Works by
Karin Kallmaker
(aka Laura Adams)
(Writer)

Karin Kallmaker, proud to be descended from Lady Godiva, is the author of 10 lesbian romances and an anthology inspired by her romance novels. Under her alter-ego pen name of Laura Adams, she has another four lesbian science-fiction and fantasy novels.  Her essay “When I Grow Up I Want to Be A Lesbian” appears in Multicultural America: A Resource Book for Teachers of the Humanities and she served as contributing editor for Uncommon Voices. -- from Saints & Sinners

Writing as Karin Kallmaker

• Erotica

• Lesbian Romance

• Touchwood Series (Romance)

• New Exploits Series (Erotica)

Writing as Laura Adams, Fantasy Writer

• Daughters of Pallas

• Tunnel of Light Trilogy

Writing as Karin Kallmaker

Erotica

• 18th & Castro (2006) -- Finalist 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Erotica (Lesbian)
  Halloween Night, San Francisco… …and it’s a party like no other in the world. Welcome to the streets of the Castro, where the women aren’t shy about what they want and how they’ll get it. Crowds, costumes and parties – the apartment building at 18th & Castro is in the thick of it all.
  
  First-time couplings and couples who know how to mix lust and love make 18th & Castro the hottest address in the city by the bay.
  
  Take an erotic journey with Karin Kallmaker in this follow-up to the smash bestseller, All the Wrong Places. The award-winning Undisputed Mistress of Lesbian Romance demonstrates once again why "Mistress" is fitting as she invites, seduces and delights lesbians worldwide with her signature-brand of romantic erotica.

• All the Wrong Places (2004) -- Finalist 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Erotica; Finalist, 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Romance
  Brandy Monsoon is looking for love. Since there’s never a shortage of casual playmates at the tropical resort where she works as a fitness trainer, most of the time she gets it, too. If Brandy tires of the perpetually curious but primarily straight women, there’s her best friend Tess for a friendly encounter – safe, with no strings. After all, they’re just buddies.
  
  When an all-lesbian tour group arrives for a week, Brandy is sure she’ll be in paradise on earth. The guests include lesbian celebrity comic Celine Griffin, who has an obvious interest in an after-dinner Brandy. Celine and Brandy do find explosive pleasure together -- so why does Brandy feel as if that’s no longer enough for happiness?

See also:

• Bed: New Lesbian Erotica (2007), Victoria Brownworth, ed.
  Bed: New Lesbian Erotica runs the gamut of tough and tender tales of lesbian passion that cannot be denied. You'll find stimulating stories of rough danger, phone sex, s and m, b and d, faceless strangers, and sticky-sweet mysteries waiting to be discovered. Read intense and superb writing that's filled with real emotions and provides that certain raw tingle that may keep you up at night.
  
  Includes works by Barbara Hammer, Barbara Johnson, Caroline Shields, Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse, F. K. Valerie, Fiona Zedde, Hop Wechsler, Karin Kallmaker, L. J. Nieves, Nicola Griffith, Patrick Califia, Sarah M. Granlund, Sharon Wachsler, Ta'Shia Asanti, Tee Corinne, Therese Szymanski, Tia H. Mayo, Toni Brown, and Victoria Brownworth.

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Lesbian Romance

• Finders Keepers (2007) --  --- Finalist, 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Romance (Lesbian); Nominated 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction
  Setting out on the "vacation of a lifetime" Marissa Chabot is well-provisioned with sun block, rum and a stack of good books. Being one of the founders of Finders Keepers, the successful, high-tech "soul-mate matching service," she knows that vacation romances are hopeless.
  
  When Linda Bartok--tall, dark and beautiful--sweeps her off her feet anyway, Marissa yields to the magic of a storybook rescue, moonlit walks on the beach and longed-for whispers of passion. Though it hardly seems possible that the Amazonian, adventurous Linda could be truly interested in a desk-bound computer geek, the most erotic encounters of Marissa's life complete her surrender.
  
