WRITING CLEMENTINE

A funny, warm, feel-good novel about friends, family, first kisses and finding your way in the world.

"You said we could write anything we wanted. The first thing that came into our minds. Blue fish, red fish, green fish..."

Clementine Darcy is floundering. She wants to be the kind of fish who swims to the swish of her own fins - upstream, not simply carried along by the current.

But she is finding the swirling waters of school and home difficult to navigate: her friendship group is splintering, her brother Fergus won't leave his room, her sister's life is not as perfect as Clem thought...and then there's the New Boy, who is dapper and intriguing, but hiding secrets of his own. Clem is desperate for everyone - including herself - to be happy, but she discovers that her idea of helping doesn't always work as well as she imagined.

Can Clem be the girl she wants to be? Will she learn to accept that there are things she can fix and things she cannot? Will she find a way to know the difference?

Kate Gordon lives in Hobart, Tasmania in a mint-green cottage, with her husband, her very strange cat, Mephy Danger Gordon, and a wonderful, madcap baby daughter, who goes by the name of Tiger. Kate was the recipient of 2011 and 2012 Arts Tasmania Assistance to Individuals grants, which means she can now spend more time doing what she loves.