I can’t read my own handwriting.
“Karen,” you say, “what are all those little yellow squares with handwriting on them?” “Handwriting I have blurred a number of times in photoshop, Internets,” I reply. “I do not want the contents of those squares to be discernible! Because I am plotting a book.” “Oh, Karen,” you sigh. “There are these things called computers, perhaps you have heard of them?” “Well, Internets,” I say, “I think the method of presentation for this imaginary conversation is adequate evidence that I have,...
read moreYuletide Tales
Today my fabulous sister looked at my mother during the traditional zillion rounds of hotly contested Uno and said, “Hey, Mum, tell the story of how you gave that nun the heart attack.” “What?” I said. “I haven’t heard this one!” “I didn’t give a nun a heart attack,” Mum protested. “She was probably going to have it anyway. I was just there when she did.” As a teenager, my mother attended St Thomas’s High School, a girls-only school attached to the local convent; naturally, many of the teachers were nuns. One day...
read moreFaith in Foxholes
I went to Christmas Mass this year. I was raised Catholic and turned agnostic, then atheist in my teens, which was the kick-off for a number of truly spectacular fights between me and my mother. The part where I pretended I was going to Mass by myself and instead snuck off to a friend’s house because I was too chicken to tell her I was having doubts about the whole God thing was particularly memorable, especially when I got caught. We both went nuclear in the kitchen. My siblings and father cleared out and let us scream at each other before we retreated to opposite ends of the house in...
read moreBeautiful Day
Yesterday I accompanied my cousin on a trip to a farm near Rakaia, which is near Christchurch. His job was to check and re-service the wireless hub on a movable irrigator; mine was to keep him awake long enough to do it and drive back, and also pester him with endless questions about dairy farming and the technology used to facilitate it. Research, folks! Not just in libraries. He went off to consult with the farmer in the milking shed, while I, in keeping with my “no pooh” policy, peeked in long enough to get an idea of the environment, and then returned to the car to stay out...
read moreThat’s In A Name
I’m a nerd who lives on the internet and has a reasonably common name and a couple of email accounts, so I am often made aware of the existence of other Karen Healeys. Sometimes I learn about these other people who share my name when I get email intended for them. There’s a Karen Healey in the USA who is a deeply Christian woman with a large circle of friends who haven’t all updated their address books from a mistype a couple of years back. They are all very nice when I notify them of this error, and frequently promise to pray for me, which I’d rather they...
read moreAbout Karen
Karen Healey is a young adult novelist. She is the author of the urban fantasies GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD and THE SHATTERING, both set in New Zealand, and the forthcoming sci-fi adventure WHEN WE WAKE. GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD won the 2010 Aurealis Award for Best YA Novel and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award. Karen can tell you a lot about baking, covers of "Hallelujah" and superhero comics.
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