THOMPSON
Photo: Peter Orford
About Kate
Kate was determined from a young age to become an actress, because, even though she enjoyed writing (her first published poem earned her fifteen quid when she was fourteen!), she never considered it a viable career option. Because her mother very sensibly advised her that if she was going to go into the precarious acting business she’d better have a degree to fall back on, she left Belfast for Dublin to study English and French at Trinity College. Upon graduating she got her first professional gig: a BBC television play that also starred Liam Neeson. After that, her acting career took off in Ireland in both television and theatre. One memorable year was spent seducing Gabriel Byrne in the Wicklow mountains in a six-part television series. She married Malcolm Douglas - also an actor - while appearing in a production of Congreve’s 'Love for Love' in New Jersey in 1985, and her daughter Clara arrived in 1987. There followed two and a half years of grinding poverty, when work dried up completely. In desperation, Kate had a stab at writing romantic fiction, but gave up when her standard three-chapter submission was rejected by Mills & Boon.
In 1989, things started to look up. Kate won the Best Actress Award in the Dublin Theatre Festival, discovered the luxury of voiceover work (‘one of the only ways an actor can make decent money’), and spent nine years in ‘Glenroe’, a television soap. Knowing that she was about to hit a dangerous age for an actress, and scared stiff by the vision of another stint in penury, Kate decided to try writing again in 1996. She made this decision not long after one of the most magical and exhilarating events of her life - swimming with wild dolphins in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of County Mayo.
Kate’s
first novel – ‘It Means Mischief’ - went straight onto the bestseller list.
It was followed by ‘More Mischief’, ‘Going Down’ and ‘The Blue Hour’ - which
became a number one bestseller in Ireland and was shortlisted for the 2003
Parker Romantic Novel of the Year. Novel number five - ‘Striking Poses’ - was
Eason's Book of the Month in May 2003, and number six - ‘A Perfect Life’ - hit the shelves
in June 2004. It was one of Eason's top selling Transworld titles that year!
Novel seven - 'Living the Dream' - was part of Eason's Diamond Collection in
2004, and novel number eight - 'Sex, Lies and Fairytales' - featured in the
Diamond Collection the following year. All Kate's novels have been widely
translated, and both 'Living the Dream' and 'Sex, Lies & Fairytales' are
available as audiobooks, recorded by the author. In 2006, Kate's ninth novel
- 'Hard to Choos' was published under the nom-de-plume Pixie Pirelli,
to unilaterally rave reviews. Ms Pirelli is actually a character in 'Sex,
Lies & Fairytales', and has her own website (www.pixiepirelli.com)!
Kate has just released her biggest, most ambitious novel to date. It is called 'Love Lies Bleeding', and it has been described by fellow author Marian Keyes as 'her best yet - brilliant!' 'Love Lies Bleeding' constitutes a brand new adventure in publishing. Kate has made the first twenty-five chapters of the book available as an e-book on application to www.katethompsonenterprises.com. This means that readers can decide for themselves whether or not they are prepared to commit to the book. If they wish to continue reading, the final chapters are on sale from www.katethompsonenterprises.com. These chapters - known as 'The Clandestine Chapters' - come personally signed in a very classy, highly collectable package.
Kate considers herself ‘beyond privileged’ to have hit upon a way of earning a living doing ‘the thing I love best’.
© 2007 Kate Thompson
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