Author Interview: Kate Cann!

            
For my first author interview, I am very pleased to introduce one of my favourite authors, Kate Cann! Kate is the author of many books, including the Beach Books series, the Diving In series, and a new book called Possessed! Click HERE for her goodreads page, and HERE to buy Kate's books on Amazon.com, and click HERE to buy a personalized copy of Art's Story (the fourth book in the Art and Coll series) and to see the other books Kate has released in America!

- First of all, would you mind giving us a brief bio?

** I live in Hampshire, England with my husband, in a lovely rural spot that's close enough to London to go there regularly. I have two grown up kids, two degrees in English and American Lit, and I was an editor before I became a writer. Do look at my website http://www.katecann.com/ for more stuff!

- When and why did you start writing?
** Over 15 years ago, I was editing lots of teenage books and I hated the sexual hypocrisy in some of the books - either really negative, or sugary and fake. I wanted to show the intense, positive power of a healthy first relationship. So I wrote the Diving In trilogy, about Coll and Art. There aren't any mobile phones in them, but I think the message in them is even more important today!

- I love the Beach Books, they are fun reads that take you to different places filled with sun, romance, and freedom. What was your inspiration? Have you been to all of the holiday destinations the books are set in?
** Thank you! And I think you've put your finger on it - they're all about freedom and being somewhere very different, where you can be different. I had a very sheltered life as a young teenager and at 16 I went to the tiny island of Gozo with a friend and her family and I found the exoticness and the heat quite overwhelming. Yes - I've been to all those places. In fact I part owned the lovely villa in Spanish Holiday for a while - very useful research!

- Art and Coll have a relationship that is realistic, yet difficult. Did you use any personal experience when you were writing the Art and Coll series?
** Um, yes. When I was a teenager I had my Greg and Art! But it's not really autobiographical. I think writing is very much a fusion of real experience and the imagination.

- How did you come up with the ghost story for Possessed?
** It's not really a ghost story. More about ancient evil that permeates the stones of an ancient manor house, and a group of weird kids who are drawn to it, who draw the heroine dangerously in …. I'm interested in how powerful groups of kids can be, all that peer pressure, and the ancient legends of England. Morton's keep is based on a real 1000 year old manor house, and I stayed in one of its haunted bedrooms for research …one of the most terrifying nights of my life!



- What are your favourite books, or books that have inspired your writing?
** My husband thinks I endlessly rewrite Jane Eyre! I love that book - her courage and passion and clear-sightedness. I also love Doris Lessing, A. S. Byatt, Iris Murdoch,



- Do you have anything in the works, at the moment? What do you think you would like to write next?
**Yes, Yippee!!! In fact your blogsite is the first to know! I've just been given a contract to write WITCH CRAG, a dystopian novel about two girls and a boy who escape their repressive hill fort home and try their luck getting to Witch Crag …. where worse dangers await them ….



- Thank you very much, Kate! Is there anything you would like to add?
**Thank you for getting in touch, Eliza, I think your blogsite is great! Kate xx
 
I am so excited for the next book in Kate's Possessed series, Consumed, which is going to be released in the US on February 1st, 2011! I'll also be looking out for Witch Crag!!