  Vacations end. Real life resumes. Waiting for the phone to ring, Marissa wonders if what she had seen in Linda's eyes could have possibly been true. Had it been a vacation romance? Was she going to end up "losers weepers"?
  
  Finders Keepers, the quest for the perfect mate in the 21st Century, joins Karin Kallmaker's Just Like That and her other incomparable novels about lesbian love, lust and laughter

• Just Like That (2005)
  Syrah Ardani tried independence - but the call of the Napa Valley hills and rolling vineyards of her family’s winery have brought her home again. She is content with her ordered world until she learns that her father’s feckless management has put Ardani Vineyards into receivership. Corporate turnaround specialist Toni Blanchard’s arrival is preceded by tales of her slash-and-burn techniques. Determined to meet this soulless corporate raider head on, Syrah proudly prepares to do battle for her home and family business.
  
  Toni has reason to retreat from a high-pressure Manhattan lifestyle, not the least of which is a bitter break up. She’s been told that Syrah Ardani is attractive and single, but Toni never mixes business and pleasure.
  
  Toni’s father wants her to save his old friend from bankruptcy. The court has appointed her to safeguard the creditors. The creditors clamor for a quick sale and payment. The beautiful—and hostile—Syrah wants Toni off her land and out of her life.
  
  Their clashes smolder with distrust and resentment, but also threaten to light a completely different kind of fire. Most dangerous of all is the one thing Toni can’t control—the way her heart reacts when Syrah looks at her… just like that.

• One Degree of Separation (2004)
  Big city girl in a small town – Liddy Peel has culture shock.
  Marian Pardoo, Reference Librarian for the Iowa City Public Library, would be happy if the woman she’s loved for years wasn’t already married. Annoyed by the thoughtless out-of-town Liddy, she isn’t prepared for the seething passion that erupts when Liddy careens into her meticulously controlled life.
  
  Liddy has run two thousand miles from a devastating love affair. Now the idea of spending the sweltering summer watching the corn grow is driving her mad. Finding herself lusting after Marian the Librarian seems like yet another cosmic jest at her hopeless love life. The only thing that keeps her sane is the coffee.
  
  In a town where everybody knows your name, the names of your exes, pets, and your third grade teacher, Marian is thankful that she and Liddy at least don’t have an ex-girlfriend in common.
  
  One degree of separation is too close for comfort.

• Sugar (2004) -- Winner Golden Crown Award for Romance
  SUGAR SORENSON'S LIFE HAS JUST GONE UP IN FLAMES... ...Literally.
  
  Struggling to make ends meet, Sugar has invested everything into Cake Dreams by Sugar with hopes of becoming the most sought-after designer of event desserts in Seattle.
  
  Working – and baking – night and day to perfect her business and her chances of winning a large bake-off prize, she’s not prepared for disaster. Within a few hours she’s got no place to live and no business, not even a bag of flour or a measuring cup.
  
  Support arrives in the form of an empathetic Victim’s Advocate social worker named Tree, a hunky, charming firefighter named Charlie, and a dynamic, ambitious local TV producer. She’s Emily, and the first of the trio to make a serious play for Sugar in the morning, Sugar in the evening, and Sugar in the afternoon.
  
  After years as a single lesbian who couldn’t get a heartbeat from any woman anywhere, all this attention has Sugar’s head spinning. Forced to live with her ailing, homophobic grandmother, she has no idea how she'll get to know any of these new women in her life. They all offer changed circumstances, stability and a hope at forever. But which one will she choose?
  
  FINDING MS. RIGHT IS NO PIECE OF CAKE.

• Maybe Next Time (2003) -- Winner 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Romance
  Sabrina Starling doesn't need love. She has worldwide fame as a brilliant concert violinist, houses on three continents, and endlessly available women for company. Nothing can shake her -- except the memory of her very first love.
  
  Jorie, her childhood love. Her true love. After relinquishing all hope of a life with Jorie, Sabrina immersed herself in the music and the violin that Jorie hated -- blind to everyone and everything, including the unhappiness that was leading her down the path of destruction.
  
