Cat Hellisen

Cat Hellisen writes fantasy for adults and children. She has lived in Cape Town,  Johannesburg, Knysna, and Nottingham, and currently lives in Fife, Scotland, where the forests and the fields and the Forth provide constant inspiration.

Since she grew up in a series of  libraries, Cat has always preferred reading to just about anything else. Even though as a child she assumed all writers were already dead, she figured that at some point they must have been alive and so she set out to write her own stories. (They were almost invariably about dogs. Magical dogs.) It took many years before she actually wrote something which  other people wanted to read.  Along the way, she discovered that having hobbies outside of books was actually a fun thing, and she has done belly dancing, archery, aikido, running, and figure skating.

When the Sea is Rising Red, Cat’s first full-length novel, sold to FSG in 2010. It’s a story about found family, class and magic and making difficult choices. It’s also about tea, sometimes.