Updated 05 July 2002, 15.17

 Click here to win a copy of Mirror Dreams!

And now the fantasy book has been tipped for huge success.

But Catherine, now 16, isn't letting things go to her head.

'I'm scared'

"No I'm not the next JK Rowling," she laughed. "People like JK and Philip Pullman are world famous. I don't think that's going to happen to me."

Catherine, from North London, has never thought about being famous.

"Now it's published I'm very scared," she said. "It's weird that other people are actually going to read it. When I write, I write for me."

Call from an agent

But that all changed when she showed Mirror Dreams to her parents.

"The first thing they said to me was 'You can't spell', she said. "But then they asked if I wanted to send it to this person for some advice.

"The next thing I knew I had a call from an agent saying 'perhaps we should meet'.

"I just said 'Oh!'"

Fantasy

Mirror Dreams is all about another world, made up of human's dreams. Powerful wizard Laenan Kite guards the dreams in his kingdom in the Void.

But there's also a world of nightmares and evil forces who want to get rid of our dreams and replace them with a world of horrors.

 Catherine Webb is doing a live webchat on BBC's Onion Street, Tuesday 9 July at 5.35pm. Click here for more

Catherine gets her inspiration from reading other fantasy novels.

"I've been reading fantasy since the age of seven when my Dad gave me my first Terry Pratchett book," she said. "I started writing because I'd finished the whole fantasy section at my local library."

Catherine's already written the sequel to Mirror Dreams, called Mirror Wakes. It'll be published by Atom Books in January 2003.

She's even practically finished her third book, The Waywalkers - not in the Mirror series.

Movie mad

And the future? Catherine said her plans for the summer are to "lie in a lot, watch 24, write and see lots of films".

Movie mad Catherine loves Star Wars, Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings, but could she ever see her books being made into films?

"In my wildest fantasies perhaps," she said. "I think Mirror Dreams would just be too expensive to make."

We'll just have to wait and see.

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