Cate spent her childhood running around the Australian outback, completing her primary school education through School of the Air. Reading let her experience multiple lives every day even when she was far away from the urban community. This had a significant impact on her later life; she continued to love reading, has an insatiable need for books, and she never quite got out of the habit of living in an alternate reality in her head even when she moved to Perth for high school.
A teen mum turned lawyer, with an undergraduate degree in history, Cate spent most of her adult life writing essays and letters. Then she turned 37, realised her three children were pretty much grown up, and decided she actually had time to fulfil her life-long plan of becoming an author. Once she started writing fiction, she knew she was never going to stop. The only tricky bit was working out how to turn her scribblings into something the rest of the world could follow.
Cate has been fascinated by history since she realised the world existed before her, has enough books to stock her own library, and collects early 20th century girls’ school stories, dragons, unicorns, and nieces and nephews. She also has a fondness for pretty nails, bare feet, sparkly things, road trips, Autumn, chocolate, and napping. She goes to the gym because of work-life balance and she likes the people, bushwalking to run away from people and the city, and Girl Guides because she’s been a member for over 30 years and that’s just what she does. The caffeine addiction goes without saying.
Reading is still one of Cate’s most loved pastimes. One her favourite things about being a writer is that reading is no longer considered procrastinating, but is now an Essential Part of Developing Skills. She’s always known that reading was essential, but it is nice when other people agree. To balance things out, she also enjoys listening to audiobooks, buying books, and checking out authors’ public profiles on social media. Authors love it when you like what they share. Plus it’s also good for them to interact with other humans when they live in their heads so much of the time. Aspiring authors love it too, so check out Cate’s contact page if you want to find the ways to hang out with her online.
Cate continues to live in the suburbs of Perth with her three teenage daughters, her puppy, her daughters’ four kittens, and whatever water animals her ex-husband decides to put in the fish tank. Her long term plans include more writing, more reading, more travelling, and spending as much time as possible in her pyjamas; very likely all at once.
Cate Alexander 