Do What You Can to Do What You Do

It’s easy to give up, give in… give over.  You age, you change some but not enough.  There are obstacles, pitfalls and long dead zones that sap your will.  Get over it!

The “struggle” is what defines us; it is a statement of will to change something, and a signal of purpose to maintain that change.  We are headed for the outfall from social programs started generations ago that have altered our population and eroded our expectations of self-determination.  This is a tough time for those who were suckered by that “everybody gets a prize just for participating” philosophy.  You get a receipt, maybe a small plaque, because it is an accomplishment but you didn’t win.  What misled our millennials was their overly-equalitarian post-Woodstock parents who couldn’t let kids be kids when they were much more valuable as a form of trophy.  The idea that I could use “egalitarian” instead of “equalitarian” proves my point that simplifying language may enhance some conversations but why that is so makes it complicated.

We can’t yet grasp our purpose, or even if there is a purpose, so we can’t fairly assess the value of the players.  We have to go on broad spectrum for this:  winged, legged (two, four, more?), gills, wits.  Through that lens it is obvious that humans are human:  it’s pretty much a yes-no question.  There are human characteristics, and variations therein, but there is no mixture of species.  We have skin & bones that hint at sub-categories but pay attention:  Human is human.  Force yourself to think of somebody who looks the least like you in size, tint and hair yet know you are closer to them than any other species.

Drop the detail, get to the core.  Human rights and dignity are battles to be waged against evil and laziness, both are killers.  Stop the phantasmagorical distractions that halt your progress and commence assembling yourself.

There are many stages of life, not all of us are blessed to achieve even a competent period of accomplishment but those who do have mixed hard work and destiny.  You only control some parts of this, and therein lies the humane crises when the “haves” and the “have-nots” need to share limited resources.  Same so in the family dynamic, always with those subsets.

And, whoomp, there it is!

Family in crisis, sisters in conflict. Joody	Dissection of misplaced faith. Stainless Mary
A Case Study in Post Dramatic Stress Disorder	O Come, All Ye Faithful
Intertwining stories chronicle the life and misspent times of a negligent mother… a careless narcissist who leaves a path of emotional destruction behind her. Yet for a potentially heavy subject, the book has a peculiar lightness… By Kirkus Reviews Mar 2013	This is a story of bad breaks and redemption, a story of choices. … There are old truths here known to any true grown-up, but it is good to be reminded of them again. A witty and wise read, especially for fans of tough-minded heroines. By Kirkus Reviews Oct. 2012
Narrative Fiction	Long Story – Short Story
The Lent Hand	FAMILY: LOVE v. MONEY
Adventures in Beach Town Towing	It’s all about values.
Adventures in Beach Town Towing
A beautifully woven novel about an unusual boy… and how he learns to be a father, without having really been a son. A comical, honest love story between two lost souls who complete each other. By Kirkus Reviews Jan 2013	Two-for-One Book BABY GIRL BATTERSEA It takes a hawk to watch a fox.   YOU, DRIVE NORTH Accountant Missing. Details at 11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You’re smarter than you look.”

“You’re smarter than you look.” said the white male executive. 

“I’m 40, fat and female… where are you going with that?”

On one side is the individual who has maintained a corporate network at peak performance for seven years, on the other side a fatuous man tasked far above his actual abilities noting to his surprise that the female IT job-holder was qualified.  The presumption of male supremacy is held by the easily swayed, by the non-analytical.

The #MeToo movement is not about the individuals, it is about the WAVE of individuals who detail how the male agenda has interfered with their feminine privacy, their effort-based primacy, everything personal and worthy in them.  It’s the “boys club” mentality that makes even the reluctant-disrespectful finally have an inkling of the pressure females endure simply by birth-right.  It makes the pervasive wage-skimming and sexual violence against women not only the fault of the overly aggressive men but of the passive ones, too.  Those men who sit in meetings and let the dominant males steer them to unfair procedures and disrespectful policies need to speak out. You need a long-range perspective and then you realize you utilize all your strengths as the Earth holders, no matter who created this big beautiful planet, we have the power to destroy it.  To have peace on the planet we need equity among its people.

