Sentimental Garbage: LIVE at The Strand in New York with Natasha Hodgson (+Skipshock audiobook!)

Podcast: Sentimental Garbage
Host: Caroline O’Donoghue (joined by Natasha Hodgson)
Episode Date: September 18, 2025
Description: A live episode recorded at The Strand Bookstore in NYC, where Caroline is interviewed by her longtime friend Natasha Hodgson about her latest novel Skipshock, followed by a reading from the audiobook.

Overview

This special live episode celebrates the release of Skipshock’s audiobook, read by Natasha Hodgson (also known for her work in Operation Mincemeat). The conversation spans their personal and creative history, the inspiration and world-building behind Skipshock, the pressures of genre and creative freedom, writing about teenagers, and the role of women’s adventure fiction. The discussion is intimate, energetic, and packed with both literary insight and genuine friendship.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of Creative Friendship

(02:32 - 07:33)

• Caroline and Natasha’s Origin:
  • Caroline recalls emigrating to the UK nearly 14 years prior after connecting via a Gumtree ad for film writers. Natasha was running a “now defunct” film site, and both reminisce humorously about illegal internships and the collapse of early-2010s online media.
  • Memorable Moment: “It was like the Hunger Games of online media.” (Caroline, 04:53)
• Creative Group Chats:
  • Natasha highlights the significance of having friends who impress and inspire you creatively. Creative group chats foster both the feeling of genius and mutual support.

From The Rachel Incident to Skipshock: Why The Genre Shift?

(07:33 - 13:18)

• Creative Leaps:
  • Natasha asks why Caroline moved from a realistic “slice of life” Irish novel (The Rachel Incident) to a sweeping, genre-bending fantasy aimed at “16 and up” (Skipshock).
  • Caroline admits it’s “commercially a terrible idea,” remarking, “My agent’s asking the same question!” (09:38)
• “Two Wolves” Inside The Writer:
  • Caroline discusses her early novels’ mixture of realistic and fantastical elements, revealing her ongoing struggle (and joy) in refusing to reconcile her love for both.
  • Quote: “I refuse to reconcile these two parts of my character. I love both things equally.” (12:12)

World-Building and the ‘Magical Admin’ of Skipshock

(13:18 - 27:40)

• Origins of the “Traveling Salesman” Motif:
  • Inspired partly by her own work travel, where solo experiences produce unique and often odd, unshared adventures.
  • Notable Story: Caroline was sent on assignment to Tahiti, observing mother whales while simultaneously hearing another journalist rant about Tim Rice. (18:58)
  • Insight: Travelling salesmen in Skipshock mirror the transient, often lonely, competitive life of writers at festivals or on press trips.
• Cinematic and Literary Influences:
  • The book’s imagery is influenced by cinema as much as literature: Spirited Away, Hey Arnold!, even Monsters, Inc., are cited.
  • Funny Moment: “We were all waiting for Hey Arnold to get a look in.” (20:12, Natasha)
• Designing the World:
  • Caroline explains her graphic, X-Y axis-based approach, where ‘temperature’ and ‘time’ determine regions’ properties, affecting everything from economics to culture.
  • Quote: “It is a magical book about visa issues…we love magical admin.” (24:36, Caroline)
• Philosophy of “Items, Stamps, and Admin”:
  • Both praise the joys of “magical admin” over “dragon porn,” favoring the creativity found in bureaucracy and logistics.

The Working-Class Approach to Storytelling

(26:44 - 28:04)

• Living and surviving in creative industries—juggling multiple jobs, hustling for opportunities—drives both the work ethic and the worlds Caroline builds.
• Natasha: “All your books, and particularly this book, work so hard and with such eagerness and heart.”

Audience Q&A

1. How Do You Know an Idea Is the One?

(29:36 - 32:51)

• Caroline:
  • Ideas may sit in her notes app for years. The right one “nudges forward” when enough of her subconscious aligns. Example: The Rachel Incident became “the best financial decision,” but only after two years.
  • Themes like lost time post-pandemic compelled her to make Skipshock a time-bending fantasy.
  • Quote: “I think a lot of it was wanting to find a way of explaining my own life back to myself.” (31:18)
• Natasha:
  • She trusts what is fun to write. There’s good hard and bad hard—she follows the former, pursuing whatever brings genuine joy, not what’s expected or industry-driven.

