Iris: Your latest novel BLOODPRINT is a multi-layered work of psychological suspense. Can you remember how the idea for the story started taking root?
Kitty: Yes, clearly. Some years ago, when I was a practicing psychotherapist, I had a client who looked uncannily like my sister. My sister was in a very difficult place in her life. We lived in different countries and didn’t have much contact. I was disturbed by my own reactions to this client, and had to deal with my guilt for not being more supportive of my sister. Then, whilst I was writing BLOODPRINT, my sister died. On her deathbed she’d claimed that she had no relatives, so we knew nothing about her condition until it was too late. That terrible indictment added a poignant and sinister element to the meaning of the novel.
Iris: You present a range of very interesting strong characters. Which one is your favourite? With whom did you identify most in the process of writing?
Kitty: Definitely with Madeleine, my main character. When I was writing the novel, I became her. But part of me also identified with Rachel. Again, I saw something of my sister in her. Rachel is not always a likeable character, but I think the reader will have some sympathy for the way she is, and she redeems herself by her willingness to sacrifice everything for her child.
Iris: Madeleine is a psychotherapist. Did your own professional experience as a therapist influence the creation of this character?
Kitty: Only partly. Her profession was more a tool for the development of the story. Naturally, it was easy for me to write about her in her professional capacity, having been there myself. Madeleine’s true character does not really lend itself to being a psychotherapist.
Iris: You once lived in the far north of Canada, an icy landscape where your first novel “Ice Trap” is set. Is your work consciously (or unconsciously) influenced by personal experiences?
Kitty: Absolutely. ICE TRAP was born from an experience that my husband and I had: a letter arriving one morning from a young girl claiming to be his daughter. In fact, this dramatic event in our life was what started me writing, and writing has changed my life. Other authors may not agree, but I’m convinced one writes with most conviction and feeling when writing about things that are close to the heart. My fortune (and misfortune) is that I have a very complex family background, in fact, there is material there for any number of novels. Also, having lived in so many different places and countries, makes me able to describe my settings with accuracy and feeling.
Iris: Apart from being a writer you are a painter and sculptor. How do these different expressions of artistic craft influence each other?
Kitty: They don’t influence each other so much as they “inform” each other. I take a lot of elements of sculpting into my writing. My craft of choice is stone-carving, and just as I chisel away at a stone from all angles, I use the same method in writing. I might write scenes at the beginning and at the end of a novel concurrently, turning the story to get a sense of, and “see” all angles. Writing for me is never a linear process.
Iris: Madeleine is the daughter of a famous artist and herself a painter, well known for her disturbing and very original works of ants. How did you invent this very special interest of your character?
Kitty: I’m very interested in ants myself, and always have been. I love watching them going about their business. I’ve got ants in my kitchen and I won’t let anyone put ant-powder down, because the little guys keep the counters clean of crumbs. Well, we all have our quirks, right?
Iris: How did you research about the rare species of leaf-cutter ants?
Kitty: Easy, everything you need to know about ants you can find on the Internet. I discovered there are myrmecology fanatics all over the world, so Madeleine, with her love of ants, is not as strange as she appears.
Iris: What do the ants symbolize in your novel?
Kitty: If anything, I meant for them to symbolize the continuity of existence. Madeleine’s world has been turned upside down, and she finds solace in the company of these predictable little creatures that have been around for millions of years. They are so perfect and so consistent they’ve never had to evolve. Even as a child she looked for this element of constancy and reliability in the ants, to keep the chaos of life at a distance.
Iris: Are symbols in general an important means of your writing?
Kitty: When I was a student of psychotherapy I avidly read the work of C. G. Jung. In writing I think it is more interesting to let the symbolic content come through an instinctual process.
Iris: Edmund Furie, the psychotic murderer, who Madeleine pays a weekly visit to in prison, presents a character similar to the famous Hannibal Lecter, monster number 1, created by Thomas Harris? Did you want the reader to think of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in the great film “Silence of the Lambs”? And if so, why pick such a parallel?
Kitty: Perhaps subconsciously I was influenced by “Silence of the Lambs”, which I agree is a great film, but consciously I didn’t think of the film at all. I was informed entirely by my work with the Samaritans, which in part involves visiting prisoners.
Iris: Does Rosaria, Madeleine’s mother works as a counterpart to Edmund, the psychotic murderer?
Kitty: Ultimately, Rosaria and Edmund have a lot in common. One is schizophrenic, the other psychopathic. There are drastic differences in these conditions, but in both there is a potential for extreme and calculated violence. Madeleine has to have these two opposing nemesis. Subconsciously she hopes they will act out her own internal capacity for violence… with good reason.
Iris: What do you find fascinating in the voodoo-like-cult of the so called Santeria Rosaria practices?
Kitty: I knew nothing about Santeria when I began writing this novel. Then I went to Key West for a long period of research (nice holiday too) and that’s where I discovered this fascinating Afro-Cuban Cult. Though mainly Cuban, Santeria is practiced a lot in Florida, and once I got talking to people about it and read several books about Santeria, I was hooked. I just had to have some element of Santeria in BLOODPRINT.
Iris: Do you believe personally in magic and magic powers of shamans or santeras? And do you also believe these powers are inherited as shown in “Bloodprint”?
Kitty: I have always had an interest in the esoteric. Let me just say I keep an absolutely open mind on these matters.
Iris: Rachel, the second main protagonist, is very different to Madeleine. Was it difficult for you to slip into a character whose mind, language, emotions are influenced by the underworld of drugs, violence and prostitution?
Kitty: No… I found it worryingly easy to be Rachel. I guess I have a very vivid imagination.
Iris: How did you research about the life conditions of young prostitutes?
Kitty: For a period I worked in a very deprived area of South Wales, and I had on several occasions young prostitutes as clients. They were referred to me by their doctors, and as such they did not have to pay for therapy. I learned a lot about real life from these girls, as from others in miserable life situations. For a start, I learned how nice a life I’ve had.
Iris: Did you intend to project social criticism with your novel and shed a light on sex trade of east European women, who are transported westward to be "broken" by being raped and beaten?
Kitty: I did not set out to do this, but young women, and girls, tricked into sexual slavery is one of the issues I feel most strongly about (not just in Europe but all over the world), so it found a place in the story. I can never get used to the idea that this goes on right in our midst. The suffering it causes is incalculable.
Iris: In “Bloodprint”, as in “Ice Trap”, a child is at the core of the conflict, which brings the story to a dramatic turnover – a child in peril, lost, born under unlucky conditions or its existence unknown by one parent. Are family patterns what you are interested most in your work?
Kitty: There is no doubt that complicated family patterns recur constantly in my writing. With my own family background and my professional experience, they are what interests me the most. But I aim to combine them with exotic locations and interesting plots.
Iris: Do you generally intend to give your readers a message about life or do you predominantly intend to entertain them?
Kitty: I’m comparatively new to writing, and I cannot presume to impart any philosophical messages. Perhaps I don’t yet have that kind of superior wisdom. For the time being it’s demanding enough to produce a “good read”. However, I hope that readers might learn something about some aspect of life or the world. In Bloodprint, for example, they might learn a little about psychotherapy, ants, art, Santeria, the European slave trade, and surviving a hurricane.
Iris: Did the fact that you from a very young age lived in different countries sharpened your creative mind?
Kitty: Probably, but I have a very vivid imagination and I think I’ve inherited a strong creative gene from somewhere. I’ve always painted, sculpted and made music, gardens, clothes, even shoes. I’ve designed and built three houses, and now I’ve discovered writing. Left-brained stuff, such as understanding my PC, leaves me cold.
Iris: What is your life motto?
Kitty: To remember that, as individuals, we are like ants: tiny and insignificant and short-lived. For that reason we owe it to ourselves to make the most of what we have, and live it to the full. In a blink – it’s all over.
