The question I get asked most often

My part-time day job is in a big school with a lot of cool people. Many of them, being cool people with good taste, backed Magician First Class in the Kickstarter or have picked it up since.

So sometimes, when we're in the staffroom gulping down a restorative coffee1 or waiting for the microwave to reheat last night's leftovers, they will say nice things about the book and then ask: When can I read the next one?

Well, I'm delighted to say... pretty soon!

Second Chance Charms is going into edits in the first week of April, which means I'm doing pre-launch for the Kickstarter, and planning to launch in May. Go ahead and follow the campaign now to be there for launch day. Then you get first shot at the Early Bird rewards, which sold out super fast last year!

Charlie, you're gonna hurt yourself.

Kickstarter is great for the Sparks and Recreation series for two reasons:

  1. Kickstarter funds production. I am on a tight budget, but it's very important to me to pay editors and artists fairly, and to turn out a high quality book at the end of the process. A Kickstarter campaign means my readers can invest in that process and make sure it happens!
  2. Kickstarter gets us extras. Last year I was able to commission postcards as a bonus and we also got Alison Cooley's terrific Thirteenth Avenue map art in digital and optional physical form as stretch goals. This year I'm planning on a Kickstarter exclusive short story and--brace for it--character art being early stretch goals, as well as more swag for the add-on lovers.

You can see a small version of Melanie's awesome cover in that Kickstarter banner, but come back next week for the full cover reveal!

While I'm hurtling ahead with my new series, I also took a minute to look back at Olympus Inc.

Features: chicken soup, dorks in love

On Saturday night I sneezed six times in a row and had suspicious thoughts about the cause. On Sunday, I woke up with a head cold. I get these two or three times a year (again: I work in a school) and I have learned that if I baby myself I get better a lot faster than if I try to soldier through. So I dosed myself up, snuggled into my bed.... and wrote a 3k+ short story called "The Proposal of Persephone Erinyes" with my laptop propped up on a pillow.

Look, okay, just because I know the right thing to do doesn't always mean I'll do it. And I was super nice to myself today to make up for it!

And I've had this story in my head for a long time. Persephone and Hades were my first Olympus Inc. couple, and throughout the Olympian Arc we see them fall in love (Persephone in Bloom), prepare to move in together (Aphrodite Unbound), and by the end of Hera Takes Charge, get engaged. But we don't know how they got engaged or what the proposal looked like. In this story, I work that out.

(It starts with Hades sick in bed, because hey, write what you know.)

"The Proposal of Persephone Erinyes" is available at the Bonus Content tier of my Patreon, along with a whole host of other exclusive goodies.

It was so nice to get back to Olympus Inc! I think I'll revisit again soon. After all, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is coming out May 1, and I expect to be inspired.

Before the germs colonised my respiratory system, I made it to Australian comedian Reuben Solo's comedy show, Someone in this Crowd Will Betray Me. I wrote a review for Flat City Field Notes, which covers arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch. (It's always great to review something you enjoyed very much, and that is also interestingly twisty to think about later.)

Solo later posted it on his story with the caption "first review of the show that understands what's going on", so I am going to call that a win. I haven't written theatre criticism in OH seven million years, but this was a great way to re-enter the field.

What else am I watching? THE PITT. We're all thinking about The Pitt, right? The Instagram algorithm has figured out that I am down bad for Dr Jack Abbot, and keeps feeding me supercuts of him being caring and competent and a little bit cynical and also shirtless. I am normally wary of the algorithm's wily ways, but I am willing to be pandered to, just this once.

I'm also watching (from my sickbed) St. Denis, an emergency department-set sitcom that delights me in a very specific way. I love a sitcom where the characters are various levels of emotionally irregulated and complete mess, but when there's a crisis, they snap into competence and work together to do whatever needs to be done. See also Lower Decks, where the main four (later five) characters are all loveable idiots with many issues, but also brave and intelligent Starfleet officers. I just love people being good at their jobs2.

(I will also make the case that the Pitt is a comedy to anyone who stands still long enough, but it's definitely a less exaggerated humour)

Now, I'm going to level with you--normally I'd try and find a way to satisfyingly pull these threads together in a concluding paragraph, but my face feels like it's stuffed with cotton-wool and I need a nap. I'm going to go look after myself.

I hope you do too.

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 AKA "teacher juice"

2 Surprising no one who's ever read any of my workplace-centred romances. Competence is sexy, y'all.