“Mechanics” is a story I’ve been wanting to tell for some time, but not one I wanted to build an entire novel around. It is not how Maria and I became mothers, but is based on the experiences of a number of women and men and my own warped sense of humor.
Painted Moon I scratch my head and ask myself, “What the heck did I do right?” PM was my first “best seller” and that didn’t stop it from garnering some nice reviews, too. One thing I do know, Leah Beck’s character has more depth because of Christi Cassidy’s insights into the mentality of an artist. Some of the elements that work in PM I only noticed long after it had been printed. When I reread it in order to write “Smudges” I did at times think, “Hey, I wrote that part pretty darned well.” Frankly, it’s still a mystery to me.
A frequent question has been in regards to the name. I have one idiosyncrasy (that’s right, just one) in that I can’t begin a book until I have picked the name. I sometimes have no idea what the book will be about, but the name is chosen. Maria and I were visiting Butchart Gardens outside of Victoria, British Columbia, when I saw this spectacular rose, the only one left on that bush. It was brilliantly white with the faintest hint of silver edging on the petals. In the late afternoon light the silver had a bluish cast to it. The variety was named Painted Moon. For almost a year, I knew nothing more about the novel than that.
Wild Things Religion can have a powerful effect on people’s lives, for good and bad. In WT I tried to show the good that Faith desired from her religion—solace, strength, renewal—and the bad—ridicule, abuse, ostracism—that she experienced when she realized she could no longer ignore her feelings for other women. I also wanted to present Faith with a clear choice between a good man who literally offered her the world and a vibrantly alive, notoriously out lesbian. Safety, or the unknown? On a lesser scale we’ve all stood at that particular crossroad.
In spite of making her choice, and the overwhelming support she receives from Sydney and Sydney’s family, Faith’s insecurities persist in “Wild Things Are Free.”
Embrace in Motion Just what is romance, anyway? Those who have read all my books will find that the characters often ponder the difference between great sex and a great relationship. EIM finds Sarah caught between these two choices and finally realizing the immense underpinnings of affection and respect it takes to make a solid commitment to someone else. I’m certainly not saying that a great relationship can’t include great sex. But it is true that great sex can be had without a great relationship. As in “Hot Flash,” sometimes life changes can help with both.
“The Singing Heart” was previously published in The Touch of Your Hand and has that last moment with Sarah and Leslie that so many readers seemed to need. Okay, I needed it too, but I decided not to append it to EIM because I really wanted to underscore how Sarah and Leslie treasured their friendship. Treasured it so much that, at least in the moment of realization that somewhere along the way they had become a couple, it put sex into a distant second place.
I am asked all the time why my own relationship is successful. I usually go on and on about many different reasons, but this is the succinct version.
Guidelines to a Successful Relationship
1) Never begin a sentence with “If you loved me, you
would…”
2) Never end a sentence with “…or else I’m leaving you.” 3) Romance is not roses and chocolate once a year.
Romance is when, at the end of a long, hot day, one person
gets up to get the cold drink and gives the other person the
first sip. Romance is an everyday thing.
4) Share images of the future you dream about. Make
sure both of you are in these pictures.
5) (Mixed gender households only) Always put the seat
down.
Making Up for Lost Time Many readers have noticed that I bring food into my books. Car Pool, for example, features a dinner party with a chocolate ganache that leaves two grown men almost insensible. My heroines often find comfort of the Ben & Jerry’s variety. In MULT I wanted to pull out all the stops with one character as a master chef. I’ve heard from many of you that you were able to duplicate the effect of the chocolate body paint. Congratulations. I don’t need more details than that, but thanks for offering.
Though hardly recognizable, the plot of MULT was generally inspired by an old Barbara Stanwyck movie, Christmas in Connecticut. Barbara of the fabulous shoulders and velvet-iron personality plays a home-and-garden “women’s” writer of the 1940s. Her columns are beloved by all, especially the menus and recipes from her gracious and spacious Connecticut estate where she resides with husband, children, a cow and several dogs. She of course can’t cook at all, is single and lives in a shoebox apartment. Hilarity ensues when she tries to fake her way through a holiday visit from her publisher, Sidney Greenstreet. Val Valentine’s dilemma springs from Barbara Stanwyck’s, but the resemblance ends there. I have to admit, however, my mind’s eye sometimes saw the lovely Miss Stanwyck in that tool belt.
A little bonus for those of you who have read this far and have a copy of the book. I omitted the temperature setting on the recipe for Simple Cheese Soufflé. Please turn your hymnal to page 106 and write Oven=350°. Thank you.
Watermark At a bookstore reading I was once asked if I planned to write a sequel to Touchwood. At the time the answer was no. A year went by and some ideas I wanted to explore bubbled together and I abruptly saw how Touchwood could provide the foundation for another novel. It was not the sequel I think that fans of Touchwood were hoping for, but it was definitely the book I wanted to write.
No other book I’ve written has stirred up so much mail and difference of opinion. Death in a Kallmaker romance? A most beloved character killed off? A kind and caring woman transformed into a heartless bitch? What was I thinking?
My strongest impulse when I sat down to frame the action in Watermark was to create a testament to the reality of our love. Too often gay men and lesbians are stereotyped as having relationships based only on the physical. We don’t merit “marriage” because when our partners leave us, we hop to the next bed. When our partners die, we don’t suffer the same wracking grief because our love is just not as powerful. Those stereotypes are what I wanted to confront with Watermark.
I used Touchwood as the “back story” that framed the tragedies in Watermark, giving me more energy to expend on an increasing list of characters that defined the perilously fragile romance between Teresa and Rayann. One issue raised in Touchwood was coping with the shadow of a previous love, of being “second best.” I wanted to explore that conflict in greater detail since the shadow cast by the dead lover was immense (one of the reasons I chose her), and perhaps more than a naive young woman could hope to compete with. “The Tapestry” in this book confronts this theme.
Last, I tried to weave in the reality of random events forever changing lives. Rayann and Teresa are both irrevocably changed by complete chance, which is how life happens. If Paperback Romance is the most in line with the so-called romance formula, then Watermark is at the other end of the spectrum. Maria, who doesn’t like romance novels, and only reads mine because I make her, puts Watermark at the top of the Kallmaker heap.
Unforgettable I can sing and play the piano with great enthusiasm, doing both with only slightly more skill than my three-year-old. The character of Rett Jamison was pure fantasy on my part: a luscious Karen Carpenter voice, perfect pitch, near-perfect recall. Rett ought to be a star, but isn’t. It will sound clinical to say that Unforgettable is a novel about self-esteem, but there it is. Rett runs from good love to bad, from success to failure because she doesn’t believe herself worthy of love or success.
Unforgettable marks the first time since Touchwood that I wrote a novel with only one point of view. I think that accounts for the richness of Rett’s character. It was a harder job, then, to portray Angel’s motivations and explain Cinny’s behavior with only Rett’s not always accurate perceptions to
tell the story. It was well worth the effort. My own pleasure with the finished product has been more than echoed by readers and critics alike.
“Unforgettable, That’s What You Are” is a story I really wanted to tell, but couldn’t because of the point of view. Natalie started out as a walk-on at a picnic, then she showed up at a slumber party and the next thing I knew she was dancing with Cinny while the whole town looked on. Sometimes characters have their own ideas about what they want to do. She had so much presence that her intentions toward Cinny popped off the page at me, but I just couldn’t make it fit with Rett’s plot. That was when I conceived the idea for this anthology. I wanted to tell Natalie’s story in the worst way.
Never one to mince words, Barbara Grier told me that short stories make many women run screaming in the other direction, but she also urged me to go for it because there’s nothing an avid reader wants to know more than what happened after the last page of the book. “I Will Go with You” is a chapter from Rett and Angel’s life when the solidity of their relationship supports them during a rough time.
Laura Adams One Frequently Asked Question remains: Who the heck is Laura Adams? My alter ego, Laura Adams, was actually Barbara Grier’s brainchild. Not the name, or the books, but it was her most excellent thought that a second Karin Kallmaker book every year would be nothing but good for both of us and a great many readers and booksellers. I agreed with every word she said, but I think she’ll forgive me if I admit what was going through my mind during this conversation. (We were speaking at some time later than seven a.m. for me, which accounted for my lucidity.)
