Kate Cann
About Author
Kate Cann has always enjoyed stories and writing but did not plan on becoming an author. After completing two degrees at Kent University, in English and American Studies, she started working for a publisher as a copy-editor, going freelance after the birth of her two children.
It was when Kate was editing some teenage books that she decided to have a go herself. "Adolescence is a real transition time", she says. "You're consolidating who you are and at the same time looking forward into the future. It's a scary, demanding time... It needs books to match." She spent a year writing her first teen title, Diving In, which was accepted for publication. It was followed by two sequels, In the Deep End and Sink or Swim, as well as several other novels including Footloose, Fiesta, Sea Change, Leader of the Pack and another trilogy, Moving Out, Moving In and Moving On.
Leaving Poppy, published in 2007, marked a new direction for Kate. A haunting psychological thriller about a girl trying to escape the suffocating grasp of her family, Leaving Poppy was shortlisted for the 2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize and won the 2008 Angus Book Award. Possessed was published in July 2008 and a sequel, Fire, followed in 2009. Her latest book, called Witch Crag, was published by Scholastic in 2012.
Kate writes full time and dearly loves her word processor for the potential that it gives her in her books. She lives in the Wiltshire countryside with her husband and enjoys reading, running, walking the dog and visiting London.
Author link
www.katecann.com; www.scholastic.co.uk/zone/book_kate-cann.htm
Interview
WITCH CRAG
PUBLISHED BY SCHOLASTIC
OCTOBER 2012
In a future world where survival is the priority, women have become objects to bargain and trade. With few options, the bravest head for Witch Crag where they hope to find freedom and safety. But what awaits them at the top of the mountain? Is it more dangerous than what they leave behind? Kate Cann talks about her latest novel, Witch Crag (published by Scholastic).
Q: You're known for writing gritty realism so why did you shift to dystopian fiction in Witch Crag?
A: I don't like to write about the same topics again and again. I wrote about gritty realism when my children were teenagers and I felt I could be reasonably authentic but I started to move away from that to more spooky, supernatural books with Leaving Poppy. Leaving Poppy deals with some intense psychological points, the kind of subtle abuse that can go on in families, so it wasn't just about being scary.
I also loved writing Fire and Possessed, which were about mystery, discovering secrets, darkness and ghosts - the books were inspired by a large, gothic-style house I stayed at and the ancient fire festivals that take place around where I live.
Witch Crag, on the other hand, began after something a Polish friend said. She mentioned that during the witch hunts in Poland in the 17th century, women would flee to a particular mountain if they felt under threat and the mountain then became feared because 'witches' lived there. I had this idea that a girl would make this leap of faith through her fear to join a community of witches, which is what happens to Kita, my lead character in Witch Crag.
The novel is set in the future after something terrible has happened to the world which I call the 'Great Havoc'. I don't spell out what went wrong but it made me think about how people would have to stop how they were living and start again with very few resources. It was an opportunity to look at people living in a very basic way. It's not a futuristic fantasy.
Q: There is a lot of dystopian writing around - are you fearful that something like the 'Great Havoc' will happen to our world?
A: I don't think so, not as it did in the book, but I do think our time of greed and over-consumption has to come to an end and the idea of living simply and how fulfilling that could be is an appealing one for the future. While I love what Western civilisation has brought us, we have to stop consuming so much.
I am a gardener and I take a lot of pleasure out of simple things - I don't need a flash car or two TV's. Just having time and being relaxed gives me enormous pleasure.
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about your vision for the Witch Crag setting in your book?
A: The setting is a natural crag where the community can be safe, like the Polish refuge that inspired it. I went to New Zealand while I was writing this which was very useful because the hills were so black and forbidding.
The witch community is actually very practical, for example I describe how they dragged up earth so they could grow crops and they have pheasants to help fertilise the soil. It's a relaxed, slightly hippy community and because they are a creative people they make it as beautiful as possible. This is a big contrast with the sheepmen community, where Kita is from, where the emphasis is on survival and there is no time for beauty or pleasure.
Q: In your future world, some people develop new 'psychic' abilities. Why did you introduce that idea?
A: I don't spell it out but basically there is this idea that a great disaster that destroyed the world has also released another level of senses in people which is represented by the community of 'witches'.
I didn't want my witches to be about pointing wands, it was more about how they used their minds as in their empathy, predictive dreams and telepathic moments; some people would say that we have these abilities already.
This is not what most people would think of as witches but it is useful for the community to have their enemies see them as dangerous when they are really just very evolved women - but women who are feisty and speak out have often, over the ages, been accused of witchcraft.
Q: Is this also a metaphor for how you see women's rights today?
A: As an old '70s feminist, I can't believe how far back we have slid in terms of women's rights. Women have still made strides in their career but that division remains. Fundamentalist religions are teaching young women that they are wrong and evil and some girls are realising it's not meant to be like that.
The societies in my story believe girls are worth less than the sheep; the girls are used for barter and for trade and they have no pleasure and no joy in their lives.
But there are also very powerful women in this story. The witch community has a chief witch who is like Merlin but she is a woman, an older woman in most of my books I have an older woman who is a guide. They can be very helpful to younger women. And of course Kita's powers develop because of her courage.
Q: Do men also get a raw deal in this kind of society?
A: Arc, the lead male character, was much easier to write than Kita. She is timid and learning to grow while he is already making his way as a future leader. Yet he was as much trapped as she was in a way, and that is where feminism often gets it wrong; men are often as trapped by their image as women. It's too easy for feminists to say, 'he's awful', without seeing the bigger picture.
Arc learns to step up a few paces and to respect women more. I wasn't sure how I would make that happen with him but there is a scene where he is shoved and locked into a cave and it is a wonderful metaphor for his mind being broken open and a moment where Kita realises she is not afraid of him any more.
Q: There is a significant battle scene in your story as the different communities join to fight a common enemy. How hard was it to create that scene?
A: I have to admit that I got some help with the battle strategy from my husband because I have a terrible sense of direction and struggle with how long journeys would take. He told me I needed to have a hill in the battle and I did, although the rest of the scene was mine. He also checks my male characters...
Q: How carefully do you plot your stories before you start writing them?
A: I have learned as a writer to be braver about not planning stories. I will start and see where the story will take me.
The point I started with for Witch Crag was Kita and her bravery in making that journey, leaving her community to join the witches. Everything went from there. It worked because I got into her heart and brain made it very immediate and visceral.
The other tribes, the horsemen, the farmers and the city people, became much more important as I wrote it.
Q: How does your writing day go?
A: I believe you can only really be creative for about four hours a day and so most of my new writing is done between 11am and 3pm, then I stop my day's writing and edit what I wrote the day before. I write about 1,000 words a day.
