dark haired light skinned woman in blue shirt and yellow beret against plain light blue backgrounds looks likes she hatching a plan

Rule #2 for the Win – A Femme’s Tale of a 1980s Workplace

Karin Kallmaker Cowboys and Kisses, LIFE + STYLE 8 Comments

Breaking the rules without looking like you’re breaking the rules. It’s something I tried to excel at as a child. Like Ways-to-Get-Ice-Cream-Even-Though-It-Will-Spoil-My-Dinner.

In my early years of loving as a lesbian and living as a femme woman in a world where nearly all rules were made by men to benefit men, I discovered ways to look like I went along with the rules even as I used the rules to resist the rules. I call that Subverting the Patriarchy. It could be good fun, and often eased the relentless pinpricks of sexism and male privilege. Read More

white cake with chocolate pieces and frosting drips with black and red berries

What Happened Next, Round 3

Karin Kallmaker Book News, Frosting 3 - Still Crazy After All These Years, Readers and Libraries 81 Comments

Drawing and comment period is now closed. Winners announced in this comment.

(Apologies to those who received this post in their inbox twice. Something went awry with the interwebs WordPress magicks and it was not pretty!)

Has Kesa finally designed a dress for Jennifer Lamont to wear to the Oscars? Is Helen Baynor still the Queen of Broadway? Do Kip and Tam ever have a chance to get away from the job? Will anyone ever give Lisa the credit she is due for always being right? Does a TikTok world offer celebrity chef Valkyrie Valentine a way to go viral? Do Alice and Pepper really go on an all-science road trip? Read More

Never has a fictional character’s Happily Ever After delighted me more. - Lou Morgan's Reviews

Names and “Fallen” Women

Karin Kallmaker Cowboys and Kisses 11 Comments

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The old-fashioned western was popular when I was growing up. My grandmother had bookcases of Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey. My dad never missed a John Wayne flick. The iconic tropes of movies like Destry Rides Again were so powerful that 65 years later Blazing Saddles satirized that film and others, and everybody got the joke.

For myself, I might have been more engrossed watching Marlene Dietrich and Madeline Kahn in their performances as “fallen” women than the scenery and six-shooters. I have to put quotes on “fallen” because no western I’ve ever read or seen asks, “Fallen from what and according to whom?” Read More

Cover, Touchwood by Karin Kallmaker. Reader review "Touchwood's very slow burn romance is honest, beautiful and yes – sexy." Hand-drawn graphic of an open book, mug of coffee on a table, and a bookshelf lining the wall.

30 Years? How Can that Be?!

Karin Kallmaker Touchwood 30th Anniversary Edition 44 Comments

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I still can’t believe it’s been thirty years since the love story of Rayann and Louisa made its way out into the world. Half my brain accepts that events of that time are ancient history now, but the other half feels like I wrote this story merely “a while back.” Before I had kids, you know, not that long ago except both have graduated college now… Well sh*t.

Thirty years went by really fast.

It’s strange to realize that an age-gap romance I wrote in part to claim history for an older lesbian is now itself a step back in time for the younger woman’s experiences as well. I guess it’s not all that strange that all these years later I’d resonate with Louisa more than ever before. A lot of you who read the original back in the day and this edition now have said much the same thing. Read More

chart showing why the writer is crying, chose random page to admire in new release, found typo

Why the Writer is Crying – a Meme

Karin Kallmaker Craft of Writing, LIFE + STYLE 0 Comments

A friend shared the Librarian version of this meme and I immediately thought of all the things writers post about that make them cry.

It’s also true that if you created a similar chart for “How Writers Procrastinate” making a spreadsheet to make a meme to make a blog post would be item number two, after cleaning the house.

P.S. The best depiction of a writer in film is the opening of Romancing the Stone as Kathleen Turner sobs over her keyboard and has used up every possible tissue in the house and finally blows her nose on a post-it note reminding her to buy tissues. 100% accurate. Read More