Kat Coldham writes Young Adult fiction with a supernatural twist.

Growing up in a traditionally Christian household and attending weekly Sunday School, Kat's original belief about life after death was the conventional Heaven and Hell scenario. She enjoyed the story based moral analogies presented in the Bible parables, and her own writing, mostly for school homework, often reflected this concept that not everyone gets to live ‘happily ever after’. Although her enthusiasm for English Literature was encouraged, at this stage it never developed further than often finding its way into the school magazine.

When Kat was in her early teens, a local tragic incident involving the murder of a child of the same age triggered an intense fear of death, that was eventually alleviated by embracing the concept of guardian angels. This sparked an interest in ghosts and spirits, and a book subsequently lent to her by her Grandad launched her lifelong fascination of the ‘unexplained’. Avidly researching various theories including reincarnation, hauntings, past life regression and near-death experiences, Kat’s journey led her towards Spiritualism, and for the next 10 years, before moving to London for her career, she attended the local church several times a week, taking classes in meditation, healing, psychic development and mediumship.

Having attended an extracurricular course at university on death, specifically directed towards bereavement and the concept of a ‘good death’, Kat’s reading now also encompassed the less supernatural aspects of dying, and she was able to utilise this knowledge during her time working with the elderly and their families. She maintains that it is a privilege to sit with someone at the moment of their passing, knowing that you have eased their final moments with soothing words and a gentle touch.

Kat’s relocation to Wales in 2007 with her family enabled her to return to her passion for writing and she published her 1st anthology of short stories – ‘From a Different View’ (2011) which took inspiration from the local landscape and folklore to create some dark tales of hauntings, mythology and death. Her 2nd anthology ‘Breaking the Curse’ (2015) was inspired by the dark moral messages of traditional fairy tales, stripping away the magic and fantasy and preserving only the key themes, emotions and conflicts from the original fables. Her stories received some success – Kat was a runner up in the Writer’s Reign Short Story competition (2011), was included in the Rhys Davis Short Story Anthology (2014), and was long listed in the Word Hut Short Story competition (2015), and this encouraged her to work on ‘Control Alt Delete’ - her debut series of supernatural novels for Young Adults.