  Sidelined at the pinnacle of her career due to a nagging wrist injury, Sabrina finally finds the one woman who could free her from the memory of those magical Hawaiian nights with Jorie. Except that this time, Diana, the object of Sabrina's desire, is deeply in love with Pam, her partner of eighteen years.

• Frosting on the Cake (2001)
  Every woman with a taste for great fiction knows that Karin Kallmaker cooks up the world's most delicious lesbian romances. The only problem is, her mouth-watering novels always leave you hungry for more. So, because you asked for it, more is exactly what's on the menu today!

  As a special treat, our gal-loving gourmet has whipped up a baker's dozen of scrumptious short stories - each one filled with your favorite characters and settings from her critically acclaimed bestsellers, In Every Port, Touchwood, Paperback Romance, Car Pool, Painted Moon, Wild Things, Embrace in Motion, Watermark, Making Up for Lost Time, and Unforgettable. Stories so rich with romance, we bet you can't read just one!

• Substitute for Love (2001) -- Finalist, 2002 Lambda Literary Award for Romance
  A deep kiss and a single rule. Like most women in dead-end relationships, Holly Markham was used to finding substitutes for love. Like chocolate. Fun times with good friends. Throwing herself into her work. But throwing herself into the arms of a leather-clad stranger was never on her list.
  
  When Holly's best friend Tori takes her to a dance for lesbians only, she realizes that Tori is gently trying to push her out of the closet. While it was true that Holly had been trying to come to terms with her growing attraction toward women, no one expected Holly to take one look at the mysterious Reyna and fall hopelessly in lust.
  
  Unable to resist the purely physical appeal of Reyna's sensuous demands, Holly quickly succumbs to Reyna's delicious seduction. After a night of delirious passion, Reyna gives Holly a long kiss and single rule: Call whenever you want me to make love to you. There can be nothing else. Although sexually fulfilled for the first time in her life, Holly soon realizes that pleasure without emotion is no substitute for love - a love she knows she and Reyna could share.
  
  Knowing too well the high cost of living in shadows and denial, Holly risks everything and sets out to pierce the deep shroud of mystery surrounding the woman she has come to love.

• Unforgettable (2000)
  Is true love hidden in the moments we can't stop remembering... or in those we chose to forget? There is nothing like a high school reunion to bring the old times flooding back...

  • Old Passions... Handsome singer Loretta "Rett" Jamison has built herself a successful career and a repertoire filled with romantic ballads and hot jazz. But her failing relationship with lover/manager Trisha York has left a growing emptiness in her heart. Trisha seems to have found what she needs in the arms of younger omen. Can Rett find it on the lips of the classmate who gave her the first real taste of passion?

  • Old Secrets... Former Head Cheerleader Cinny Keilor is an All-American girl... with an all-consuming secret. Still blond and beautiful, leggy Cinny is looking forward to reliving those idyllic days of proms and pep rallies. But has she forgotten those steamy nights in the back seat of another girl's car?

  • Old Pain... National Science Award winner Dr. Angelica Martinetta is being honored by the reunion committee for her victories in the war against ovarian cancer. But the former outsider had returned to face a different challenge - can she win the heart of the one woman she has pined for all these years?

• Making Up for Lost Time (1998)
  When three love-starved lesbians decide to make up for lost time, the recipe is romance. And with Karin Kallmaker cooking, you know the result will be hot, spicy and mouth-wateringly delicious! Master Chef Jamie Onassis has used every penny she has to buy a beautiful country inn she plans to turn into a five-star restaurant. Unfortunately, the inn turns out to be a "handyman's special" and, without the skills or capital to make the necessary repairs, Jamie risks losing everything.
  
