love spelled in scrabble tiles

Life Happens – and Then Some

Karin Kallmaker Book News, Covered Hearts, Frosting on the Cake Volume 3 2 Comments

You’ll notice that there aren’t any fancy pictures in this post. I’m composing it on my tablet via a thin, very thin!, WiFi signal. The quick version: my father had a stroke almost exactly a week ago and is now in hospice care at home with my mom. My brother and I are here with them until his body decides its time to let go.

That said, we were fortunate in one small aspect. My brother and I had both already set aside time to get their family home ready for sale since they’ve moved into a wonderful independent senior facility. Yes, until this happened, at 86 and 91, they were largely independent and proudly so. They’ve been married for 68 years and wherever one of them is, it’s home for both of them. (I wrote about how they met in this post about a family Thanksgiving.) Hospice is a great concept for care, too, because, in final days, home is so much better than a noisy hospital.

My father has had a good and long life. He loved the outdoors, worked in a lumber camp as a teen, spent four years in the Navy making sure the USS O’Brien’s secondary engines would work if needed (a supply ship that took fire every day for over three years), and moved on to a long career as a highway patrol officer. During that time he flew in search and rescue missions for years, using his extensive knowledge of the Northern California Sierras. He loved flying so much he got his private pilot’s license, then qualified for commercial status so he could fly the CHP speed control plane. That’s right, if you got a speeding ticket on I-5 coming into Sacramento in the 1980s-90s, it might have been him!

Down to business.

The only thing that makes sense for me in terms of my writing schedule is to set aside Covered Hearts (the fifth book of the Coin of Love Series). Though it’s more than half done, the deadline to publish it is mine and mine alone. The editor knows the project is underway but hadn’t yet set aside time that took away from other work, and there’s no pre-order underway. It’s easy business-wise to pick it up and move it to later this year. Maybe not so easy creative-wise because – for the first time in my career – I have a functional outline for the remainder of the story. I know I will be happy about that when I pick it up again, but writers will know how hard it is to lose momentum when writing is going well.

This change to my schedule will allow me to focus solely on the project that is in a pipeline that affects other people, and was already delayed because of my own (brief and resolved) health scare. That’s Frosting on the Cake 3: The Holidays. Just a month ago I assured Bella Books’ production staff that it was on schedule for its deadline. It still is, but only if I set aside everything else. Heck or high water, you’ll be seeing it this fall in time for fun holiday reading featuring 13 previous couples from earlier novels.

Exciting tangent – for the first time Sabrina Starling from Maybe Next Time is speaking to me. She’s held a grudge about how long it took her to find happiness and has only given me side-eye ever since. But now she has a story to tell about her life with Jorie, and Jorie’s daughter Penny.

I know that many of you will hold kind thoughts for my mom and dad right now and I thank you in advance for them. My mom – and our family, for that matter – is resilient. She’s a former school librarian, and a reader, and she will find ways to adapt to his absence, as we all will.

Life happens. Right now, a lot of life is happening in all of its stages. The sun still comes up and I discover every day the essential goodness of people who sincerely want to help. You won’t see much about them on the evening news, but kindness is rampant in the world!

From the hand drawn 1989 Naiad Press cover of In Every Port, a silhouetted women in blue gazes out an airplane window at clouds.

In Every Port – History on a Flyleaf

Karin Kallmaker In Every Port, Readers and Libraries 6 Comments

I’ve seen hot debates in more than one group over that photo of really really long books that someone split in two to make them easier to carry. The reaction is often horror, and many people have strong feelings about dog ears, note taking, and other forms of “destruction” of the book.

This picture is why I don’t mind what people do with books they own. This is the flyleaf of my first book, In Every Port [Naiad Press, 1989], about 15 years after it had been passed hand to hand or was left in base libraries for others to find, and with enough information that maybe these women could find each other.

Had anyone split it into sections so it could be better hidden or shared, I’d be fine with that.
 

This copy of the book was gifted to me by a reader who came across it in the later 2000s – what a find, and how validating for me to see that my story of love was read by women surviving in dark places around the world at a time when it was unsafe to show anyone who you were.

Do I mind that they wrote it in? That it’s a bit water stained and pages are dogeared? No. No I do not. I do hope, however, that Arisha did get it when she got back, at least for a while.
 

book cover in every port lesbian romance classic

The original, classic Naiad Press cover, 1989.

 

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Image Read an Ebook Week. Smashwords. Your ebook, your way. Sapphic Stories on Sale. Cartoon image of young woman holding a paperback.

Read an Indie Ebook – Gigantic Smashwords Sale

Karin Kallmaker Book News, Events and Appearances 0 Comments

The short version: All of my indie works are 50% until the end of the week. You can see all nine titles here. In particular, Knight of Nights I don’t believe has ever been this discounted!

Curious for more? Here’s a handy click to all the sapphic/lesbian romance that’s on sale. You’ll see familiar names and new ones, series starters, and box sets. You can also roam through mainstream mysteries, LGBTQ horror, and all the other categories that Smashwords has that are designed around how readers actually search for books.

One reason I like Smashwords is that my dollars go into pockets that aren’t that giant near-monopoly. I also like that it’s an old school online shopping experience, and that is a good thing to me. In the last year, that big site and that big search engine have deliberately gotten worse at search results in the hope that you’ll buy something you weren’t looking for that makes them more profit.

I guess they’re crossing their fingers that I won’t forget the thing I was going to buy and don’t leave the site when I can’t find it with an exact title match search. /endrant

Still reading? I do have one quibble with the sale, and that’s the Smashwords graphic you saw above. It’s an ebook sale. What’s the reader holding in her hands?

Famous meme of little girl in pigtails with a pink jacket shrugging her shoulders, palms up, as if to say "I super don't know why this is happening."

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Pride weeks flags Progress, Rainbow, Dublin, California, United States flags photo by Karin Kallmaker

I Stand with The T – Public Thread

Karin Kallmaker LIFE + STYLE, Sisters of the Pen 6 Comments

Why This Post

The post below captures a thread I released on eXTwitter on May 2, 2022.* It’s been roughly 18 months since and I wouldn’t change a word – except the misuse of “whose” in the second paragraph. My account there is dormant.

There are so many lies and intellectually dishonest “What Ifs” being told directly to us, by some of us, about our trans family. It’s their goal to make us feel as if someone else’s rights come at the expense of ours. This is the antithesis of feminism and there is nothing radical about it. It’s the same old same old same old.

As I’ve said for years, rights must be universal or they’re not rights.

Sisters of the Pen who Shaped Me

My philosophy around these complicated issues comes from learning the words of Judy Grahn, Joan Nestle, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler, and Dorothy Allison. And so many more. Their fortitude, brilliance, and ability to sit with complexity without being numbed or overwhelmed into inaction are beacons of unity and love in a fractured world.Read More

woman listening to headphones

Love Comes in through the Ears (Audio Giveaway)

Karin Kallmaker Above Temptation, Car Pool, Just Like That, Love by the Numbers, Making Up for Lost Time, My Lady Lipstick, One Degree of Separation, Roller Coaster, Simply the Best, Stepping Stone, Touchwood 30th Anniversary Edition, Warming Trend, Wild Things 84 Comments


Drawing and comment period is now closed. Winners announced in the comments and by email.


Thanks to the supportive people at Bella Books and Tantor Media, this year alone three of my stories became audiobooks, with at least two more in production!

Equally wonderful are the narration talents of Quinn Riley for all three of these stories. Quinn seems to get me and my characters all the way to our DNA. She even seems to understand my sense of humor. Which, I admit, is an acquired taste. Read More