Front and back photo of two bags of coffee. Design features colorful big-eyed dinosaurs clutching coffee mugs. Label reads Winchell Mountain Coffee. "Old Friends Having Coffee" small batch Italian Roast. Net weight 12 oz (340 grams) art by Sandra Boynton (yes, that Sandra Boynton)

Old Friends Having Coffee and Talking about Books

Karin Kallmaker Events and Appearances, LIFE + STYLE 4 Comments

Coffee Talk

This post is not about coffee. But we’re going to start there.

I was in my thirties before I thought coffee wasn’t flavored with burnt wet hay. I kept trying it, with plenty of sweetener and dairy. Then less and less add-ins, more and more just coffee.

italian roast has entered the chat

Over the decades my palate has decided that Italian Roast is sublime, peak coffee. The Sophia Loren and Stanley Tucci of coffee.

It’s different from other roasting choices because, while it reaches the same final temperature, it does it much more slowly. Deep, dark flavor with a bitter edge that doesn’t taste like char and burnt wet hay. It holds up to being iced, which is my favorite way to drink it.

Small image of large black button and small green button that is lit Karin Kallmaker @kallmaker post conducted test 37 of my scietific theory "Coffee will not brew if I don't press the button." Results: PROVEN. #WhyThereIsNoCoffee

There are lots of fancy ways to make coffee, but my go-to is a good ol’ Mr. Coffee. Measure the grounds into the paper filter (all of which is compostable). Bang in the potful of water. Remember to push the button. Watch dark brown goodness drip into pot. Because “Good coffee doesn’t have to be complicated.”

decaf has entered the chat

As a woman in my sixties, I need to reduce caffeine intake a bit. My solution is to blend my ground coffee beans with half decaf, half regular. Peet’s Italian Roast transports me to Europe with every sip, but they don’t do a decaf.

sandra boynton has entered the chat

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Text of banner: Boldly read... Lesbian hope & romance novella only @KU and Amazon thru Sept 12! Heat-Cute, Spicy Surprises, Best wrong decision ever. (Then it'll be at Bella, Kobo, Apple, and all the rest!) Cover, TO BOLDLY FOLLOW by Karin Kallmaker. Harried redhead rushes forward while staring at her phone. She has a Bag of Holding. Hearts fall around her with a rainbow spectrum backdrop. A lesbian convention heat-cute.

To Boldly Follow Now Exclusively at Amazon, Kindle Unlimited

Karin Kallmaker Book News, To Boldly Follow 0 Comments

Shortest blog ever? Maybe?

As promised, To Boldly Follow is now exclusively at Amazon for Kindle Unlimited subscribers or for purchase. One September 12 it will be available everywhere else it can possibly be, including Bella Books, Apple, Kobo, and library services.

Amazon links:

 USA     UK     AUS     CAN     DEU     NL    

 ITL     ESP     FR     JPN     MX     BRZ     IND 

If you’re one of the many people who got their copy from my store this past week, I’d deeply appreciate a rating and/or review at Goodreads or Amazon.

  Cover, To Boldly Follow, a lesbian convention heat-cute by Karin Kallmaker. A cartoon redheaded, pink-skinned woman in purple clothes and carrying a yellow Bag of Holding gazes at her phone. Yellow, blue, and pink hearts sprinkle across a rainbow-gradient background. Published by Romance and Chocolate Ink.

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Cover, To Boldly Follow by Karin Kallmaker. Text COMING SOON. Heat Cute. Spicy Surprises. Best Wrong Decision Ever. Hope & Romance Novella. Cover, To Boldly Follow, a lesbian convention heat-cute by Karin Kallmaker. A cartoon redheaded, pink-skinned woman in purple clothes and carrying a yellow Bag of Holding gazes at her phone. Yellow, blue, and pink hearts sprinkle across a rainbow-gradient background. Published by Romance and Chocolate Ink.

A Sweet Surprise – Cover Reveal of a New Novella

Karin Kallmaker Book News, To Boldly Follow 8 Comments

June 13 update – – > It’s on Kindle Unlimited and Amazon.

June 2 update – – > IT’S HERE!


Some things go as planned, and other things don’t. That’s life. In the case of To Boldly Follow, changing plans ended up being a very good thing.

How it Started

I wanted to release the story, written back in 2017, into the wild for readers who didn’t catch it in its original iteration. That’s it. So simple, right? It’ll just take a couple days, sure. I literally said that aloud because I NEVER LEARN.

And then it grew FIVE TIMES the size and became a novella at just over 12,000 words.

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huge stack of KK books

Why Generative AI Can Never Write My Next Book

Karin Kallmaker Craft of Writing 0 Comments

This post is going to seem like a lot of words to make a very simple point. You could read the table of contents and get the gist.

It follows on what I wrote in My Voice and Why Gen AI Can’t Fake It a week or so ago.

As I wrote at the end of the post, I’m looking at a couple million words in the rear view mirror, and every project has the same lifecycle.

I learn.
I write.
I learn.
I publish.
I learn.
I write.
I learn.
I publish.
I learn…

Doesn’t it logically follow, then, that my next book will be written by a different me than the me that wrote my last book? Read More

"a calendar year's journey through the lives of couples who believe in love, live proud, and embrace the future" text over pink red white and blue swirl frosted cupcakes with sparkles and cover image of Frosting on the Cake 3: Still Crazy After All These Years by Karin Kallmaker

Frosting 3 – Goldie Finalist WINNER and That’s Crazy Good

Karin Kallmaker Frosting 1 - The Original, Frosting 2 - Second Helpings, Frosting 3 - Still Crazy After All These Years 5 Comments

Over the course of a writer’s life the reason to put the words on page can vary along a spectrum from I HAVE TO DO THIS to READERS WANT THIS. Even during the creating of any story that measure slides back and forth.

With projects like Frosting on the Cake collections, almost every word is way over on the reader side of the scale.

You’ve let me know what novels you adore, and I specifically craft stories about the characters that continue the flow of that novel even if it’s been 35 years since the final page.

I’ll admit, though, that sometimes it’s a character yammering in my ear that inspires, like Lisa from both Warming Trend and My Lady Lipstick.

Also, as many of you already know, writing has been a struggle for a past few years due to medication and, well, the entire crapshow that is the United States government right now, and that crapshow built right on top of the crapshow that was COVID. Through it all my publisher, Bella Books, has been extraordinarily patient. We were all happy when the book finally reached readers!

For all that and more than I can likely express, it is meaningful and touching that Frosting on the Cake 3: Still Crazy After All These Years is a finalist for a 2026 Goldie Award. I wrote it for readers, especially those who have been with me since 1989, all through the gay and gayer 1990s, the end of our bookstores, the beginning of the wild ride that is still publishing in the 2020s. I heard from many of you how much you enjoyed one more look into the lives of old favorites and newer stories too.

Thank you, all of you.


The Goldies are the awards of the Golden Crown Literary Society, which also hosts my favorite event of the year. I’ll be attending this August at the Orlando conference, standing proud and visible with my Florida queer family. I hope to see you there!

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