This isn’t a new item on the agenda.  Women have pushed ahead slowly and relentlessly, gaining rights and duties formerly reserved for [white] men.  There are all kinds of markers so we can thrust forward, competitive in our own minds, whether barred by age, gender, race, appearance, education, nationality. 

Don’t kid yourself.  This is a problem for ALL people, not only known male supremacists.  Race and gender, birthrights assigned by genetics?  Is gender binary or analog, meaning yes-no or in degrees? By place and time of birth?  It is a testament to the force of habit that we’ve lived so long placing entire categories of humans in the supplicant position.  Same-so the random natural assets in a territory, we experience the genetic lottery when we are conceived that sets the scenario from the continent upon which the conception occurred to the location of the birth.  The most intelligent of us see the possibility in each of us which is the foundation for progress.  Dismiss the opinions of categorizers:  Whites do… blacks won’t… men can… women shouldn’t.  Each of us moves outward from the “I” position we were born into, remember that.  Each of us has to balance the long-practiced quick-categorization of a person by their roots and look closer, think harder, and wise up.  Talent isn’t gender-dependent, neither is wiliness or artifice or humility.

Be thankful for some degree of “wokefulness” as we work forward, technology erases some but not all of the gender-race alliances (so many whitish guys at the head of the line).  We have some mixing at the entry levels and even middle management but statistically few powerful positions are held by non-white, non-male people.  (Note the ones that are are being outed as poor leaders if not outright embezzlers.)  Oh, my… work those factors into your presumptions.

The fact is no crime is committed by a type, it is always committed by a person who may be of that type but just as well may not be, or may partially be.  We’ve got to fight ingrained bias and self-fulfilling interpretations of behavior.  Once we get things sorted it turns out there’s always a story to be told, from somebody we might have earlier dismissed on superficial characteristics, and missed the steely art of their personal nature lending credence.

 

Rowdier Readers Seek Sexotica – Read and Release

https://kathleenkbooks.com/2014/07/08/running-a-phone-sex-business-gave-me-the-credentials-to-write-erotica/

Sexuality is connected to various controller systems, pumps and valves, cognitive pathways & social constructs, so that we find it hard to trust our first stabs at “getting connected” with somebody.  The thing people learn is that time and experience count so that few beginners are expected to make memorable love.

Like any endeavor, there is effort (persistence) motivated by the reward of success, experiencing pleasure of a sensual ethereal realm deeply buried like treasure.  The contrasting goals and methods of mixing genders was carved into us.

• The genders provide dovetailed parts, physically and psychically, compounded by social roles and local cultural opinion so of course there’s a lot to learn and experience in the world.  Do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor and open your mind to the bigger picture, grant grace beyond your own limited sampling.  Learn to expand your ideas, which can open your opportunities.

Understand this word:  glans because it underscores the fundamental design purpose inherent in biology.

• The vascular body which forms the apex of the penis.
• The vascular body which forms the extremity of the clitoris.

Those minor tissue rearrangements are not worthy of gender wars, we are so much more complicated than that.  In your most intimate relationships you have to accept the skills of your partner.  Enrich your ideas about intimacy so that you enjoy-exploit Nature’s rollercoaster.  Together, find a strategy that allows for fantasy within each of you.  Not all research is done in the actual world.

Reading is the safest way to expand your thoughts, bringing knowledge into play for your brain-body to adjust to new ideas.  It is a big world with many people, sampling situations is a smart strategy.  Running wild exchanging unexamined genetic material is not a good idea for those who hope to have a good life.  You need to be smarter and kinder about your intimate exchanges to avoid the risk of unplanned offspring or life-altering disease.  It is possible to direct yearnings and channel feelings but it takes a bit of planning.  The emotional rising of desire is like steam and, remember, steam can drive a train!

Input from other sources has differents impact which is why I’m talking about reading here, not seeing images or hearing sounds.  You supply the imagery when you read, guided by your own cognitive vocabulary. Without further context the word “red” could be rose red or blood red, you wouldn’t have to conjure it up because it is information which would be pre-sorted visually.

#readmore @KathleenKxxx

 

 

 

 

En garde! Gender wars waste time and talent. Battle together.