2. Structural Decisions: Dual POV in Skipshock

(33:57 - 37:12)

• Skipshock features Margot’s POV in third person, Moon’s in first person.
• Caroline uses the protagonist’s emotional distance to avoid the “boringness of surprise”—a lesson from an English teacher: “Surprise is the least contagious emotion.” (35:28)
  • The structure also situates Margot within a tradition (e.g., Alice in Wonderland)—she grows from “girl” to “grown person.”

3. Keeping Creativity Unfiltered by Genre Conventions

(37:17 - 42:54)

• Caroline’s podcast Sentimental Garbage (focused on shame and undervalued culture) proactively rewired her creative mind to ignore genre snobbery:
  • Quote: “I have performed light brain surgery on myself... telling the world and myself for years that their genre conventions don’t matter.” (39:30)
• Both lament that plot/adventure is often “coded male,” while “feelings” are supposedly feminine—a binary they reject:
  • Natasha: “Sometimes adventure feels like it belongs to men… but there is so much more room for women with huge fucking stories and characters and magical admin.” (41:40)

4. Writing Teenagers with Dignity and Complexity

(43:37 - 48:55)

• Caroline’s favorite demographic is teenagers—she sees youth as the moment “where their inexperience meets the world,” forming identity.
• Quote: “It’s almost like a penny… They oxidize and develop a kind of greenish patina, and that patina will stay on them for the rest of their life.” (44:14)
• Literary influences are playfully referenced: Hey Arnold! and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as models for meaningful coming-of-age.
• Natasha: Caroline’s “intensity of love” for things is what makes her teenage characters resonate; she brings “the love of the thing” into every book.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Writing Friendships:

  • “To be impressed by your friend is one of life’s true joys… Every group chat thinks they’re geniuses—you surround yourself with people who make you want to share funny things.”
    — Natasha Hodgson (05:15)

• On Unexpected Creative Shifts:

  • “Oh my God, my agent’s asking the exact same question. We could have done the Michelle Incident. So many common 90s names that we could have had an incident around...”
    — Caroline O'Donoghue (09:38)

• On Audiobooks:

  • “I never really understand the book I wrote until I hear it in audio.”
    — Caroline O’Donoghue (00:33)

• On Genre Freedom:

  • “I have performed light brain surgery on myself... telling the world and myself for years that their genre conventions don’t matter.”
    — Caroline O'Donoghue (39:30)

• On Coming of Age:

  • “I’m obsessed with what we ask kids to do, and then we ask them to go back to being kids… After you’ve saved the world, you just go sit on a log again.”
    — Caroline O’Donoghue (46:32, via Ocarina of Time analogy)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |:--------------|:---------------------------------------------| | 02:32 | Caroline & Natasha’s friendship origin | | 07:33 | Transition from The Rachel Incident to Skipshock | | 13:18 | World-building & inspiration for Skipshock | | 18:58 | The Tahiti trip & traveling salesman motif | | 20:12 | Cinema influences—Hey Arnold! & more | | 24:36 | The “magical admin” of Skipshock’s world | | 29:36 | Audience Q&A segment begins | | 31:18 | Caroline on choosing ideas to pursue | | 35:28 | POV choices & “the boredom of surprise” | | 39:30 | Genre conventions and shame | | 43:37 | Writing teenagers with nuance | | 46:32 | Coming of Age/Legend of Zelda analogy |

Audiobook Excerpt

(49:06–59:10)
Natasha Hodgson reads the opening of Skipshock, introducing protagonist Margot, her fraught relationship with her mother, the aftermath of her father’s death, and the surreal shift as her train morphs into a portal to another world. The reading is atmospheric, detailed, and immediately draws listeners into the book’s emotional core and speculative premise.

Conclusion

This episode is a joyous celebration of both friendship and creative risk-taking. Caroline and Natasha, in their characteristic mix of humor and candor, explore the joys and trials of making art as women, the value of genre-bending storytelling, and the complexity of growing up (whether as teenagers or artists). Listeners leave with deeper context for Skipshock, its world, and its themes—plus a taste of the audiobook, read with infectious charm.

If you love stories that blend heart, invention, and thoughtful world-building—with a dose of inside jokes and literary reflection—this live episode is an essential listen.