
BBB: What inspired you to become an author?
KF: My love of stories and writing. As a kid I adored reading with novels such as C. S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach and Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons on my bookshelf. I started writing when I was seven and wrote my first novel when I was eight, a time-travel story called London's Burning set during the Great Fire of London. Ever since then it's been my dream to be a published author

KF: It all started with the setting of Greece, a country I had fallen in love with the very first time I went there with my Greek husband to visit his family back in 2000. From that point on I knew I wanted to set a novel there and that sparked the idea of Sophie leaving behind her life and everything she knows in England for a new and exciting life in Greece with her boyfriend, Alekos.
BBB: Tell us about your one of your main characters?
KF: Rather than tell you about the novel's narrator, Sophie, I'll tell you about her mum, Leila. I like her a lot. She's very different from me: feisty, confident and strong-willed. She's quite a character and at the start of The Butterfly Storm her and Sophie have a big falling out, one that’s been building up for years. Leila had Sophie when she was just 19 years-old and raised her as a single mum. When Sophie was growing up it was very much Leila who behaved like a teenager, bringing a trail of boyfriends home, encouraging her underage daughter to drink... she really wasn't a very responsible parent and acted more like an older sister. As well as being an integral part of the story Leila was also incredibly fun to write, particularly her dialogue, which is at times quite ballsy and direct.
BBB: What do you think readers will remember most about The Butterfly Storm?
KF: With the story following Sophie on a physical and emotional journey between Greece and north Norfolk on the east coast of England I think it will be the sense of place that the novel, I hope, evokes. Without giving too much away, place plays an important role in The Butterfly Storm and it becomes a major factor for Sophie. My intention was to bring the places featured in the book to life through sight, sound and smell, whether that’s a windswept beach in Norfolk or the hectic heart of Thessaloniki in Greece.

KF: Well, I'm working on the final edit of a children's novel called Time Shifters, a time-travel adventure for 8-12 year-olds. I'm also in the planning stages of a new contemporary women's novel, a follow-up to The Butterfly Storm, although they're in no way related. It's got the working title of The House of Stone and is going to be set in Tanzania and Zanzibar.
You can kind out more about Kate Frost and her book by visiting
thebutterflystorm.kate-frost.co.uk/