The Basics
Name: Katherine Blakeman
​
Pronouns: she/her/hers
​
Age: Old Enough To Know Better, Young Enough Not To Care!
​
Location: South-East England
My Story
What? I'm sure you'd rather see my Bitmoji than my face...!
I've always been a bookworm. Yes, I know that's a cliché, but it's true. My pre-school records say that three-year-old Kathy's favourite book was 'Postman Pat', which I apparently read to whoever would listen at any given opportunity. Something must have gone in, because I've hardly stopped reading since. As I entered my teenage years, my phone and social media did have their appeal, but every night I would leave my phone downstairs and return to the little worlds on my bookshelf.
​
Crucially, all these authors gave me an insatiable appetite for writing. I honestly cannot remember a time when I haven't had a book on the go. (Normally several, given that I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to writing my own books.) For four or five years, that book was The Silent Chapter. Set in the first half of the twentieth century and dedicated to my since-departed grandmother, whose own personal experience of being an evacuee is embedded into Chapter Eight, The Silent Chapter is very close to my heart. It was published, after much excitement, in February 2022. Order it today for a lovely little parcel of historical fiction goodness to be delivered to your house (or your Kindle).
​
But I'm not only a historical fiction writer! While it was certainly my first love, in the last couple of years or so I've branched out into lesbian fiction. Perhaps something to do with the fact that I'm gay myself! Around the time I was starting to accept that, I started writing The Summer We've Had. It's a sunny Sapphic romance set in modern-day Cornwall. And I combined it with one of my other great interests: psychology. Specifically, Dissociative Identity Disorder, a type of complex-PTSD that one of the main characters has. I've never seen fiction containing DID before, so that alone promises that The Summer We've Had will unlike anything you've ever read before. On top of that, it is packed with LGBTQ+ representation, and it is VERY warm and fuzzy!
​
After I finished with The Summer We've Had, I found I couldn't bear to leave the village of Miltree behind, so I started writing a story for two of its side characters: Petra and Jean Taylor. This story is different because Petra and Jean are already married, but it examines their marriage, what happens when one of them takes on too much and the other begins doubting their gender identity. This eventually became Love You However, my third full-length novel. It can be read as a standalone, but it does check back in with Cass and Felicia of The Summer We've Had, four years on!
Love You However focuses mostly on gender dysphoria later in life, but it also processes the impact of unexpected work changes on a relationship. Protagonist Petra is forced into temporary headteachership when her boss, Victoria, gets into a car accident and requires emergency spinal surgery. So after I finished it, I knew I had to write the other side of it: Victoria's side. I finished it so quickly, and was so excited for it, that I couldn't bear to wait until the following year. Hence, A Different Kind Of Pride, which arrived just five months after Love You However! If you want a slow-burn, hurt/comfort, ice-queen toaster-oven romance, check it out!
​​
If you want to hear more from me, you can keep up with me on my social media, by checking out my blog and subscribing to my mailing list!