Petra, a 24-year-old highly introverted graphic designer, isn’t sure she’s ready for a relationship, but isn’t entirely happy with singleness either. Encouraged by her co-workers and driven by a strong desire not to live with regret, she decides to participate in GoDate for the very first time. But as GoDate takes her on all manner of dates—both good and bad—Petra is forced to question what it is she actually wants.
Karen Beilharz is a writer, editor and comics creator based in Sydney, Australia. Her work as an editor includes two volumes of Queenie Chan’s Fabled Kingdom comics prose series and the graphic novels Sneaky Goblins and Mythic Creature Trainer by René Pfitzner. Her work as a writer includes the comic anthologies Kinds of Blue and Monsters (which was shortlisted for a Ledger Award in 2017), and the science fiction graphic novel Eternal Life (with Paul Wong-Pan). The Dating Program is her first published work of prose fiction.
When she is not writing or editing, she is enjoying live music with her husband, encouraging her two daughters to make comics, bingeing on Asian dramas and knitting, and furiously trying to catch up on Twitter.
Find out more about her work and download some free comics at hivemindedness.com.