Cate Gardner

Goldfish Grimm: If we could peek into your office (coffee shop, kitchen table, wherever you write), what would your writing process look like?

Cate Gardner: Organised chaos. I have a gazillion writing notes scribbled on odds and ends of papers or in notebooks, but they’re all (almost) neatly filed in metal trays on my desk waiting for me to write about them. Foolish things think I will get to all of them, but sometimes I pluck something from a tray and we set to work.

GFG: What is it actually like?

CG: There are four memo boards attached to the wall above my desk pinned with pictures and notes for future stories or works in progress and writing tips. I have a gorgeous pocket watch dangling between the memo boards to remind me that time is precious and that I must write and not dally. Unfortunately, the beast Twitter keeps stealing that time.
My writing process changes all the time. Sometimes I plot and plan, others I write and see were the words take me.

GFG: Was there anything in particular that inspired “Through Bleached Bones”?

CG: I wanted to write a fairy tale about love and friendship. Other things happened along the way.

GFG: There’s a quite solid connection to the Suits and towers in this story to people who slave away in office jobs. Would you consider this piece social commentary? Or did you find the notion of overworked “Suits” to just be a vehicle for exploring the concept of aliens or creatures that feed off of the need for sleep?

CG: I never consider any of my stories a social commentary. Although, I suspect I’d had a tiring day at the office when I sat down to write the story.

GFG: Do you have anything you’d like to plug or promote?

CG: I have two novellas available. Theatre of Curious Acts (Hadley Rille Books) about a Great War soldier who wants the world to end until he falls in love with Death; and Barbed Wire Hearts (Delirium Books) a twisted love story full of cobwebs and stolen hearts.