about katie
Katie Alender grew up in South Florida, which probably explains the recurring alligator dreams (one of which is documented in Bad Girls Don’t Die). She is the third of four children (three girls and a boy) and the child of three very loving and encouraging parents.
She attended high school at the Palm Beach County School of the Arts, studying Communication Arts. From there, she went on to the Florida State University Film School, which led her to her current hometown, a tiny hamlet on the West Coast known as “Los Angeles.”
She enjoys writing, reading, sewing (especially quilts), trying to grow plants, birdwatching in the backyard, photography, visiting friends’ blogs, and hanging out with her husband (known on the blog as “the husb”) and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Winston.
Her first brush with publication was the article “So You Want to Live On Mars?” published in Sassy magazine in December 1991. More recently, she was the head writer on the 48-Hour Film Project “Best of Los Angeles 2007” winner, Project 96-B, and won a Backspace.org short story contest with a story entitled Deliverance Smith.
She is also a huuuuge fan of talking about herself in the third person.
Astrological Sign
Gemini
Favorite Color
red
Favorite Music
Indigo Girls, Frank Sinatra, The Eels, The Weepies,
Dar Williams, k.d. lang, Jars of Clay
Favorite Movies:
The Others, Ordinary People, Beauty and the Beast, Pride & Prejudice (A&E), For Richer or Poorer, Three Amigos, Meet Me in St. Louis
Favorite Books:
This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger
Harry Potter (all 7!) by JK Rowling
The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
On Writing by Stephen King
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Favorite Food:
anything that falls under “comfort food” (I loooove McDonald’s--although I’m trying to eat better, especially after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle!)
Pets:
Winston, a 3-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Siblings:
I’m the third of four kids: two sisters and one brother
Favorite Quotes:
“This too shall pass.”
“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
“There’s more than one answer to all these questions pointing me in a crooked line.”
~ Indigo Girls
“I could change for you, but babe,
that doesn’t mean I’m going to be a better man.”
~ Crooked Fingers
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein
