The
dream of any author is to see our books in print. Yet there’s another dream
many of us hold secretly: to see the characters and stories we’ve created
unfold before our eyes on a large screen.
Kate
Blair, author of TRANSFERRAL, is on her way to realizing this dual dream.
London,
England, present day. This is the world as we know it, but with one key
difference: medical science has found a way to remove diseases from the sick.
The catch? They can only transfer the diseases into other living humans. The
government now uses the technology to cure the innocent by infecting criminals.
It
is into this world that Talia Hale is born. Now sixteen and the daughter of a
prime ministerial candidate, she discovers that the effort to ensure that bad
things happen only to bad people has turned a once-thriving community into a
slum, and has made life perilous for two new friends.
When
Talia’s father makes an election promise to send in the police to crack down on
this community, Talia can only think of how much worse things will be for her
friends. Will she defy her father to protect them, even if it means costing him
the election?
Transferral, the debut from Kate Blair, is a chilling look at a world
gone wrong because of its efforts to do right.
AMM: Welcome, Kate. What gave you the idea to write TRANSFERRAL?
KB:
I work for a nursing union. At a meeting a few years ago, one of our members
talked about her experiences during the SARS epidemic (when a lot of nurses got
seriously ill and two died). She said when she walked down the street in her
scrubs, people crossed the road to avoid her. She said they treated her like a
criminal because they thought she might be contagious.
That
story sparked the idea of a world where criminals are punished with disease. Then
I went on to explore ideas about scapegoating and justice in our own society.
AMM: I think this is such an amazing concept, Kate, and I can’t wait
to read your book. And now TRANSFERRAL has been optioned as a television show. Can
you share how this came about?
KB:
It's been optioned by Temple Street Productions, producer of the wonderful
Orphan Black (as well as Killjoys and Company X and a whole host of other great
shows). The option is all thanks to my publisher, Cormorant/DCB. They've been
really enthusiastic about the book from the start, and they are the ones who
introduced my book to the production company.
AMM: Congratulations again. What are you
working on now?
KB: I am currently finishing a pre-submission
draft on a book called TANGLED PLANET. It's about a 17-year-old engineer named
Ursa who lives on a generation starship that has arrived at its destination
planet after 400 years of travel. But she and her crewmates are not prepared
for the rigors of colonization. Deadly accidents and unexpected hardships
threaten to tear the crew apart. Then Ursa discovers something lurking in the
overgrown alien forests of their new home. Something that shouldn't be there.
Something that’s killing the colonists, one
by one.
AMM: Wow! Sounds like the plot for another movie. Tell me, when you
aren’t writing, what do you do for fun?
KB: I don't
get enough time for fun! I have a full-time day job and two wonderful small
children (who are, to be fair, a lot of fun). I love hanging out with other
writers, as I always learn so much. If I had more time, I'd fill it with
improv, sushi, museums, travel and escape rooms.
AMM: If you had a
choice at any other career, what would it be?
Museums, for
sure. I used to be a museum curator, and I'd love to get back to that one day.
AMM: What’s one crazy
thing about you that few people know?
KB: I got my
tongue pierced when I was in LA once. But a friend of mine who was watching
fainted and fell on his face. The poor guy lost some teeth and had to have a
load of stitches in his chin and tongue. I took the piercing out the next day.
I still feel bad about it!
Born on a tiny island stuck to
the south of England, Kate Blair has worked as a museum curator, a clown and at
a theme park on the Jersey Shore. She is now a young adult author and a
speculative fiction geek living in Toronto. She has two ridiculously young
children and a lovely husband.
Where to find Kate:
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