My thought was that with a different persona I could write books Kallmaker fans simply wouldn’t expect from me. I already had three such novels in the back of my head and then Barbara so thoughtfully provided me with the opportunity to follow through with them. I know with certainty that she didn’t expect first a romantic science-fiction novel followed by a romance-driven supernatural story, then more romance and science fiction. Mea culpa, but oh, it is such fun to write.
My Laura Adams books have all been edited by Lila Empson. Lila has tried very hard to improve my use of commas, but they continue to plague me as I only like to use a comma to indicate a pause for breath if I’m reading aloud which is confusing to everyone but people who talk as fast as I do.
In the years since Laura Adams was born, Barbara and Donna McBride decided to ease back on Naiad’s exhausting publishing schedule. For practical yet flattering reasons, they wanted to keep Karin Kallmaker as one of their continuing writers. Laura Adams was free to join many other Naiad writers at a new press, Bella Books. This turn of events seems as wonderful to me as that first seven a.m. phone call when Barbara told me she wanted to publish In Every Port. I am a lucky woman. I get to keep writing the romance novels I love with Naiad Press, and I also get to stretch my wings even further as Laura Adams with Bella Books. Pinch me.
Frosting on the Cake One of the critical complaints about my books I have always found amusing is that I never miss an opportunity to “dally between the reader’s legs.” Why, yes, thanks for noticing. (How is this a bad thing in a romance novel? Anyone? Anyone?) This anthology is no exception, a fact which I’m sure will delight just about all my readers. For those who are not delighted, I love you just the same.
As I wrote these stories I had different goals unique to each one. But overall, I wrote every single word with all of my readers in mind. Think of this book as a Frequent Reader Reward, because that’s really what it is. I would not write with as much joy if you weren’t willing to read, nor would I be as able to take readers in unexpected directions if you weren’t willing to go with me. Yes, I write for my own pleasure and to express my own creative impulses, but a large part of my pleasure in my work is knowing that it pleases you, too. As I said above, I am a lucky woman, and I have all of you to thank.
Publications from
Bella Books, Inc.
Women. Books. Even Better Together.
P.O. Box 10543 Tallahassee, FL 32302 Phone: 800-729-4992 www.bellabooks.com
THE GRASS WIDOW by Nanci Little. Aidan Blackstone is nineteen, unmarried and pregnant, and has no reason to think that the year 1876 won’t be her last. Joss Bodett has lost her family but desperately clings to their land. A richly told story of frontier survival that picks up with the generation of women where Patience and Sarah left off.
978-1-59493-189-5 $12.95
SMOKEY O by Celia Cohen. Insult “Mac” MacDonnell and insult the entire Delaware Blue Diamond team. Smokey O’Neill has just insulted Mac, and then finds she’s been traded to Delaware. The games are not limited to the baseball field!
978-1-59493-198-7 $12.95
WICKED GAMES by Ellen Hart. Never have mysteries and secrets been closer to home in this eighth installment of this award-winning lesbian mystery series. Jane Lawless’s neighbors bring puzzles and peril—and that’s just the beginning.
978-1-59493-185-7 $14.95
NOTEVERYRIVER by Robbi McCoy. It’s the hottest city in the U.S., and it’s not just the weather that’s heating up. For Kim and Randi are forced to question everything they thought they knew about themselves before they can risk their fiery hearts on the biggest gamble of all.
978-1-59493-182-6 $14.95
RETURN TO ISIS by Jean Stewart. The award-winning Isis sci-fi series features Jean Stewart’s vision of a committed colony of women dedicated to preserving their way of life, even after the apocalypse. Mysteries have been forgotten, but survival depends on remembering. Book one in series. 978-1-59493-193-2 $12.95
HOUSE OF CARDS by Nat Burns. Cards are played, but the game is gossip. Kaylen Strauder has never wanted it to be about her. But the time is fast-approaching when she must decide which she needs more: her community or Eda Byrne.