It’s part of the design to have a lock and key system for reproduction of humans, we do not spontaneously pop into existence.  There can be mechanical assists in conception but still it requires the essence of two genders.  In this truth, the path forward is set. However egg meets sperm they must twine into the womb.  We shed so much potential in our reproductive cycles for the relatively rare conceptions to be treasured in context, you’ve crossed into the fundamental existential divide.  The amount of bodily energy required to produce a fetus is unequaled in nature, at both a cellular and cultural level.  It may take two to tango but only the male dances away when the music stops.  It’s just as true that it takes two to tangle but I think that’s a malapropism.  By laws of nature, the male is distanced from gestation, at most a helpful partner but biologically complete at conception.  The rest of parenthood bespeaks character, it reveals the ability to bond, to assist or resist as needed.  Complicated.  Still, eerily simple that we need both genders to spark life.  Comparative valuations are irrelevant to the species’ survival.  If we get enough offspring within tolerable limits then we’re viable.

The surface details (shape of face, ear whorls, hair patterns) are categorized by our survival brains, pre-articulate, what we see-smell-hear-feel encoded at a cellular level.  In that sense there are races that differ amongst themselves but there is a clear line of what is human and what is not.  The desire for rank is remnant of the pack mentality that moved earlier humans into the caves, safety in numbers, compartmentalization of tasks as we hunted and gathered food across the lands.

Modern Americans face a war of plenty, when we aren’t fighting for our meals so literally, but there is still challenge and in that sense creating a small tribe can work wonders.  Especially for a breeding pair of humans, cooperation is essential to stability.  The tasks aren’t done merely for the family unit but have to satisfy the demands of the self to be plausible and sustainable.

In any pair, the way to improve the overall advantage is for at least one side to strengthen itself and broaden its base so as to provide stability.  There is a fallacy in the 50-50 split of pairing up because things aren’t easily measured as far as valuing work outside the home or work for-in the home.  Both should be all in.  We can’t even agree on a definition of “value” here in terms of it contributing to front line survival or long term prospering (again, you need to balance).

Other than the exquisite moments of actual physical mating, gender is far less important than we make it to be.  Bastions of genderism like military service refuse to admit that some women are stronger than some men even if overall most men are physically stronger; this scurry to prejudge outward gender shows a limited imagination.  We are finally grudgingly admitting that we are better united than divided but this involves reducing the knee-jerk sexualization of women which is both a sloppy habit and a natural pattern-recognition behavior.  We’ve worked hard on shaping this forward and much remains to be done.

In your efforts today, put a bit of swing into it, take a measure of pride in the tasks you perform, reach out just that one extra time to a person who might benefit.  Doing a bit better every day results in an accumulation of grace, just like a snow ball rolling down a hill that allows mass to gather.  You can enrich your presentation with easy gestures, becoming known to grant respect for a situation before blundering into it.  Allow somebody else to speak first, or to rest in silence for a moment.  All of this strategy is empowering to your inner self, to the balance you work towards every day.

You can get all kinds of specific advice from others about litter training your cat or affixing a wall bracket for a bureau but we’re less familiar with “Big Thinking” exercises that would enrich us and put these tasks into context.  Religions try to do it but they have become corporatized entities whose leadership is too often self-serving. Your inner spirituality is deeper and simpler, it is the first response when challenged.  What do you think first?  Do first?  It’s based on what you feel first.  You don’t need an outside authority other than the collective wisdom that you can be better with surprisingly little effort, and you can grant space to others to fight their own battles without contributing your negative energy.  Get to basics, ask yourself who you hope to be.

That’s the root you work with, roots can be redirected, pruned, fertilized to ultimately support the mirrored growth above.

This post is for you today, it is for all of us to make the motions meaningful.  There is a force for “good” in our collective existence and it is that we must draw from and exercise.  Don’t be distracted by politics or gossip or squabbles when you are enjoying the chance to live.

