WELCOME TO GIRLFRIEND FICTION
Kate Constable
Spent much of her childhood in Papua New Guinea, without a television. But she was in easy reach of a library, where she 'inhaled' stories. She studied Arts/Law at Melbourne University before working part-time for a record company while she began her life as a writer. Her first books were the fantasy series 'The Chanters of Tremaris' and she also wrote a stand-alone novel called 'The Taste of Lightning'.
How did real life influence the characters in Always Mackenzie?
'At first I was quite nervous about writing teenagers in the real world, rather than a world I’d invented, but after I’d dug out my old school diaries, it all came flooding back. What really interests me (as with the fantasy books) is relationships, and reading those old diaries brought back the most vivid memories of the special fun and the pain of the intense friendships you form as an adolescent, and the tension between the demands of those friendships and your first tentative explorations of your own individuality.
'Another vivid memory from those years was the very painful experience of having my two closest friends at the time become each other’s best friend, excluding me, which was something I’d never written about.'
Embarrassing high school moment?
'I really hesitate to tell this story because it proves how thoroughly uncool I was; I'm still embarrassed by it. I was a very unsociable teenager; I did have friends but none of them were really sociable either. Anyway, I was invited to a party and I had nothing to wear. (I should point out that I went to a school with a uniform.)
'After an agonised shopping trip with my mum, we finally bought a red floral print dress with frills (this was the 80s). And of course I arrived at the party and everyone else was in jeans and shorts and cut-off tops and my frilly dress was totally unsuitable. It was excruciating. Maybe that's why I'm still not that keen on parties!'
Life at school
'I loved school, on the whole (except sport and sewing); I loved English, of course! Also History & Latin. We had a tiny Latin class which stayed together all through school, and we were all friends; one year we were jammed into a teeny little funny classroom that jutted out from the main school with windows all round, and my best friend and I used to go there for deep and meaningfuls in our spares. When I went back for my school reunion I was very sad to see that room had been knocked down and replaced with a spiffy new wing of soulless classrooms.
'My favourite subject ever was in Year 10, we had a special one-off class called History For Specialists which one of the teachers invented for a group of us who loved history and wanted more than the curriculum offered. We went on lots of excursions to historical sites, learned about archaeology, and had great debates about historical controversies. Nerd heaven!'
What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
'I've always been pretty bad at taking advice. I'm sure I've been given plenty of fantastic advice, if only I'd listened to it!'
Find out more about Kate at www.kateconstable.com
