author and has sold more than 600,000 books worldwide. Kelly shares the story of her journey to publication, as well as a favourite family recipe and cookbook.
Two weeks ago, we hit the Sydney Writers Festival for this episode. Kate is interviewing Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, Stella Prize winner Charlotte Wood, everyone’s favourite Kitchen Cabinet host Annabel Crabb, and hot debut author Sophie Green – all in the hushed environs outside the SWF media room. Sarah, meanwhile was hotfooting it around this year’s venue The Carriageworks interviewing random attendees about the best book they’ve read lately – it should be great fun! Check it out here.
Those of you who have already subscribed to the Youtube channel will have noticed the regular segment called Soundbites. This is where we put the Vox Pops, authors’ book recommendations, writers festival appearances and other fascinating bookish information. We are planning to add new themes to these as the year progresses and if you have any suggestions for this segment, don’t hesitate to email us at hello@wordofmouthtv.com.au .
Also coming up is our ‘Books in the Wild’ segment, where we photograph and post books that have hit the bestseller list, and conduct Vox Pops where people tell us the book they are reading for their book club – all for the website and newsletter. It’s early days yet but we are hoping to shape and craft a wonderful show over time for true booklovers year.
