woman listening to headphones

The Voices Told Me To – Comfort and Joy Audiobook

Karin Kallmaker Comfort and Joy 3 Comments

Every character I write has a distinctive voice in my ear. Different word choices and inflections. Idioms and euphemisms. Or a way of saying a certain sentence different from all the others because it’s a line from a movie or a song. On a good day I feel like I’m merely the typist lucky enough to hear their story first.

Though I try to capture those nuances, all of that uniqueness doesn’t carry over into the printed version. Only I hear it. Which is why I truly love reading my work aloud. (Possibly because it makes this process sound a little less crazy, but I digress.)

Finally, I can use the voice of Bugs Bunny, or add the Winnie the Pooh think-think-think sound, so that they are part of the experience of the story for the reader the way it has been for me for oh so many years.

When I decided to undertake this production, I quickly realized the biggest luxury of the project was not being under a time limit to get through a scene. I could slow down and breathe, huzzah! I missed the live audience reaction, but I also got used to that.

While my performance may not be the high polish of the professional narrators out there, I hope that my personal attachment to the characters comes across in the reading, as if we were gathered in a cozy bookstore, safe and together, while I read it.

Clocking in at just under 90 minutes, I think it’s a great length for commutes. I hope it’s a story you’ll look forward to every year.

One last thing: I treasure constructive, critical feedback. Please leave a review. Tell me what you thought here or post a review at the site where you purchased it. And I thank you for the gift of your time! Your feedback will count in the decision to do further projects.

Copyrighted Material
cover Comfort and Joy audiobook unabridged read by author

Comfort and Joy – Audiobook Available!

Karin Kallmaker Comfort and Joy 1 Comment

CONTENTS

The best laid plans of releasing this holiday audiobook didn’t include an unexpected 10 15-day delay in the approval and release by Audible. All my fault. I misunderstood that “3-5 days” actually meant, without explanation or apology, “15-20 25+ business days.” Read More

Karin with mom, aunt and grandma

That One Thanksgiving with the Whipped Cream Thing

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate 5 Comments

CONTENTS

Meet Marie

My maternal grandmother, Marie, was a baker. I was very little, but I clearly remember going to the county fair one year and instead of going to the rides, we went right to the venue for the baking competition. My grandmother said, “Well, I’ll be,” at the sight of her name written on a huge piece of butcher paper tacked to the wall.

grandma marie circa 1965

She’d won the prize for All-Around Best, well, Everything. She won two more times in subsequent years. This happened later in her life when baking was a serious hobby. She’d learned to bake through pure necessity in rural Oregon and California. She had no car, the stores were always a long way off, and you made meals out of what you had. She once told me that in WWII during rationing, with only two kids, she always had shoe coupons to spare, and she would trade them for sugar coupons. That meant she could put up her fruit crop for winter – peaches and apricots if I remember correctly. Even if the main meal was lean there were treats. Read More

books and boots dallas gcls logo

Books and Boots Gather in Dallas November 10!

Karin Kallmaker Events and Appearances 0 Comments

Feeling as if the barbarians are at the gate, and it’s nonstop? Gather with likeminded people, get some hugs, breathe easy. I recommend it with all my heart, and it’s how I’m coping in this very difficult time. If you can get yourself to Dallas on November 10, I will hug you and that’s a promise!

It’ll be a great day with a lot of wonderful authors you can talk to, and plenty of other readers who like what you like: stories about women who love women. Read More

michelle yeoh in crazy rich asians

Crazy Rich Asians – a RomCom that Takes Love Seriously

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate, Craft of Writing 2 Comments

CONTENTS

Box office blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, which I saw this week, succeeds so well as a romantic comedy that I was left wondering how it is that so many romcoms don’t. I think this is the core of the problem:

You can poke fun at the couple’s foibles, and you can put them in awkward situations, but you can’t make light of love itself.

Read More