A girl who had an early love of reading and a healthy appetite for words. Who read dictionaries and stored all those words away. Who wrote her first story in the third grade. It had ghosts. It was the 80s. She might have seen Ghost Busters.

​

She read everything she could get her hands on. She loved Shakespeare and Austen, harboured a hatred for Wuthering Heights, was swept away by Frankenstein. Mary Shelley was her introduction to speculative fiction and now, she writes her own. 

 

Her books always have a romance subplot, some complex politics and she writes worlds that are sprawling and epic, or tight and insular. Her books have fierce female characters who don't need saving,  flawed, reluctant heroes, myth and folklore, power-hungry villains, complicated alliances and a cast of relatable characters, whether they're saving the world or trying to save themselves.

 

Kate's writing is influenced by history, sociology, philosophy and mythology, and politics and our place in the world. She's a fan of an existential crisis (for characters and readers alike) and doesn't mind a cliffhanger. 

​

She also writes as KM Schumacher and lives in Australia with her family and some bossy cats.