RowdierReaders.com – Be the Transceiver – For collectors of Curiosa – KathleenKBooks.com

Rowdier readers self-identify so if you continue reading here there is a good chance you at least have the graciousness to entertain a new idea.  You have an open channel, not all channels of course, and not at your deep risk, but you will allow the foreign and the unknown to intrude to that first hurdle:  it’s an incoming thought and you have let it in, behind your eyes now, and for that moment you have a different outlook.  This collection of graphic writing joins books from many other creators, and all must be absorbed from the page for maximum impact.  Reach out as readers, reinforce the enrichment of scanning words into the brain.  Writers know you are treasures.

Fear of thinking, most specifically deep thinking, limits amateur readers who have not developed a framework for what they read so if something doesn’t fit in the few categories they do admit then the idea is discarded.  Volley over, signal drops, no presence.  Dead End.  What a dull world it would be if we were all like that.

Rowdier readers are energized by reading, they set up synapse symphonies and cogitate from the page to the world through the heart-mind.  It is not difficult to identify certain writings that simply are not suitable for some although the work is much appreciated by others.  That’s my category, sexotic-erotic-graphic language in small peppery bursts.  There is a transliteration when sexotic writing is considered tête-à-tête and it is my intent to be read head-to-head by people with busy vocabularies.  I station myself on broadcast and you agree to transceive.  You don’t have to accept everything but you entertain the ideas, give them a moment to take hold and move through.  Curiosa is like catnip to such a reader.

Like all arts, there is the idea but then there must be a manifestation:  a canvas, a carved stick, tangible and discrete as it is indexed for short term recall, the written word, a recorded speech, humming of a choir.  For me it has been making books, it is the making of them that pleases me.  In that way I am an old-school talent in an analog format for the print books, reluctantly digital for digital dissemination.  Books are a tactile medium in the end, nuance is absorbed through the eyes and hands.  I respect that.  It’s a journey for me too (there’s history I haven’t told you) so things are always surprisingly connected.  Overall, there are twelve narrative and engaging affordable volumes available online so far plus the fabrication continues.  I’ve developed the art of setting you up with sexotic scenarios but I break away in time for you to have to finish the imagery.  It’s subtle, it’s killer technique.  (Oh, how I’ve studied!)

I didn’t build this body by accident; I carved a man out of a blob of waste-infused goo. Locked beneath the sheath of fat was a pugnacious fucker who finally took control. I hired Honey as a sex trainer, like I paid my cardio coach and my tennis instructor. She was soft and limber and ready to rock, frank and assessing as needed. Part coach, part sparring partner… bringing me to peak. She re-shaped my sexuality, brought it closer to my core, made me hold it there and grow it there. My fat-man sex never thrilled so the screaming success of my normal body was the greatest reward. The confidence-fueled fucking went on long enough and strong enough to finally experience the need to howl it out. Now I can slip up between her thighs and feel the cradle of her crotch coddle my bouncing balls.

I’m all about the squiggles of thought, the ~, <>, : ∞ that put the punctuational kaboom into the language to help you syncopate it.  I know it seems like there are uneducated people clogging up the pipeline to – your bliss, your success, your redemption – but in fact your pace is your choice. The giddy liberty to think whatever you want is the ultimate freedom, the luxury of thoughts and feelings that come to a truly be-stilled being, soul awhirl.  Consider this an opportunity provided by the publisher of Words Arranged by Kathleen K. because it is one way for you to stomp around a bit out in the Idea Fields.  There has always been a flare of challenge in the presentation and the content of this adult-themed compendium that adds value if only reluctantly.  When is something dirty and good, good and dirty?  Who decides?  First, judge the covers… then slip away to KathleenKBooks.com for more detail.

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  Kirkus Featured Review!

    

     

  

___________________________________

Vivid family fiction for those who read

between, around and beyond the lines.

