#BLauthor12: Kate Abbott

Follow Kate Abbott on Facebook
and on Twitter @Kate_Abbott_.

#BLauthor12 is Kate Abbott.

Kate Abbott's YA novel Disneylanders was published in 2013 by Orchard Hill Press. She recently completed the memoir Walking After Midnight. She lives in Northern California with her husband, son, and tiny parrots.

Check out new work by Abbott:


Things I Know About Us

We like walking. We like routines. We like the nighttime, but we also like to be home before the streetlights come on. We like seeing the sun set, we like the glow of twilight, we like the night, the dark parts of the day. We are nice to other people, but not too nice because they are strangers. We like people-watching. We see those playing, running, talking, but we don't actually do any of those things ourselves. We like it that way.

Things I Know About You

You are old, but you walk with perfect posture. You wave at me when you see me. You have the wave of a small child, waving back and forth many times and looking excited about it. You wear an all-white tunic and pants and turban with your sneakers. You don't care what I look like. You will wave at me and smile whether I am sweaty or not, whether I have smeared mascara across my face accidentally, whether I talk to you, whether I don't, whether I can barely crack a smile that day. Sometimes I think I can't, but you smile and so I do.

Things I Don't Know About You

Where you live. Who you live with. If you like living there. Why you walk in the park every day like I do. Why you hold your hands behind your back every minute of your walk. Why you walk the same route every day, a large circle coming from the other end of the park. We come from opposite directions, but we always meet. If you wonder about me too.

Co-editor Bethany Brownholtz on Abbott’s work: This piece so perfectly captures the relationships that we have with those that fall somewhere between strangers and acquaintances. I commute to work daily via public transit, for example, and expect to encounter familiar faces. I know I will see the woman who looks like an older version of Princess Jasmine, in her navy blue gym pants, or the pudgy, tall man whose gruff “SON OF A BITCH!” makes me cringe no matter how many times I've heard it. It’s these details that we know about people. We can only wonder what others “know-tice” about us.

Stay tuned for an interview with Abbott coming next week.