Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile - The Linkapalooza • Karin Kallmaker • Author

CONTENTS

The exclusivity term at Kindle Unlimited has expired! You can get Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile almost everywhere as of now.

One of the reasons I made this story exclusive to Amazon for the first 90 days was so those readers who rely on Kindle Unlimited would get a chance to read the story. And they did – it ranked #1 in its category during release week, and lingered in the top ten for the first 30 days. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Linkapalooza

Here’s the massive linkapalooza for it’s entire distribution.* Or, you can go to your favorite book place and search for “kallmaker black velvet.” The story is still only 99¢ in $US, or the equivalent in your local currency. If you read via your library it’s free.

Sapphic Community Sites

Direct from the Author
From the lesbian-owned sapphic-community bookseller that carries many publishers and independent authors.

Bella Books

Retailers and Apps

Amazon / Kindle Around the World
USA UK AUS CAN DEU NL ITL ESP FR JPN MX BRZ IND

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Access via Library Card

Tell your library you want to read this or any other sapphic titles you can’t find, and they may add it to their catalog list. You’ve not only got it for yourself, you’ve added it for everyone at your library system who wants some sapphic reads. IMO this is one of the most powerful pieces of advocacy and resistance a reader can do for sapphic authors and their own community.

Libby – library lending in the US.
Cloud Library – library lending in the US.
Palace Marketplace – library lending in the US.
Borrow Box – library lending in the UK.
Odilo – library lending in Europe.
Hoopla – it takes forever for Hoopla to add indie published titles like this one. It’s still not there, I’m sad to say, but it is in the publishing queue.

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A Note About Reviews and Ratings

It cannot be overstated how much they matter to visibility of sapphic stories for readers trying to find them. Wherever you read, give a sapphic story a rating. Tell other readers how it made your feel. Your rating or review may also be what balances the sly 1- and 2-star ratings from organized review bombers who are trying to use the algorithm to hide LGBTQ+ books. Like every sapphic author, I have my share.

You make the book world turn and give me a reason to stay at the keyboard. Thank you for reading in these crazy times.

Check Out a Sample

Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile

My dress is too tight. I can’t breathe.

The day I met Maxim Sedaria my dress was also too tight. I couldn’t catch my breath then, and I haven’t been able to ever since.

The mother of the groom had made a brief introduction. “Amy, this is Maxim. The only one of Greg’s attendants who couldn’t manage to get to rehearsal.” She tacked on the kind of tight smile that underscored her disapproval.

Until that moment it was yet another wedding, with me wearing yet another bilious, ill-fitting dress I’d shove into the back of my closet. This one was aqua with mango-hued sequins that highlighted female attributes, part of the Viva Las Vegas Jill+Greg Hunk of Burning Love theme. I refused to tally up just how many times I’d stood up for friends. So far, they’d all managed to stay married while I, the lesbian in their midst, was the only divorcée. Since the split there’d been a string of not “happy ever afters,” none of which could even be counted as “happy for now” beyond a few late-night hours.

As with introductions at weddings, our gazes slid over each other with perfunctory politeness along with murmured niceties.

And then came back to lock like of opposite poles in the same dynamic magnet. I was frozen in place and robbed of air. I hadn’t understood that the lone “she” among Greg’s attendants, the Maxim the groom referred to with distinct fondness, was the type of woman who wore a suit and tie like a second skin.

The black velvet jacket, with its flipped-up collar, looked both dangerous and dashing. The Elvis piled-high and slicked-back pompadour the groom’s party were all sporting cast Maxim’s already smoky eyes into the dramatic shadow of a dark, thick curl of black hair that gel was straining to keep in place. Her smile was slow, and as I struggled to appear politely nonchalant, it became knowing.

As if she could read my mind.

That kind of “I know what you want” smirk left me cold to most would-be flirts. Right now, however, I was flushed, almost trembling.

I can read the clothes. I can take in her sense of confidence and that bit of brashness. She’s not hiding it from anyone. Can I understand her the way she thinks she understands me? No, which is unfairly frustrating and mysterious. But maybe that was exactly why I was flustered.

I knew then why Jill had been positively smug when promising, “You’re going to hate the dress, but you’ll loving dancing with Maxim.”

Copyrighted material, 2025

Romance and Chocolate Ink

In the interests of full disclosure, this short story and all of my novella-length work is self-published via my own imprint Romance and Chocolate Ink. All of my novel-length work is published by Bella Books. In addition, my forthcoming collection of next-chapter short stories, Frosting on the Cake 3: Still Crazy After All These Years will be published by Bella Books.

*None of the links on this post, or any post for that matter, are affiliate links. My site doesn’t track or tag where you go from here.

Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile – The Linkapalooza