   

  

#ReadMore

 

 

 

 

Human Being vs. Human Doing – Authenticate Yourself

Thank You to The Voice television competition for jump-starting my discussion on LIFE, considering purpose and method, because not enough time is spent on the philosophy of existence when we are distracted by politicized values expressed by the “-ism”  (racism, sexism, genderism, patriotism, capitalism) and its cousin “-istic”.  Coach Alicia Keys and Season 12 winner Chris Blue invoke this concept during The Knockout Premier of Season 14.  The show producers were smart enough to edit that in, to include that moment, which to the discerning viewer demonstrates intelligence all around.  This bit of banter between the two struck a nerve with me, enough to pause and open this post with high expectations.  Immediately below is a moment captured in time…

https://kathleenkbooks.com/2016/12/16/a-cauldron-of-fire-holds-the-disembodied-yowl-of-my-sex/

Or you can hop to http://kathleenkbooks.com or http://kathleenk.com to see this philosophy enacted.  I feel alive when I work on my books, on my poetry, on my blogging and my Tweeting because reading and writing galvanize me.  It is the thrill of the hunt for the proper word or powerful phrase and the artful juxtaposition of them that please me.  Not my own work alone, I am an avid reader as many writers are (and you can tell); there is a bit of borrowing like in all arts, but the end result reflects one execution.

Blog-in-Support of erotic, sexotic, romantic, graphic words
arranged and rearranged by Kathleen K.
Click for archive  – NSFW –
but work is only 1/3 of 5/7 of the week

A young medical professional at my doctor’s office remembered me as a writer and I gave her one of my cards.  Like the information above, the card was crafted deliberately to push an agenda. The card background looks like ruled paper with a red left-margin line; there’s heading type, subheading type, a logo… and each piece was considered alone and with the rest.  As with the blurb above, it is jam-packed with a double-down link to augment the flat print statement of availability.   That underscores the restatement in the title of this post, I am the writer of this because I made the effort to draft, refine and produce twelve books, etc., manifest in fact by deed then to support that with other channels.

This discussion was spontaneous and will ring for her because she’s at a stage (and state) of being, reaching for meaning to mix in with the facts of her job, her home, her family, her friends, her own heart and soul and hopes and dreams and fears and TIME, when is it TIME?  We all have to apportion our time.  It’s an unknown quantity, much like our talent and our will and our circumstances.  It’s part of living to allocate resources, and art to assess them one against the other.  More time or more money, which is needed more?  More sleep or more sex… which will be appreciated more?  There are two choices below, the third choice is neither, the fourth would be both. the Bonus is exactly that…

 

 

 

BONUS:  https://kathleenkbooks.com/2014/09/06/erotic-sexotic-author-seeks-book-bloggers-seeking-content/

A Musing: Setting Free the Kites – Alex George ***** Word on Belva Plain – Daniel Lowe – Sascha Arango

click for details

Alex George has written a very good read: Setting Free the Kites.  This is high praise for rowdier readers who can open to many topics as long as the skill and intent to communicate manifest.  This is a well-paced multi-threaded story that deserves to be consumed page by page.  It provides a generational view point of friendship, disappointment, expectation and choice that lets you judge the characters as you would anyone you know…. that is an investment in this writing.  So many bad books are published that when you find one with actual themes and structure [again with the airborne] you want to 5-star it so it sparkles for other hunters.  He has another book and I’ve already got it coming my way which is the highest indication of Alex George’s acumen.  Call it ‘special sauce’ or whatever, he entertained me thoroughly and I wish to give him another chance.

Setting Free the Kites is a long internal monolog with the narrator who may change voices but never loses his perspective, we hit the white rapids of the ending knowing at least he’s in our boat, we’re going to have to get through it because the book is all about outcome of choices which can never be known before choosing (you can guess a few).  That is the art form of the novel for me, the engagement of the reader in the subjective landscape set by the book.

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COMMENTARY:  I stopped reading for over a year due to medical complications, the words were dead on the page to me although I could “read” news articles and the like.  I could not engage with the writer’s writing.  Reading had been my stalwart companion from earliest memory, Bible with Granny W., school, biographies of the saints is morality porn for Catholic girls… I was schooled to emulate The Mother of All, The Vessel of Virtue.  The art and intent of what I read set the tone for me for all time.  I love to hear people’s stories of how they began reading for fun, for themselves, because it soothed and excited them.  I could RELATE.  I am thrilled to say the reading writing trickled back to me from my sub-clan of rowdier readers, I once again can exploit this transport via the voice of another.