  Home and garden expert Valkyrie Valentine is a rising star among the do-it-yourself set. A seemingly perfect homemaker, Valkyrie seems destined to become the next Martha Stewart -- as long as
  
  Media mogul Sheila Thintowski is a woman on a mission. ever since meeting the dazzling, dynamic Valkyrie Valentine, she's been determined to interview her -- up-close and extremely personally. Sheila suspects that Valkyrie's hands-on skills extend well beyond home improvement -- and she's looking for some private lessons.

• Embrace in Motion (1997)
  Sarah MacNeil is about to put her heart in the hands of a beautiful woman who could be her salvation . . . or her ruin!
  
  Surfing high on the wave of lesbian chic, author/ screenwriter Melissa Hartley is deliciously dangerous. She knows all the right people, goes to all the right parties, says all the right things. When she meets the quiet, elegant Sarah at a hotel bar, Melissa makes all the right moves to get Sarah into her bed, then makes all the right promises to convince the usually cautious young attorney to come live with her in San Francisco.
  
  Totally captivated for the first time in her life, Sarah surrenders herself completely. Blinded by the glow of Melissa's white-hot sensuality, is Sarah setting herself up for a total meltdown?

• Wild Things (1996)
  Sydney Van Allen is a rising star on the political horizon. Faith Fitzgerald is a dedicated scholar and award-winning author. Thrown together by fate, these strong, independent women find themselves impassioned by a dangerous longing that compels them to surrender- body and soul!

• Painted Moon (1994)
  Meet Jackie Frakes, a talented architectural intern. Her life has fallen into unsatisfying patterns, both personally and professionally.
  Renowned artist Leah Beck is exhibited in galleries nationwide. But her life has darkened with the death of her lover, Sharla.
  
  Trapped by a mountain snowstorm over Thanksgiving weekend, Jackie is rescued by Leah. The snowbound weekend in Leah's cabin shakes the very foundations of Jackie's life.
  
  As for Leah, Jackie provides renewal and inspiration for her work. But ... exhibition of Painted Moon, her new series, will reveal Leah as never before, as a lesbian artist.
  
  Their relationship increasingly torn by conflict and misunderstanding, the winter weekend together will surely be their last. Then intervention comes ... from a most unlikely source.

• Car Pool (1993)
  Ninety minutes, twice a day. Five days a week.
  
  Car pool heaven turns into car pool hell when Anthea Rossignole realizes her lover is having an affair with the other woman sharing their daily commute. It seems that Anthea’s successful career as a cost analyst at an oil refinery is the only thing she can really count on these days. Now she’s looking for someone to share the long drive.
  
  Shay Sumoto desperately needs a car pool. Though wildly overqualified, the environmental biologist takes a low-paying job testing well samples to keep body and soul together. The debt from her father’s terminal illness and the loss of the company she and her father owned have left her with no money, no time and no sense of humor.
  
  When Shay and Anthea begin carpooling together, they find that first impressions of each other don’t bode well, and second impressions don’t improve their chemistry much. But when Shay uncovers alarming test results in her work — information that could cost both of them their jobs — Anthea is the only person she trusts for advice. Can two very different women find common ground?
  
  It's Never an Easy Commute on the Freeway of Love.

• Paperback Romance (1992)
  Literary agent Alison has been in love with her favorite author-client for years. Not that the paperback romance writer Carolyn has ever noticed. She sees Alison as a close, loyal friend and has never questioned society's conventions... but what will the future bring?

• In Every Port (Date?)
  Jessica has it all. An expensive condo in the city of dreams, San Francisco. A high-powered, prestigious career as a management consultant that takes her all over the country... To passionate Roberta, in Chicago. To delicious Marilyn, in San Antonio. To all those cities and all those willing women Jessica has recorded in her well-used little black book.
  
  Sex with these women doesn't really mean a thing, Jessica tells herself. It's all just good times. Because she is not really a lesbian. No, of course not. Her sexual adventures are merely keeping her occupied until she decides to settle down ... with a man.
  
  Then she meets Cat, the alluring young hotel executive who lives across the hall from her new condo. What is Jessica to make of her chaotic feelings, her yearning -- and yes, her deepening love -- for the sensuous, captivating Cat, who offers entrancing friendship, but nothing more?

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Touchwood Series (Romance)

1.  Touchwood (1991)
   Twenty-nine-year-old Rayann Germaine, betrayed by her lover, flees in grief and rage. She meets rare book store owner Louisa Thatcher, a woman many years her senior, who offers shelter and work... and soon, passion, and a loving place in her life. But Rayann encounters challenges to this new love -- from friends who question its wisdom, from her mother who disapproves of this liaison with a woman her own contemporary, from Louisa's son who learns for the first time his mother's true sexuality.
   
   And there are profound differences between Rayann and Louisa themselves, two women who come from dramatically different places in the spectrum of age and life experience.
   
   The first page will draw you into this entertaining, erotic, thought-provoking exploration of love, and of that landscape of the mind known as age.

2. Watermark (1999)
   Teresa Mandrell's first encounter with advertising executive Rayann Germaine begins badly and goes downhill from there. Within minutes of their meeting, Rayann dubs Teresa a "bumbling amateur." The event changes the course of Teresa's life -- she abandons the corporate world for what she hopes is a more satisfying career in Fine Arts Management. When budget cuts leave her without work, Teresa gets a job as a design artist in another firm, only to discover that the new department head is ... Rayann! But the difference in the woman's demeanor is so startling that Teresa can't believe her eyes. Although the woman she'd fought with had been insensitive and rude, she was full of fire and passion. This Rayann is cold and withdrawn.
   
   To Teresa's chagrin, the woman doesn't even remember their fight. In fact, the two fall easily into an increasingly harmonious work relationship. As they grow even closer, Teresa slowly uncovers layer after layer of Rayann's hurtand pain. When she at last arrives at the terrible truth, Teresa is left with one burning question: How can she turn Rayann's heart away from grief and lead her back toward life and love?

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New Exploits Series

1. Once upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians (2004) by Barbara Johnson, Julia Watts, Karin Kallmaker, and Therese Szymanski -- Finalist 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Erotica

2. Bell, Book and Dyke: Magical Lesbians (2005) -- Finalist, Golden Crown Award: Fantasy
   Lesbian Magic. The best-selling quartet that brought you Once Upon A Dyke unveils four deliciously different takes on magic in lesbian lives. Reluctant witches, tempting books, and beautiful bells – and belles – delve into the mysteries of love, lust and power.

3. Stake Through the Heart: Twilight Lesbians (2006)
   The playful quartet that penned the acclaimed Once Upon A Dyke are dimming the lights for journeys into worlds of breathless seduction.
   
   Haunted castles and lost ingénues, shadows hungry for life, immortal beings of power claiming their captive souls--everything is possible when the sun goes down.
   
   Curl up for seductive, skin-tingling novellas, perfect for bed time. Don't worry--the flutter at the window is only the curtain in the breeze...

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Writing as Laura Adams, Fantasy Writer

• Christabel: A Novel (1998)
  Dina Rowland knows she doesn't have to like her clients -- her job is to make them rich. Her superiors at the investment firm have made it clear that her success with the finances of internationally famous designer leo Goranson will make or break her career. So she ignores her famous client's debauched lifestyle and crude overtures and concentrates all her attention on the business at hand. Until she meet Leo's exquisite new model ... Christabel.
  
  While the uncaring fashion world focuses only on Christabel's breathtaking beauty, Dina is inexplicably drawn by her strange vulnerability ... her sad eyes full of unanswered questions. Because all the women in her family have suffered through short unhappy lives, Christabel expects no more for herself. Resigned to a brief existence of pain and cruelty, her only desire is to leave a mark on the world before she leaves it.
  
  Intrigued and fascinated, Dina extends a friendly hand to the mysterious young woman -- never suspecting that Christabel's touch will rock the foundations of her carefully planned life ... and leave her wanting more.

