About Kathy White |
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My two passions have always been writing and animals. I don't know if this was true when I was a baby. Back then I liked Noddy cars, my thumb, and my little white blanky. But my parents did read to me a lot.
A favourite memory is writing a sequel to the Star Wars movie with my friend Dinah. We invented fabulous characters. Of course I was the heroine Cara in the version I was writing. In my teenage days, a lot of my school friends were into plays, musicals and books, and we produced Tauponui-a-Tia's school magazines, which were full of stories, poems and photos that we can laugh about today.
I started off studying law at university because a lawyer saw me debating in my seventh form year and said I'd make a good lawyer. Actually he was wrong. What I was good at was writing persuasive speeches, which is only a small part of a lawyer's job. My favourite job (apart from writing) was working as a children's librarian. I did this until April 2010, when I did a brave and reckless thing. I became a full-time writer instead of someone who writes in their spare moments. Creative New Zealand had sent me on the International Writing Program in Iowa City in 2009, and when I came back, I knew I needed to write books, even if it scared the heeby-jeebies out of me.
I have lived in Auckland for the last 25 years but I'm just about to move back to Taupo. I also like living in huts and tents in the wilderness.
Where and when were you born?
Liverpool, England in 1966. I came to New Zealand when I was five years old.
Where did you go to school?
Most of my school days were in Taupo at Hilltop Primary, Taupo Intermediate and Tauponui-a-Tia College.
What are your favourite hobbies?
Apart from writing, I love animals, walking in the bush and dancing (especially the tango).
Do you have children?
No, but I worked for more than ten years with kids of all ages, singing and dancing, reading stories, making crafts, running holiday programmes and parties, and talking to kids about books. The best bit about being a Children's and Teenage Services Librarian was having fun with kids.
What other jobs have you done?
Motel cleaning, Kleeneze door-to-door sales, pharmacy assistant, projectionist and ice-cream salesgirl in a historic village movie theatre, research assistant for an animal protection group, book sales and marketing rep for a publisher, university writing course tutor, children's literature course writer for a polytechnic, book reviewer, book awards convenor, and many university and public library jobs.
Do you have brothers and sisters?
I have one brother, Mike who is eight years older than me. He lives in Wales and teaches soldiers how to fly hang-gliders and paragliders. He provided inspiration for my book A Hairy Tale. My sister, Carol is three years older than me. She helped me to brainstorm and invent the idea of a mouse getting loose on the plane in Alex and Josie. Jean (my mum) lives in Auckland and Eddie (my dad) lives with his partner Janet in Taupo.
Do things from your life end up in books?
Definitely. A Hairy Tale was set in Auckland and if you read my comments about that book, you'll see how many bits of my life ended up in it. The book I'm writing at the moment is set on the wild west coast of the South Island. I love the friendly people and would like to live there, but the government drops hundreds of thousand of tonnes of poison in the bush to kill pests, and I don't think I could cope with watching things die on that kind of scale. I use parts of people I know in my books (I don't mean legs and arms) and I use names, but I mix them all up. My latest book has a lot of facts about 1080 poison in it because I'm involved in the battle to get 1080 poison drops stopped in New Zealand, but all of the characters are made up.
Writer - Kathy White
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Kathy White's - CV |
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Kathy White's - Bibliography of Writing |
Writing FAQ
What is your best advice for a writer?
Ignore career counsellors who tell you that you will never be able to make money at writing. Follow your dreams and don't let anyone stop you. Read and write a lot. Try to write every day. Give yourself targets and deadlines. Do a basic plan so you know the main points of your story, such as the inciting incident, the peaks of activity and the climax. Don't throw anything away. Just keep going.
Do you find writing is easy?
No, it can be really hard. There are times when the writing flows and it feels great, and there are times when I hate what I've written and just want to give up. But like anything that's difficult, you need to persevere and get through the tough bits.
What was the first piece of writing you were paid for?
The New Zealand Herald published one of my poems and paid me $10 when I was 14 years old.
Do you have any writing regrets?
I wish I hadn't thrown away the Star Wars sequel that I wrote with my friend during the school holidays. It was probably worth a fortune!!!