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click-tap-poke here

I am re-reading Belva Plain and I encourage you to surrender to her “living history” in the love stories she has given us, finely drawn character and culture on display, the good and bad, deftly written in that soft-sure tone that the reader recognizes as moral authority.  You can sense the evil, the hope, the effort vs. laziness; petty jealousies can turn the world, as fate and free will impact the direction of people’s lives.  Her themes may work at certain times in your life, when you can open to the ridiculous displacement caused by history [since proximity is an element in love].  She writes of a different age of immigrants but at the center is her understanding that a person starts in a place and may go to another place, or many places, or stay rooted, but they retain the seed of their character even as it is lured by sun and shade.  Belva Plain played out her narrative lines as she saw fit, sometimes surprising us, because being complacent with anything is a risk.

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SPECIEL MENTION: 

The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango

All That’s Left to Tell by Daniel Lowe

Both these books really stretch the meaning of “narrative line” and fascinated me in structure, content, and delivery. I don’t know how much you are reading these days but I’d put either or both on the short list for writers to read.  Perhaps my own latitude forms a kinship with those who make up truth so convincingly.

#readmore #readaboutreading

 

I built a book machine and I’m about to crank it up.

This Kathleen K. Books business all started decades ago on a Selectric typewriter and evolved with technology to land squarely in the Publish on Demand online model, this idea I could be an indie author-publisher wasn’t fluff-headed dreaming of best sellers but setting the pace for a compositional marathon.  In pursuit of that dream, I fabricated a dozen books at my own expense and had them reviewed (cha-ching) and advertised (you quoted how much for an eighth-page?).  I wanted to focus on oddly thoughtful bedside readers tailored for the nightstand, available via the publisher e-store, and from Amazon for clean-hands distribution, priced to sell at a cost I could sustain.  I established the process for making books with CreateSpace.com and love the building phase.  I have an additional six books written but not yet scheduled for production so there is no lack of raw material.

What I couldn’t build was a public framework for the project because it wasn’t real yet –  and I knew it would take five years to accomplish.  Few fans have that much patience if they don’t even know you to begin with.  The hardest thing was my leap of faith: whether or not the books ‘get out there’, their existence is the point.  Leap again:  (And would I really be happy with that?)  It held my anxiety at bay to get a positive review or a higher-than-their-average click-through on an ad.  The books were holding up to critical scrutiny.  Business Premise One: the books are good reads.

What had to happen next is happening now.  I am contracted for an “outreach” by a powerful erotic book biz insider; we’ve cultivated an email and phone relationship over three years during which he told me what I’d have to do to be ready.  And I did those things.

There is a frisson when women provide porn and it adds tang to what I’m doing.  I expect to be best known for the eight sexotic books (the molten core), but there are also four well-received family fiction books that have all the passion but not much of the folderol around sex.  These two reader pools translate to a Venn diagram where circles intersect:  some readers will be in one circle and some in the other, some in the overlap.  Being counterculture also put a lid on me until I felt free to venture into erotic-sexotic-graphic-potcentric-romantic-poetic publishing without it ricocheting on any one dependent on me.  It could all go spectacularly wrong and twist from flirty to dirty.  I had to consider all sides of calling attention to the business.

This collection fait accompli will seem to come from nowhere, more accurately it is popping up from underground.  It was being built in the belief there are rowdier readers who will recognize a good book when they pick one up, and come back for more over time.  The books celebrate a long tradition of independent thinkers getting their words to line up just so.  Yes, I have a book making machine, as do many others, but I make “craft books” with mine.  The work is reviewed as “inventive, intelligent, witty and wise” because  it reaches for the  richest vocabulary, with the freshest interjections, carving out that moment a reader is held by clarity of expression and can focus on the commotion of emotion around sex∞love.  We language lovers use its many layers to mask beauty and hide snide.

The covers are crucial.  First glance matters: does it snag the eye?  Bring it back?  Is there an effective balance of image and lettering; what is the tone?  I have “foreseen” what the covers might be for years before a book goes into production and then I see what manifests when the ink hits the paper (pixels on the screen).

