After her final year at school, for reasons she still doesn’t completely understand, Kate started a Bachelor of Architecture. She lasted one week and half a day; her conviction that she was not on the right path was so strong that she left at lunchtime. She later explained this decision to her mother by saying that everyone else seemed to care about buildings a lot more than she did.

 

That day, when she left the campus with a spring in her step, she caught a bus straight to Hoyts on Pitt Street and experienced supreme joy watching Sense and Sensibility alone at the cinema. The following year she enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English Literature. Books managed to hold her attention and she graduated with first class honours.

 

She should have known then that what she loves, above all else, is stories, but it took her quite some time to realise this. Between then and now, she’s been a barmaid, a waitress, a receptionist, an English teacher, and, since 2008, a Communication Consultant, helping executives to pitch and present. It wasn’t until 2020 that the storytelling itch got too strong to ignore and she enrolled in Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel program. It turned out to be an excellent decision.

 

Now, she spends most of her time thinking about imaginary people with complicated problems and dark secrets. The rest of the time, you’ll find her chauffeuring teenager boys to and from social engagements, walking her golden lab, and procrastinating in various cafes on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.