Kitchen, Kickstarter, and Katherines

Kitchen

Old kitchen to new kitchen, feat. new best friend my dishwasher

My kitchen progresses!

It turns out that I am institutionalised enough that I get deeply nervous when people don't show up at the time they've indicated they will. If I'm an hour late to my job, 25 confused fifteen-year-olds could do anything. If a builder is an hour late to a job, no worries, he'll get it done, but my brain is still very happy to consider DISASTER.

This aside, I keep walking into the kitchen and beaming. Drawers! Bench space! Dishwasher.

Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for Magician First Class also progresses!

A spell circle with the text SPARKS & RECREATION beside three mock-up copies of Magician First Class as e-book, paperback, and hardcover

I pushed out the launch a bit. That's because I spoke to wise friends who said things like "You probably want more followers on launch" and "Here's a handy resource for update swaps within your genre that your backers might be interested in" and "you're planning to launch a Kickstarter in the same week you do edits and a kitchen renovation, are you insane?"

So the Magician First Class Kickstarter is officially launching on Monday 3 November (for most people) and Tuesday 4 November (for those of us in the future) and I am, as ever, very grateful for my wise friends!

I currently have more followers than early bird reward slots. If you're after a bargain, you definitely want to click "notify me on launch" so that you can get in there quick.

Katherines

My real, legal name is Karen Healey, and all my young adult books are published under that name, as well as a number of short stories and my Movie Magic series of cozy "clean" fantasy romance.

So why Kate Healey for my adult contemporary romances, and now my urban fantasy series? Especially when it's an open pen name, not a secret side quest?

Two reasons!

  1. I didn't want my younger readers stumbling into adult content unawares. I am all for younger readers choosing to read adult content, but the name change is a signal that here spicy times be if they don't want to go there.
  2. lbr, "Karen" has a brand problem.

I like my name! I think the Karen jokes are mostly hilarious and nearly always richly deserved, and my own response is to basically be the Karen I wish to see in the world. I must use my calling-the-manager powers for good! But "Karen" does have unpleasant associations. So I went back to Katherine, the base form of Karen, and was like, "oh, yeah, Kate Healey sounds like she writes contemporary romance and adult urban fantasy, I'll be her."

But who are the other Katherines? Genre-hopping bunny that I am, who else might I be in the future?

An exploration of Katherines:

  • Kathy Healey: Cosy mysteries staring a retired archeologist and her later-in-life PI love interest.
  • Katie Healey: Cookbooks aimed at busy one-person households. Includes sections like "Ten Things To Do With Bag Salad".
  • Kit Healey: Thoughtful near-future science fiction, perilously close to "transcending genre", often mistaken for a dude.
  • K.E. Healey: Contemporary psychological thrillers with the tension ratcheted up to eleven, lots of affairs and workplace betrayals.
  • Katherine Healey: Epic fantasy, cast of hundreds, huge sweeping arcs, six books at least, fate of kingdoms, MAPS.
  • Kitty Healey: Sapphic contemporary series, very spicy, probably involves NZ women firefighters putting together a calendar, what if the first one was between a firefighter and the photographer, what if the second was a second chance romance between the first firefighter's boss and her ex-girlfriend, a communication centre dispatch manager, what if the third was a rivals-to-lovers-but-actually-we're-on-the-same-side between a union rep and the arbitrator sent to rule on pay and conditions disputes, what no I haven't thought about writing this at all 1.

Honestly, I might end up writing any of these at some point. But for now, I'm happy to be Karen and Kate. Two people feels like enough at the moment - after all, I wouldn't want to be greedy.

That Healey Girl is the 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. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might like it!

1 Yes, I bought a calendar. Yes, it's fundraising for a non-profit breast cancer research organisation that does a lot of great work. No, that's not why I bought it.