Katherine Haynes was born at St Albans in 1961. Both her mother and paternal grandmother were authors, while her father worked at a reporter on various local newspapers. It, therefore, seemed inevitable that she, too, would develop an interest in writing. Katherine collaborated with friends on various projects while at school and had her first short story published at the age if nineteen.
Since then she has gone on to publish in excess of 50 stories. These have appeared in magazines such as; All Hallows, Ghosts & Scholars, Enigmatic Tales, Visionary Tongue and Supernatural Tales. Further tales have appeared in anthologies; Lady Stanhope’s Manuscript (Ash-Tree Press), Strange Tales Vol. II (Tartarus Press), Delicate Toxins (Side Real Press), The Ghosts and Scholars Book of Shadows Volume 3 (Sarob Press), Conventional Vampires and His Red Eyes Again (both published by The Dracula Society). Her own collection from Sarob; Waiting in the Shadows appeared in 2018. There have also been two collections from Phantasm Press; Daydreams and Nightmares (2014) and Thin Ghosts of Tides (2018).
Daydreams and Nightmares won The Dracula Society’s 2014 Children of the Night award. This award was designed and made by artist and modelmaker, Vince Mattocks, whose work featured in Anglia Television’s documentary on M. R. James. The collection was edited by the late Richard Dalby. Katherine’s second Phantasm Press book Thin Ghosts of Tides was dedicated to Richard’s memory and paid tribute to him by including him as a character in the opening tale.
Since 2016 Grace Poole -a novel inspired by Jane Eyre and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’- has been appearing in numbers published by Phantasm Press. The tenth and final issue appeared in the summer of 2019.
As well as having been a member of The Dracula Society for 36 years, Katherine also belongs to the Wilkie Collins Society and was a founder member of A Ghostly Company. Stories of hers have appeared in The Silent Companion which is published annually by AGC.
She lives in Hertfordshire with her partner, Vince Mattocks. They have no pets, but hedgehogs, foxes, squirrels and all kinds of birds are regular visitors to their garden.