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Daughters of Pallas

1. Night Vision (1997)
   Julia Madison is having nightmares. Every night. All night. Both painful and perplexing, the nightmares are always the same -- a woman calling out for help, only to die horribly as Julia struggles to reach her. As the nightmares become more and more vivid, Julia seeks professional help. Doctors prescribe pills; therapists theorize about past lives and post-traumatic stress. But to no avail. In fact, the nightmares just increase with such intensity that Julia finds herself slipping into the dream state during the day.
   
   In desperation, she turns to the Internet, where she locates a support group for women with sleep disorders. To her amazement she soon learns that the other lesbians in the group -- and only the lesbians -- are having the same nightmares. No longer believing that these mysterious night visions are in their heads, the women band together to discover what is really going on.
   
   The first breakthrough comes when Julia realizes that their visions all began on the same night. A night unlike any other...

2. The Dawning (1999)
   Thirteen years have passed since the fiery explosion that killed seven people and shattered the lives of thousands more, but Amanda Martin is unable to forgive herself for her part in the tragedy. Deep in the hills of Arizona, she watches an approaching storm, hoping against hope that the torrential rains and violent floods will wash away some of her pain. In a flash of lightning, she sees something that wasn't there just seconds before -- a lone woman struggling in the churning waters hundreds of feet below.
   
   After a difficult rescue that almost claims both their lives, Amanda brings the mud soaked stranger to the safety of her cabin. But this is no stranger. For when the mud is washed off, Amanda instantly recognizes the disheveled woman -- as one of the seven who died in that horrible accident!!

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Tunnel of Light Trilogy

1. Sleight of Hand (2001)
   THE NIGHT AUTUMN Bradley died... ...she met the woman of her destiny: the fire-haired woman who sends Autumn back to her dying body and thereafter mysteriously haunts Autumn's dreams. Getting by with sleight of hand and other quick-fingered magic tricks, Autumn has no memory of her life before the age of 17. In the years since only a medieval choral chant has stirred her memory. Life's shadows reach for her. But she resists with the power that dances in her hands.
   
   URSULA COLUMBINE begins a journey... ...to join Kelly, the woman she loves. Leaving the protection of a powerful circle that has sheltered her all her life, she is immediately exposed and threatened by a hungry darkness that craves something only the naive Ursula can give. Weakened and afraid, she finds unfaltering strength in Kelly and other women who are compelled to awaken the power in Ursula that can save them all. But she also finds Autumn in her dreams. Dreams that promise passion but may also lead to oblivion.
   
   WHAT DARK FUTURE does the distant past hold? Dreams lead to nightmares. Autumn sees the faces of women she might know, women who have always stood by Ursula. But if her nightmares hold true, only she can save Ursula from the centuries-old darkness that made her a legend.

2. Seeds of Fire --  Finalist, 2002 Lambda Literary Award for Science/Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
   THEY FOUND EACH OTHER in their dreams. Autumn Bradley used the magic in her hands to save Ursula Columbine from the darkness that hunts for her. They have only met in dreams of a dark turbulent past, and the Ursula in Autumn's arms doesn't recognize her. Autumn only knows that it is up to her to hide the defenseless Ursula. Darkness searches for them. Light hunts for them as well. Their nightmares are only beginning. HER HEART KNOWS only a curse.
   
   Darkness has spilled into Kelly Dove's life. She will use all her strength, no matter the cost to anyone, for what her dreams seem to promise: Ursula hers again. Her dreams demand secrets she scarcely knows she possesses, but she will give them up and all she can learn -- past and future -- for love and vengeance.
   
   THE BATTLE LINES are drawn among themselves.
   
   Taylor St. Claire risked faith and spirit to save Ursula but failed. No longer cleric, no longer priestess, Taylor's bitterness threatens to consume her completely. From the ancient music that haunts them all comes a clue in the search for Ursula, and Kelly seems only too eager to help. But the face of Ursula's captor is not the woman Taylor expects.
   
   IN THEIR DREAMS, no one is who they seem.

3. Forge of Virgins (Future release)

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