Katherine was born in Toronto and spent her early years in rural Southern Ontario. Growing up in a family of six children, she discovered early that privacy could be found in the solitary delight of reading. She read zealously; especially mysteries or anything with animals or gutsy heroes. She later moved to Vancouver where she attended Simon Fraser University and fell in love with the west coast rainforest, the setting for her first novel, Alone at Ninety Foot. It won the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year as well as the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. She has since published six young adult books.

Katherine now lives in Edmonton. She has worked for the Edmonton Public School Board for 17 years and currently, manages the Library at Vimy Ridge Academy, a junior/senior high school. She is married to Jeff, a newspaper journalist, and has two grown sons, one little granddaughter and an energetic Springer spaniel named Norman.