Featured Author: Kate Larkindale

Kate Larkindale is currently residing in Wellington, New Zealand after having spent a lifetime travelling the globe. A cinema manager, film reviewer and mother, she’s surprised she finds any time to write, but doesn’t sleep much. As a result, she can usually be found hanging out near the espresso machine. Her short stories have appeared in Halfway Down The Stairs, A Fly in Amber, Daily Flash Anthology, The Barrier Islands Review, Everyday Fiction, Death Rattle, Drastic Measures, Cutlass & Musket and Residential Aliens, among others.

She has written eight contemporary YA novels, five of which other people are allowed to see. She has also written one very bad historical romance. She is currently working on a new YA novel that is still looking for a title other than its Twitter hashtag, #juvvielesbian.

Connect with Kate Larkindale on Twitter @Vampyr14 or visit her website: http://katelarkindale.blogspot.com/.

Q&A with Author Kate Larkindale:

1. Tell us about your cover design. Is there any symbolism from the story reflected in the cover?
   
   My main character, Livvie, has synesthesia, a unique condition where, in her case, she sees sounds as colors and tastes colors as flavors. It gives her a very singular view of the world, and I think the cover does a good job of showing the way she might see herself.


2. What part of the story was the most fun to write? The most challenging?
   
   The most fun parts to write were the first, tentative kisses, and Livvie’s first exploration of her sexuality. There’s a scene where Livvie and Bianca take a bath together, and that’s one of my favorite scenes in the whole book.
   
   The most challenging part to write was the euthanasia stuff. It’s such a controversial issue, and I knew I had to get the tone exactly right so readers wouldn’t damn Livvie for the choice she makes.


3. Which of your characters is most like you?
   
   I think all my characters have elements of me in them. I don’t usually notice it until I go back to a book after having left it for a while, but then I often realize I’ve used experiences and phrases and conversations I had in real life. It’s a little weird because I don’t usually realize I’m doing it at the time…


4. If you could travel back in time and tell the teenage you one thing, what would it be?
   
   I think I’d tell me that it doesn’t last forever. I hated high school, but as soon as I finished and got out into the world, so many wonderful and exciting things happened to me. Things I probably couldn’t even have imagined as being possible while I was stuck in a classroom, in a uniform, being told what and how to think about things.


5. What other interests do you have outside of writing?
   
   For a day job I run a movie theatre, and I love movies. Cooking is also something I enjoy very much. And, of course, reading….


6. What would you like young readers to take away from your novels?
   
   I’d like them to leave my books with a sense of hope. That wherever they are in their life journey now, things won’t remain the same forever, and the things that feel impossible now do get easier.

Now Available from Kate Larkindale:

An Unstill Life Things at home are rough for fifteen-year-old Livvie Quinn. Jules, her beloved older sister is sick again after being cancer free for almost ten years. Her mom becomes more frantic and unapproachable every day. School isn’t much better. Just when she needs them most, her closest friends get boyfriends and have little time for Livvie – except to set her up on a series of disastrous blind dates.

Livvie seeks refuge in the art room and finds Bianca, the school ‘freak’. Free-spirited and confident, Bianca is everything Livvie isn’t. Shaken by her mom’s desperation, her sister’s deteriorating condition, and abandoned by her friends, Livvie finds comfort and an attraction she never felt before with Bianca.

When their relationship is discovered, Livvie and Bianca become victims of persecution and bullying. School authorities won’t help and even forbid the pair to attend the Winter Formal as a couple. If Livvie defies them and goes, she risks expulsion and further ridicule from her classmates. At home, her mother’s behavior escalates to new levels of crazy and Jules is begging for help to end the pain once and for all.

While searching for the strength to make her life her own, Livvie must decide how far she’s willing to go for the people she loves.