Stephanie Burgis Guest Post

Author of the magical Kat Stephenson series, Stephanie Burgis, has written us a special guest post to mark the occasion of the third book in her trilogy publishing this month!

Over six years ago, I heard a girl’s voice start whispering in my head: “I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy and set out to save my family from impending ruin. I made it almost to the end of my front garden…”

They were the first lines of A Most Improper Magick. I dropped my knife (I’d been chopping onions in my kitchen at the time!) and ran to find a notebook and get the lines down before I could forget them.

Between then and now, so much has happened. I had a baby, and I moved from Leeds to Wales. I finished the book, and I found an agent. He sold it as the first book of a trilogy, the Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson. When I found out that it had sold to Templar in the UK, I laughed out loud with pure joy and delight. I got to attend my first publishing party in London, got to actually meet my editor. I got to see my books on the shelves of my local bookstore, one of the biggest miracles in the world.

I wrote the three Kat books sometimes lying on my couch, typing with my laptop on my legs (and Adam & the Ants’s “Stand and Deliver” blasting through my speakers), and sometimes sitting in my favourite coffeeshop, eating hazelnut-chocolate brownies and drinking endless lattes as I typed. I dragged my husband around every Regency-era house/museum I could find in England, Scotland, or Wales.

I’ve met so many smart, curious, inspiring girls and boys through Kat’s adventures. A Most Improper Magick won the Waverton Good Read Children’s Award, and on one of the best days of my life, I got to travel to Waverton to meet and talk to the fantastic kids who’d voted for Kat.

And I finished the last book in the trilogy. A Reckless Magick made me laugh out loud as I was writing it at a few points, as Kat gleefully threw herself into trouble, but it also made me cry, as she faced her biggest fears. This book pushed Kat to her utmost limits, and it pushed me to mine, too.

It finishes Kat’s story, at least for now. I really hope you like it.

When my author copies arrived, I got to hold all three books in my hand, together. I cried again, this time from happiness. Here they all are! They’re a trilogy. And they’re mine. Thank you so much for sharing them.

Keep up to date with Stephanie's news on Twitter @stephanieburgis or on her website