Ages of Pages and the Admin of it All

Whew, okay, here we are.

First up! Kickstarter launch date for Second Chance Charms is May 12 (me)/May 11 (roughly half of you). I will certainly tell you when it's live, but some reward tiers have limited numbers, so you want to follow the campaign for notifications.

Second! I was at Ages of Pages this weekend, a huge indie author book fair in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. It was a lot of nervous prep work, a day of excellent fun and talking to awesome readers (hello, new readers who signed up for the newsletter!), and then THE CRASH.

My office, post-trip. I had to unpack and store everything before I was allowed to write this post. Sometimes my boss is very mean.

I've done events before, but this was my first time at a book fair as an indie author. Those of you following my instagram would have seen the reels charting the journey to try and make a nice author table on a very limited budget (flights and hotel were booked and paid for when I had funds, thank goodness) and I'm proud of the results.

I made a gold table runner, a light to highlight my covers, and fixed up a $2 shop prop for my Movie Magic series. I also made1 approximately seventeen zillion tote bags for everyone who bought my books, and people seemed to appreciate them.

Heirloom tomato shrug flung over that chair? Also made by me.

But other tables were spectacular. I saw a raven skeleton, acres of colourful stones and colour-cordinated flowers, glitter, sparkles, stickers, and a lot of lovely banners. I want a stand-up banner very badly, so that's going on the save-up list.

My favourite opening question was "what do you like to read?" and I was delighted with how many people said they liked to read a little bit of everything, because as an incorrigible genre-hopper, I understand this on a deep level. No shade to anyone who has found their happy reading or writing place and sticks there, but I'm incapable of sticking to one genre forever.

Anyway, I'm back in Ōtautahi, with considerably fewer books than I left with, and a deep yearning to do this again. My next author event is right here, so I can take all the bells and whistles (and all the books). And maybe a banner??

The next thing I'm looking forward to (other than launching the Kickstarter, about which I feel both terror and joy) is Tormore Never Dies, a dinner theatre (!) murder mystery (!!) on a train (!!!) with cocktails and costumes (!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I was offered a spare seat by lovely friends, who were like, Karen, we know you'll dress up and put on an accent.

Darlings, won't I just? I have an in on one of the writers, ie, he's in my table-top roleplaying group, so I texted a query about the time period.

60s spycore, he replied.

CHARADE, I said to myself, hearts exploding out of my eyes, and headed to my favourite vintage pattern maker, Charm2. Charade is all about the coats. She's supposed to have been left penniless by her husband's death, with not a thing in the house, but she keeps producing fabulous coats out of nowhere. Did I finish a coat two weeks ago? Yes. Did I really want to make another? MAYBE.

I talked myself into and then out of buying more fabric, decided I had absolutely nothing that would work, reminded myself I'm not allowed to buy more fabric, took out all my various stashes and pawed through them, and finally discovered an emerald green cotton sateen I've been meaning to do something with for years, and a double-backed black satin I grabbed earlier this year in a stash sale.

The Swing Coat does not come in my size, sadly, but it's a relaxed fit from the shoulders down, so not too much adjustment required.

So I'm making an emerald Sabrina dress (boatnecks just scream 60s to me) and if I have time, a black satin swing coat, which will definitely come together faster than my last one. And some sort of hat, naturally. A lady can't embark on the train without a hat!

Oh, and here's the coat I finished two weeks ago. Isn't she lovely?

Made for swirling. Do not ask me about how long it took to handstitch that hem. (FOUR HOURS.)

This has been too much of a sewing newsletter and not enough of a writing newsletter, but hey, I'll take creativity where I find it. And if you want something (or several things) that I've sewn, you'll want to keep an eye on the Second Chance Charms Kickstarter. I pack a lot of good things in those Ephemera boxes!

I hope you are wearing something that makes you happy.

Love, Karen (Kate).

That Healey Girl is the weeklyish newsletter of Karen (or Kate) Healey, a romance and speculative fiction author who lives in Ōtautahi, New Zealand and shakes plots loose by wandering along the river.

1 With the assistance of my mother, and her upholstery fabric stash.

2 I love Charm for many reasons, not the least of which is that most of their patterns are in a 2-34, cup A-H size range. I adore Audrey Hepburn's style, but I am very much not her size. Almost no one is–she was naturally thin, but also suffered severe malnutrition during World War II, and it had a lifelong effect on her physique. Sometimes designers treated her a bit like a human coat hanger. I'm more of a human beach ball.