Kickstarter: Magician First Class!

Karen, where have you been, you ask1. It's been, like, a month!

I'm so glad you asked, because where I've been is:

  1. Finishing a book!
  2. Preparing the Kickstarter campaign for said book!
  3. Getting ready for a kitchen renovation, which in the time-honored fashion has turned out to be both more complicated and more expensive than initially predicted.

THE BOOK:

A young red-haired woman in black leather pants and an ill-advised lacy top stands with her hand hovering over the spell-book she's holding in the other hand, behind her, we see an urban landscape at night, in shades of purple and blue. Text reads Kate Healey/Magician First Class/Sparks and Recreation 1
Designed by Melanie Reese, who has also been helping me out with some excellent marketing tips.

Magician First Class is the first book in the Sparks and Recreation series, and I'm so excited about this book, I can't even tell you. I'm going back to my urban fantasy roots, setting the story in a magical post-Cataclysm Manhattan, sixty years after magic roared back to the world and things got a bit funky. More specifically, in Thirteenth Avenue, a neighborhood that didn't exist pre-Cataclysm, and even more specifically in the Thirteenth Avenue Recreation Center.

I have a hard time figuring out where this story fits, genre-wise, because it's not quite cosy urban fantasy – the stakes are too high and the consequences too alarming – and it's not quite gritty urban fantasy, being much more focused on community than crime and punishment.

Don't get me wrong. I have absolutely devoured books where the protagonist runs a magical cafe or bookshop, and multiple series where the protagonist is a magical security consultant or private detective or mercenary-with-a-heart-of-gold. But the Sparks and Recreation series is about community – working for and with community, figuring out what community is and how to be part of it.

(With, you know, corporate vampires and ditsy Fae and an adorable half-demon mechanic and a 4'8" alpha werewolf with a penchant for scuffed leather jackets, piercings, and cheerfully leaping off high buildings.)

I wanted to explore how the sprawling, varied, dubiously funded, underpaid and overworked world of non-profits might function in a society where magic is real, the subway is covered by an inviolate system of treaties and wards, those Humans First assholes are planning another march through the neighborhood and this werewolf's 8th birthday party is about to cause a commotion in the rec center gym.

Charlie, my protagonist, is a new college grad, trying to figure herself out, and that's not an accident. She's a historian, and that's not an accident either. She's a wayyyyy below average magician, and that's the least accidental thing of all, because I also want to explore what power is and how it manifests – how we empower ourselves and others, how we both under- and overestimate our own power to act.

So I've called the series "urban fantasy with heart", and that's what I'm sticking with.

(Is it, you know, political? I MEAN all writing is political but also lol, yes.)

ANYWAY, I love this book, which is currently with my editor, and while I will be publishing it regardless as an e-book and PoD paperback, I wanted to see if I could crowd-fund enough to allow for hardcover production and also some very cool extras (A MAP! POSTCARDS! SECRET STRETCH GOALS!) while ALSO giving people a shot at some great rewards.

Hence:

THE KICKSTARTER:

Against a purple and blue glitter background, a spell circle with the words Sparks & Recreation imposed over top. To the right are three book mock-ups of Magician First Class - an e-book on a phone, a paperback, and a hardcover
I moved things three pixels to the left, and then two pixels to the right, and then five pixels to the left, and then...

Oooh, baby. I ran one Kickstarter six years ago, for the epic fantasy The Empress of Timbra (co-authored by my platonic long distance life partner, Robyn Fleming) and it was successful, and we were very pleased, but my word, things have changed.

For one thing, this time, I'm doing physical rewards! For another, Kickstarter now does pre-launches, which are a terrific way to build up interest, and why you see all those awesome "funded in ten minutes!" badges. (I naturally love the idea of being funded early and therefore being able to breathe past the tension knot in my stomach.)

Another thing I love about pre-launch pages is that it gives backers – you! – a shot at early bird rewards. These are reward tiers that have the same benefits as other tiers - but are both cheaper and limited in number. I have two early bird tiers - one for early e-book readers, and one for a reward tier where you get your name in the next Sparks and Recreation book.

(Am I already writing that book? Well, yeah. You know me.)

I also have some great stretch goals, which are what we get if the campaign exceeds its minimum funding goal, but I'll talk about those another time. For now, if you want to support me, and/or want a shot at those early bird tiers, please make sure to follow the pre-launch page!

THE KITCHEN RENOVATION:

Probably launching the same day as the Kickstarter, because why do one thing at a time when you could do a BUNCH of things all at once?

(Because it's a bad idea, Karen!)

Am I gonna freak out? Probably! Am I happy about having to convert my fusebox to a proper switchboard? Not so much, but I'd rather the house didn't spontaneously combust. Am I watching episodes of Help! I Wrecked My House!2 to reassure myself that no matter what happens, it can't be that bad?

But am I looking forward to a working rangehood, and a sink that isn't falling out of the benchtop, and benches that aren't way too narrow, and a dishwasher?

Absolutely. I'll report back (with pictures!) when I've got the new kitchen of my very tame dreams.

A dishwasher!

1 Honestly, I doubt the question crossed your mind for a second, but nevertheless.

2 I keep saying this show should be renamed "Help! My Husband Is An Idiot!", which would be nearly completely accurate. Also, I've seen one episode with a single woman DIYer, and one where of the hetero couple, the wife was the one who was more enthusiastically wrong about DIY, but not a single wlw couple, JUST SAYING.