young white woman with brown hair in pigtail buns clutches her cheeks in terror saying "What have I done?"

Rookie Amateur Mistake = Opportunity, Right?

Karin Kallmaker Business of Books, Cowboys and Kisses 2 Comments

I messed up. Making a rookie amateur mistake is generally not a good thing when you’ve been around as long as I have, but it ended up being a good thing. At least I think so.

CONTENTS

It has to do with books and how they’re printed. Specifically, all the magic behind making color that’s true and stays true whether a book is printed in the USA, India, or (eventually, right?) on Mars.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK = CMYK

There’s a lesson I learned a very long time ago about the difference between computer screens and printing presses. What you can see on the former can’t be reproduced on the latter. It’s all about how color is processed by each device. Here’s an approximation of the difference between RGB and CMYK with the basic colors of red, green, and blue. Read More

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.

CONTENTS

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 on the Cake Volume 3, Readers and Libraries 81 Comments

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

CONTENTS

(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

Names and “Fallen” Women

Karin Kallmaker Cowboys and Kisses 11 Comments

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

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

Reader review Touchwood This verrrrry slow burn romance is honest, beautiful and yes – sexy.

30 Years? How Can that Be?!

Karin Kallmaker Touchwood 30th Anniversary Edition 44 Comments

Drawing and comment period is now closed. Winner announced in the most recent comment.

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