Katherine Hetzel has always loved the written word, but only started writing “properly” after giving up her job as a pharmaceutical microbiologist to be a stay-at-home mum. The silly songs and daft poems she wrote for her children grew into longer stories. They ended up on paper and then published. (Granny Rainbow, Panda Eyes, 2014, More Granny Rainbow, Panda Eyes, 2015) Her debut novel, StarMark, was published by Dragonfeather in June 2016. She sees herself first and foremost as a children’s author, passionate about getting kids reading, but she also enjoys writing short stories for adults and has been published in several anthologies. A member of the online writing community The Word Cloud, Katherine operates under the name of Squidge and blogs at Squidge’s Scribbles. She lives in the heart of the UK with Mr Squidge and two teenaged children.