Kate Cann
On Tuesday 11th March DGGS was lucky enough to receive a visit from award winning author Kate Cann. The visit was specifically for year ten as that is the age range that her books are aimed at, so period three, after break half of the year assembled in C3 to listen to what Kate had to say and participate in a workshop.
I was in the first group to meet Kate and she started off by telling us how she came to be an author, which involved being a copy editor and reading lots of teen books that approached sex as either rape and sexual assaults thus painting a bad picture, or as a wonderful, happy ever after, famous boy declares love for normal girl for no apparent reason (i.e. complete fantasy). It was for this reason that Kate decided to start writing a book that was a good story and portrayed a sexual relationship for all that it was.
As the session progressed Kate told us how she dealt with letters of rejection and finally getting published. We were then told about her novel ‘Leaving Poppy’ which is a gothic novel. Kate read a rather chilling part of the story and then proceeded to hand out a sheet of paper with 1, 2 and 3 typed onto it. This was the workshop. We were then asked to sit up straight and close our eyes and imagine what Kate was telling us. We then had to write down what we had imagined. For example we were told to imagine that we were in a dark wood that was full of trees with not a leaf on them. Then we had to write what was scarier- a scream or a laugh and what we would do after hearing the scream or laugh. This was followed by a question and answer session followed by, for the group that I was in, period four.
At lunchtime, Emily and I were invited to go to the library and have lunch with Kate where I interviewed her to find out a bit more about what her life is like and what she thinks of things. Kate was happy to sit down with the two of us and asked us about what we would like to do in the future (for me a reporter or work in publishing after being inspired by what Kate had told us earlier, for Emily a historian), after giving us some advice on how to advance in the world I asked Kate my first question ‘do you believe in ghosts and have you ever seen one?’ Kate told me of how she doesn’t believe in ghosts- as they appear as people, however she does believe that we are not in the only reality. I continued to find out that Kate had changed her style of books from romance and reality to quite a dark genre because she had found it almost natural to change and it was like a breath of fresh air, the ideas for her books come from everywhere and that the people in her books are a kind of meshing of the people that she knows and her imagination. A tip from Kate is to ‘take public transport because you can eavesdrop without anyone telling you off!’Kate always starts off by editing whatever she has written the day before and tries to write from ten o’clock to three o’clock as this is when she finds it easiest to write. It takes Kate on average eight or nine months to write and she has a book coming out every year.Overall the sessions with Kate were a huge success and we at DGGS wish her all the best for her future books!
FACTS
If Kate Cann was stranded on a desert island and could only take one book (excluding Shakespeare and the Bible) it would be ‘The History of the World’ because she has always wanted to read what happened in chronological order as there is so much that is missed out in schools. It would also mean that she would not be bored of reading it like a novel because it would take her a very long time to read whereas a novel would not take very long at all.
Kate’s newest book ‘Possessing Rayne’ is her favourite book and is another gothic novel. It will be out this July.
*Star Reporter Hannah
