Authors Hotline - Where authors and their readers connect

The Author Hotline

is being developed by CW4K, or Creative Writing 4 Kids. They are the company behind a website that enables children to create and publish their own stories online. In its first year it has signed up over 2000 members and has been enthusiastically received by children, parents and teachers. In fact the response has been so encouraging that they are planning a huge expansion of its services. Embedding The Author Hotline into the site is part of that expansion...
For more information on CW4K CLICK HERE

Kate Tym

http://www.katetym.co.uk
katetym@uwclub.net
To download this profile page, click HERE

Q: What were you like at school?

Very good when I was small - and always bottom of the class. Then quite naughty when I was older - class clown material - and too clever by half!

Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?

A very famous, very rich, very glamorous actress.

Q: Which three words describe you best?

Happy, shouty and busy

Q: What is your favourite word?

Mummy (sometimes!)

Q: What makes you cringe?

Pooh jokes

Q: What are you afraid of?

Nothing really. Not keen on maggots or heights, though.

Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?

My mum, on the bus, bus moved, mum flew to the back of the bus and landed on the lap of a mortified teenage boy - I thought I was going to be sick I laughed so much.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

My dad's old teddy bear

Q: What do you do as a hobby?

I like swimming and badminton and riding my push-bike, I like knitting too.

Q: What strange habits do you have?

None really, but I don't like anyone touching my ears.

Q: What�s your favourite food?

Anything spicy or garlicky.

Q: What do you day dream about?

Still the same as when I was a child ... being rich and famous, but not as an actress any more as a writer and someone who does good in the world.

Q: What�s the most outrageous thing you�ve done?

I had a go at stand-up comedy - I was pretty terrible

Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I would love to be a circus acrobat or trapeze artist or a bob-sleigh run person - oh yeah, and I'd like to be the navigator in a rally car.

Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?

Today I feel ancient - not enough sleep! But usually, inside I feel younger than I am... then I look in the mirror....

Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

I would like to meet the Pankhursts or Emily Davison (who threw herself under the kings horse) - I would like to thank them for getting women the vote

Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?

kindness

Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?

Bangladesh and Nepal were both pretty mind-blowing

Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Above all things else to thine own self be true

Q: What would you most like to change about yourself?

I can be a bit control-freaky... sometimes I'd like to be a bit more chilled out

Q: What has life taught you?

It is what it is... but you can make some of your own luck

Q: How long have you been a writer?

Forever. But professionally for about 12 years

Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?

Yes, I was Commissioning Editor at Random House Children's Books, I was commissioning a series of teenage fiction with lots of different writers involved, and decided to have a go myself...

Q: Where do you do your writing?

I have an office in my garden - no children allowed!

Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?

The best is living in my mind and sharing my thoughts with others. I perform poetry and when people laugh and sigh at what I've written I feel really thrilled. The worst is I'm completely skint!

Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

Everyday domestic life.

Q: Which of your own characters do you most identify with?

Chloe, in Living Upside Down, negotiating family difficulties in teenage years

Q: What do you do to combat �writers� block�?

I just make myself write... anything... even if I think it's rubbish, it usually leads into something else.

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

The Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

Oh so many... Anything by Anne Tyler - nothing happens in her books and they're still brilliant - go figure!

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Be prepared for rejection and have some other ways of making money up your sleeve.