Pauline Barclay : Sitting Round my Pool, the feisty Katrina!

Today sitting round my pool is the amazing Katrina. I met Katrina a few years back in The Traz, the first in BackTracker series, my heart went out to her then. Today, Katrina is a young woman, but has the past kept pace with her?

Katrina, I understand FIREWALLS is the third novel in the BackTracker series about your life and has just been released. What is it about?

t’s about me, of course. About what happens after the first two books, THE TRAZ and FATAL ERROR.

My notes say you have grown up in this book, that you are now an adult, you've got a job and discovered love...

You must have been talking to Chad because he’s the only one who gives me credit for anything. Shrug and Sergeant Kindle still think I’m the wayward teen they first met back in The Traz.

Your author, Eileen Schuh, is marketing this novel as one that explores Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Do you suffer from PTSD?

It took me almost the entire novel to accept that I was, I guess. I was hurting and angry but I liked being that way. To leave all that behind, to forget about avenging Lukas’ murder and become happy-go-lucky seemed like a betrayal to my friend who was rotting in his grave because of what the bikers did to him.

I read an interview you did as a young teen and you had lots of negative things to say about Shrug. Does Shrug play an important role in FIREWALLS and do you two get along any better now?

Shrug thinks he plays an important role in my life, which antagonizes me. But perhaps that just a symptom of the PTSD that he suffers from. If he were to give up his guilt about me, we’d get along better.

In some of the promos for FIREWALLS it is mentioned that relationships play an important part in the healing of PTSD. Which of your relationships helped you most in dealing with the past?

I think I’d have to say all of them. There was a time when I didn’t trust anyone, when I just wanted to live my life alone. Do things myself, my own way. Life can’t be lived like that, though. We need others, in both our professional and personal lives. I’m grateful that Sergeant Kindle and my other bosses stood by me and helped me get my career back on track. They didn’t have to do that, and I’m sure they were pressured not to by their bosses, considering my erratic and sometimes dangerous behaviour. Mostly, though, the credit rests with my friends. They were there, beside me always, promising me they would be there tomorrow for me, as well. Because of them, I eventually realized I should be creating a future for myself rather than being suffocated by the dark things that happened long ago.

Rumour has it that you have found true love in this book? Is this true?

I found my true love way back in THE TRAZ. You’ll have to read FIREWALLS to see if he finally returns my affections.

I have this BackTracker series and enjoyed them all, so when can we expect the next book in your series?

That will be up to the author. My entire life is drafted in her computer. She says it costs time and money to make books out of the stories I gave her. If everyone were to buy FIREWALLS, post reviews, and help sell more copies, I’m sure she’d get the next in the series out a lot faster.

That's what I love about you Katrina and that is your bluntness. Now tell me are your adult years as exciting and adventuresome as your teen years?

I testified against a criminal biker gang as a child, I’m never going to be safe. I’m on the cutting edge of computer and cyberspace technology; I’m always going to be powerful. I’m strong-willed, self-centred, and extremely intelligent; my relationships will always be troubled ones. Then—throw in the zingers that life tosses at us despite our best plans... Things are never dull when I’m around. Now that we're done can I jump in the pool?

You most certainly can, mind it's a tad chilly *splash*... oh too late!