S6 Ep235: Interview: Cecilia Rabess

Cecilia Rabess previously worked as a data scientist at Google and as an associate at Goldman Sachs. Her nonfiction has been featured in McSweeneys, FiveThirtyEight, Fast Company and FlowingData, among other places. Everything’s Fine is her debut novel.Katherine and Cecilia discuss:  Early writing life  Donald Trump is Destroying My Marriage - article in NY Magazine that inspired Everything's Fine   Writing an 'opposites attract' love story, when the opposites part is that people are on opposing sides of the political spectrum  Working to humanise Josh  Wringing out your prose, making it as clean as possible  How she went about getting an agent  Having your book be at the centre of a Tiktok controversy and her theories on why this happened  Writing infographs for McSweeneys Cecilia's writing advice: It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you have to finish. No one has ever published an unpublished manuscript. Debut book recommendation: Shark Heart by Emily HabeckCheck out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!