Coat and Career in Progress

Hi lovely readers,

Ōtautahi Christchurch is moving into autumn. Daylight savings has ended, and in a month or so I'll probably fix my oven clock, and a month or so after that I'll get to my car.

The Ōtakaro riverbank splendid with autumn colours
Photo credit: Bernard Spragg

I have emerged from Deadline Goblin mode triumphant, book in hand and off to copyeditor Adie Hart. My BFF and dev editor Robyn pulled some truly heroic last minute reading time on the manuscript, and I particularly appreciated her comments on the final scene.

You see, Second Chance Charms ends with a cliffhanger. I hasten to say, not the kind of cliffhanger where the story just stops halfway through--the main plot is all wrapped up by the end of the book. But I realised that in setting up the next book, I needed to do something in this one that's really mean. In a fun way! For me. Because mean.

Spaketh Robyn:

Robyn: PERFECT/TERRIBLE ENDING BABE

Me: I want people to be very cross with me and then immediately want the next book.

Robyn: I think that is what you'll get.

Me: Yay!!!

I know that some people detest cliffhangers, and while I am not among them, I do sympathise. In a world of uncertainty and anxiety, it is nice when narratives provide security. We've all been burnt by unfinished series. But I've been doing this for a while, and you can trust me: unless something truly dire happens, and by that I mean unless I literally die or am otherwise rendered unable to write, there will be a third book in the Sparks and Recreation series, and it will probably be published this year.

And if it's just too nerve-wracking to wait, you can truly stop reading a few pages from the end! Oh, I should put that in my content warnings for this one.

In the meantime, head to Kickstarter to follow the campaign and be notified when it launches.

The end of writing Second Chance Charms coincided with the end of a stressful term, and when friendly colleagues asked what I was going to do in the holidays, I would stare blankly for a second, and then say, "I'm going to make a coat!"

I have been making a coat!

The floor is for cutting; bound buttonholes; shawl collar.

Sewing is wonderful in itself, and also a wonderful analogy for writing. I can plan some parts, but some stuff I need to problem solve in the moment. It's important to go back and fix mistakes I can, and forgive myself for mistakes I can't1. The pattern is a map, but not necessarily the journey. If I want to do it well, I need to put in the time.

And the more I do it, the easier it gets. It will always take skill, thought, care and concentration, and there are parts I will never really like doing (hems/scene transitions) but my technique and finished work are both improving.

It's the Princess Coat by Charm Patterns2, and I should be done by the end of the holidays.

Other things I have been enjoying, in no particular order:

  • audiobooks about British medieval and renaissance history.
  • the lovely, dreamy, queer-normative fantasies of Thea Hawthorne (I especially recommend All Woven With Ivy.)
  • the final season of Spout Lore.
  • playing a girl gang version of Baldur's Gate 3 where Gale, Astarion and Wyll never join the party, and Halsin is there on SUFFERANCE. We shall see if I can make myself turn down Minsc.
  • cycling along the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor.
  • listening to the Artemis II cockpit live feed.
  • making hot cross buns from Nici Wickes's splendid A Quiet Kitchen.
A bunch of buns, studded with sultanas and currants.
Except with no crosses because dried flour paste is kind of gross.

My writing work this month is going to be bits and pieces - writing a new story for my Patreon, writing the newsletter bonus prequel3 for Sparks and Recreation, doing all the behind the scenes nuts-and-bolts stuff for the Second Chance Charms Kickstarter. It's exactly the right kind of work for a season of change and transformation.

Whether you're autumnal, equatorial, or heading into spring, I wish you a very good April.

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 Or, spot them every time I put the coat on and mentally punish myself, but I am trying.

2 With some slight messing around on the sleeves. I thought I wanted the lantern sleeve, and then I looked at the lantern sleeve on my body and it was TOO MUCH SLEEVE. I have never before been in a position where I thought there was too much sleeve.

3 If I say it's a novelette it'll probably be a novella, so let's say it's a short story.