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Infomercials and Act Now Sites, Fraud, and Your Credit Card – Be Cautious!

Karin Kallmaker Above Temptation, LIFE + STYLE 1 Comment

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This comes under the heading of Public Service Announcement. Today I saw a rash of unrelated Facebook posts that all complained of similar issues dealing with credit card charges where people bought something from infomercials and fell into a pit of credit card hell.

Perhaps it’s because people bought certain kinds of things during and after the holidays. Only now are the problems becoming apparent – not with the product, but with the company hired by the infomercials (or clickbait websites) to take their money.

Why Am I Telling You All This?

I’ve been asked where I got the details about fraud and banking issues that are covered in Above Temptation. I used to be an accountant and as such, underwent audits by CPAs. They love to tell war stories about fraud and issues they detected. I’m also a late night TV junkie and I watch a lot of infomercials while I’m working. Read More

Dark-haired woman holds a headphone. In front of her in a cafe is her phone and a greyish blue cup of coffee on a matching saucer.

So Many Audiobooks!

Karin Kallmaker Book News 1 Comment

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It’s Angela Dawe, Y’all

On October 8 the audiobook of Roller Coaster will become available! Angela’s narration of Touchwood was phenomenal, bringing Louisa to life in that story in a way that matched her voice in my head all these years. So I’m braced for a fantastic rendition of an stage actress facing menopause and a private chef with a personal demon and a bit of a secret.

Read More

Groom about to slip ring on bride's finger

Transitions of Joy

Karin Kallmaker LIFE + STYLE 10 Comments

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Hey! It’s me! I know, right? It’s been a while, but then it’s been a year.

As most of you know, back in March my father passed away. So there’s that. My brother and I were already gearing up to sell my parent’s home as they’d moved into a terrific senior facility. April, May, June, and July were filled with new carpet, paint, drain backup, septic cleanouts, shoulder-high weeds, new roof, new fence, and on and on. The last day I spent at the house (supervising movers taking the last items to storage) the drains backed up a second time, but it was a very easy fix with a root cause of the house having been empty without water in the pipes for many months.

So it’s been a time.

My mother is doing very well in her new reality without her husband of 68 years, which is a testament to her resilience. A trait I do believe was fully passed on to both my brother and I!Read More

Week #22 Fish out of Water, I Heart Sapph FIC 2024 Reading Challenge. A blue and yellow fish leaps happily between stacks of books.

The Beloved Fish Out of Water Trope

Karin Kallmaker Book News, Checked Out 0 Comments

It’s one of the tropes I love to explore: the Fish out of Water. It provides opportunities for misunderstandings that aren’t contrived and humor that arises organically from the situation. It gives characters a way to compare/contrast cultures, and to poke gentle fun at the unique foibles of any group. It can do all of that on the lighter side but can go alongside darker themes, like the universal experiences of alienation, yearning for that place that means “home” to us, and wanting to belong to a place and people who value us.

For the character out of her element, the world is upside down. In a romance that means the world will go rightside up with the right mate comes along. Eventually.

When writing my very lesbian version of The Little Mermaid, I called it A Fish Out of Water as both literal and figurative allusion to the mermaid’s plight. I had a wonderful time plopping a city girl right in the middle of a steamy Iowa summer in One Degree of Separation. But I digress.

This Week at I Heart SapphFIC

The all-things-sapphic site is highlighting stories with the Fish out of Water trope. (You’ll also find Return to Hometown stories being featured this week too! And a lot of books on sale!) The Fish out of Water focus includes my Checked Out where a federal agent determined to complete an assignment finds an equal steely resolve in a local librarian. And lots of cookies.

Cover of Checked Out by Karin Kallmaker in paperback

It seems fitting that this theme is featured as we begin Pride Month. I don’t know about you, but I spent a lot of my younger life feeling like a perpetual fish out of water. And then I found the right waters to swim in.

Here’s the entire I Heart SapphFIC list of Fish out of Water stories. It’s a great trope for romance, but you’ll see that it’s in mysteries, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. Books like Eule Grey’s Pest Control, Rachel Parisi’s Magic and Mead, and Cameron Darrow’s Death Has Golden Eyes. It even works for creative non-fiction, like Shaley Howard’s Excuse Me, Sir?: Memoir of a Butch.

Happy reading and happy pride!

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Transitions and Thank You

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate 12 Comments

So many people have commented on my blog and social media posts sending love and kind thoughts for my mom and dad. My dad passed away very peacefully last Friday with my mom, my brother, and me near.

My mom is doing just fine, though he will be much missed. Since he had advancing dementia, in many ways we’ve all been saying goodbye to pieces of him for some time, and this final goodbye – sudden but quick – was perhaps easier because of that. It was time, and my dad would have been the first to think so.

Thank you everyone for your many well wishes and generous thoughts. I’m spending time with my mom as we continue this transition, which includes the arrival of spring weather in the everchanging Sierra foothills. The trees are leafing out, and there’s still snow on the Sierras in the distance. New beginnings!

And my mom and I are both kicking ourselves because we forgot to get chocolate bunnies to enjoy for Easter. We’re much cheered by the thought of day after sales, however. Happiness can come in small bites.

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