Hello, I’m Kate Mallinder
I’m a children’s writer. My debut novel for teens, Summer of No Regrets, is feel-good and about friendship and finding your place in the world. My second book, Asking for a Friend, is about finding true friendship in the unlikeliest of places.
I also write non-fiction, narrative non-fiction and reading scheme books for a range of publishers and a range of ages. The short stories, flash fiction and short plays I write tend to be for adults. Several of my short scripts have been made into films.
In 2020 I passed my MA in Writing for Young People at the Bath Spa University with distinction and in 2024 I started working part time as a secondary school librarian.
Cats make the best writing partners
This was my writing buddy when I wrote Summer of No Regrets. His name was Reggie and he was super-grumpy. This is him telling me to stop working and tickle his ears straight away! If you look carefully, he’s sitting on Summer of No Regrets edits.
When Reggie died, we got two kittens called Alan and Dot, and it was bedlam at our house. They often used my desk as a playground and loved playing with my pencil while I was trying to write! Fortunately they’ve calmed down quite a bit and now like sleeping on me instead. The only problem is Alan snores!
In my third book, Summer Under the Stars, coming out in 2025, there’s a stowaway kitten inspired by my feline co-writers.
I made a ‘no regrets’ pledge
I decided that I was going to try living my life with no regrets. I’d already started to do this but I was going to take it further. I wanted to do a few things that I was scared of, or things that made me nervous but I wished didn’t. It started with trying surfing, something I’d assumed I’d be no good at. And I was right BUT I had loads of fun trying and I did get better. One really big thing for me was spiders - I was properly scared of them. But, with a bit of work I finally got to being able to stroke a tarantula, something I NEVER thought I’d do. I was so nervous beforehand, but felt amazing after! Definitely no regrets doing that!
Conquering my fear of heights!
This was actually quite fun!
More heights!
One of the scariest things I’ve ever done, however, is write. And I know that sounds daft - how dangerous can sitting at a laptop actually be?! But learning to be honest with my words, and say what I really feel has taken me a long time to master. If you want to be a writer, or are interested in reading more about my writing journey, there’s a whole blog stuffed full of advice and thoughts. Check it out here: