Cate Whittle writes for children and young adults, mostly about magic and mystery, but filled with adventure and just a tiny touch of mayhem. There are often dragons.
Cate was lucky enough to live and travel in many exotic and exciting places as a child, but has lived in Australia since her early teens. She is still wondering what to do when she grows up, is searching for the wardrobe door that leads to Narnia, and spends a lot of time daydreaming.
Other than writing stories, Cate likes reading, going for long walks, taking too many photos, pottering in gardens, and drawing pictures. She is a confirmed pluviophile, believes in dragons, and thinks a nice hot cup of tea helps with most things.
My Story
What can I say? I’ve always wanted to write books. Even as a child, if anyone asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, my answer was always the same. When I’m not reading, I’m always dreaming up adventures, making friends with new characters, and travelling (in my mind) to amazing places! I’ve always loved stories.
Reading and Creative Writing were my favourite things to do when I was in primary school, and I wrote and acted out stories everywhere I went!
clambering about the ruins of a castle,
staring dreamily at nothing in particular,
and cuddling my beautiful cat, Bobby.
As I went through high school, I wrote poems and kept a journal, too – mostly bad poems full of teenage angst. In fact, the first thing I ever had published was a dark poem about cobwebs and shadows in a local magazine!
I submitted my first ever full length novel in my early twenties – and received my first rejection slip! It was very disheartening, and I thought that it was the end of the world at the time, but in reality, I got some very encouraging feedback. As a result, I took some courses, and started to hone my skills.
Even so, it took me a long time before I started submitting my writing again – and I started with some competitions and magazines, getting some short stories and articles published and learning even more about writing and editing for publication.
It was a new beginning! By now, I was a mum and a full time teacher, so I was very busy, but I still wanted to be an author, so I kept on doing courses and joined some writing organisations.
Most importantly, I kept on writing. And I kept on entering competitions.
when we moved to a big house in the bush.
That was my desk space, the view from my window,
and my writing companion, Max.
was being shortlisted in a big international competition,
The Terry Pratchett First Novel Award, in 2013
(Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now).
My story didn’t win, but I did get to go to the award ceremony
in London and chat with Terry Pratchett (my favourite author),
who had read the whole book and said how much he enjoyed it!
My dream came true when my first book, Trouble at Home, was accepted by Omnibus Scholastic:
It was very exciting!
Trouble at Home was the first in a series of four junior fiction stories about a dragon called Trouble and his friend, Georgia. Or was it about a girl called Georgia and her friend, Trouble?
In fact, I was so excited when I got the phone call that I couldn’t stop dancing around the kitchen!
Trouble at Home still has a very special place in my heart.
A cupcake from that very first book launch…
and me signing my very own book!
I still love writing stories and I’ve now got quite a nice little collection of published books with my name on the front! I always have several projects on the go – researching, writing, and editing (and even a bit of illustrating)… and I LOVE every moment.
I’m still learning new things every day, but I also LOVE to share what I’ve learned and do presentations and workshops for schools and writers’ groups. And I also do manuscript assessments and general editing from time to time, so if you are interested, please get in touch and see if I have any spots available. I’d love to hear from you!