1ST IMPRESSIONS by Kate Calloway. Rookie PI Cassidy James has her first case. Her investigation into the murder of Erica Trinidad’s uncle isn’t welcomed by the local sheriff, especially since the delicious, seductive Erica is their prime suspect. 1st in series. Author’s augmented and expanded edition.
978-1-59493-192-5 $12.95
BEACON OF LOVE by Ann Roberts. Twenty-five years after their families put an end to a relationship that hadn’t even begun, Stephanie returns to Oregon to find many things have changed...except her feelings for Paula. 978-1-59493-180-2 $14.95
ABOVE TEMPTATION by Karin Kallmaker. It’s supposed to be like any other case, except this time they’re chasing one of their own. As fraud investigators Tamara Sterling and Kip Barrett try to catch a thief, they realize they can have anything they want—except each other. 978-1-59493-179-6 $14.95
AN EMERGENCE OF GREEN by Katherine V. Forrest. Carolyn had no idea her new neighbor jumped the fence to enjoy her swimming pool. The discovery leads to choices she never anticipated in an intense, sensual story of discovery and risk, consequences and triumph. Originally released in 1986.
978-1-59493-217-5 $14.95
CRAZY FOR LOVING by Jaye Maiman. Officially hanging out her shingle as a private investigator, Robin Miller is getting her life on track. Just as Robin discovers it’s hard to follow a dead man, she walks in. KT Bellflower, sultry and devastating... Lammy winner and second in series. 978-1-59493-195-6 $14.95
HANNAH FREE: THE BOOK by Claudia Allen. Based on the film festival hit movie starring Sharon Gless. Hannah’s story is funny, scathing and witty as she navigates life with aplomb—but always comes home to Rachel. 32 pages of color photographs plus bonus behind-the-scenes movie information.
978-1-59493-172-7 $19.95
LOVE WAITS by Gerri Hill. The All-American girl and the love she left behind—it’s been twenty years since Ashleigh and Gina parted, and now they’re back to the place where nothing was simple and love didn’t wait.
END OF THE ROPE by Jackie Calhoun. Meg Klein has two enduring loves—horses and Nicky Hennessey. Nicky is there for her when she most needs help, but then an attractive vet throws Meg’s carefully balanced world out of kilter.
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978-1-59493-176-5 $14.95
THE LONG TRAIL by Penny Hayes. When schoolteacher Blanche Bartholomew and dance hall girl Teresa Stark meet their feelings are powerful—and completely forbidden—in Starcross Texas. In search of a safe future, they flee, daring to take a covered wagon across the forbidding prairie.
978-1-59493-196-3 $12.95
UPUPAND AWAYby Catherine Ennis. Sarah and Margaret have a video. The mob wants it. Flying for their lives, two women discover more than secrets.
978-1-59493-215-1 $12.95
CITYOF STRANGERS by Diana Rivers. Acaptive in a gilded cage, young Solene plots her escape, but the rulers of Hernorium have other plans for Solene—and her people. Breathless lesbian fantasy story also perfect for teen readers.
978-1-59493-183-3 $14.95
ROBBER’S WINE by Ellen Hart. Belle Dumont is the first dead of summer. Jane Lawless, Belle’s old friend, suspects coldhearted murder. Lammywinning seventh novel in critically acclaimed mystery series. 978-1-59493-184-0 $14.95
STERLING ROAD BLUES by Ruth Perkinson. It was a simple declaration of love. But the entire state of Virginia wants to weigh in, leaving teachers Carrie Tomlinson and Audra Malone caught in the crossfire—and with love troubles of their own.
978-1-59493-187-1 $14.95
APPARITION ALLEY by Katherine V. Forrest. Kate Delafield has solved hundreds of cases, but the one that baffles her most is her own shooting. Book six in series.
LILY OF THE TOWER by Elizabeth Hart. Agnes Headey, taking refuge from a storm at the Netherfield estate, stumbles into dark family secrets and something more…Meticulously researched historical romance. 978-1-59493-177-2 $14.95
LETTING GO by Ann O’Leary. Kelly has decided that luscious, successful Laura should be hers. For now. Laura might even be agreeable. But where does that leave Kate?
978-1-59493-194-9 $12.95
Frosting on the Cake Page 22