Artististic Credits & Acknowledgements:  I have been well-served working with a design team at Createspace.com for most of the books; however, Barry (Mandot) Messer was incorporated in Arching Over because he illustrated the original I Feel as I Am Felt poetry volume incorporated within that four-part book, then he and I reunited for Stoner’s Bone of Contention.  Maxximus wove my four poetry books into Arching Over then gave us a memorable image of feminine strength for the cover.  I commissioned him to create my book logo with me.  James Ambrous answered a Craigslist posting to free-hand simple measuring scales at various points of balance for Family: Love v. Money

There is the singular look of a book, and the heft of it, embodied in print.  When I started in alternative publishing, having a lightweight library of portable digital files did not compute… getting e-Fingered on a screen isn’t the same as being the only thing held in someone’s hands as the sole focal point.  Logically, I bow to mobility via Kindle but my heart is analog and the books should be read in print if possible.  [Especially at bedtime = no screens.]

I look forward to saying that I was discovered by a Kirkus review because it is simply true.  Two years into my five-year plan, I received a “love your stuff” email from a book pro that dropped the phrase ‘exceptionally gifted’.  [Soul = Sold!]  (Such a smart man.)  It is the one and only communique I’ve received from a half-dozen positive reviews.  Why that guy, why then?  I had set my lightning rods out and one worked!!  And this was Big Buzz bolt from the blue, not from some fellow wannabe starting out but a deeply experienced professional marketeer.

We knew I’d be based online, since the focus was selling the books and not, for instance, book tours and meet-and-greets.  The books are disembodied mixed voices and times.  My virtual fan base would spread out over the various topics and themes, able to conjure up heart-of-gold prostitutes and heart-of-stone priests.  [Who more evil?  You more evil!]  Each book stretched the perimeter until I’d squared up on my intentions to make the books, come what may; each one a statement piece but all together a compendium.

On the business side, there is also a substantial difference in return to the author for POD books, buying them directly from CreateSpace gives me best royalty so “true fans” will celebrate this indie endeavor by buying through my site.  Amazon is the only source otherwise for both print and Kindle but they keep more of the money for themselves.  My posted info-buy links fit the trade-local sensibility, to engage directly with the maker of what it is you buy when you can.

Web presence is woven by interlinking & cross-tapping + whatever else I could do to repeat my key phrases for 1800+ days :  Kathleen K., books, erotica, fiction, sexotica, family life, curiosa, voyeurism, phone sex, tow truck.  The brand name is easy enough, and those search term pairings get first page results on most days.  We’re about to tip the first domino and introduce the brand of Kathleen K. Books across the world.wide.wonderful.  We are not announcing a single book in a brand new/familiar voice:  we are presenting an assortment from which almost any reader could select something “interesting”.  Not precisely a book launch, this first campaign is something else.  What it is, we’re about to find out.

The entrepreneurial aspect is of interest to some because it demonstrates that you can set a long term target for an art-endeavor made of real-world guidance-targets along the way like reviews and give-aways.  We business gamblers dream in a peculiar way when we work the odds and concede the losses so that we can believe our bet will pay off as long as we stay in the game.  I am no different than the house painter upgrading her sprayer or the gardener investing in a mobile van… each move was meant to enhance my product.  Full circle to the ultimate luxury of my position at this juncture in that whatever I have done is done.

I am unleashing the books.

#readmore

 

Sexotic – Erotic Kathleen K. Books – The First Five Years

I set out in 2011 to make print-digital masters of ten of my “previously private publications” within five years; as an experienced book builder I knew exactly what I wanted to have produced for me.  I learned that CreateSpace.com gave me the control I required plus creative insight I had not expected.

The first book was a trial run, and the book-team assigned to my project popped this image onto it with that choppety font: they caught the mood and carved it on the cover.  Talk about a strong entrance to print-on-demand since that image draws then holds the eye, plus it thumbnails well.  Deciding which book to put into production next is part art and part strategy, author meet publisher (“Enjoy sharing that skull.”).  Joody grabs you long enough to notice there now are other characters-covers around her:  a dozen Kathleen K. Books examine the commotion of emotion around sex∞love and the infinity between.

Bedside readers for the adult mind… erotic & sexotic

Examine what it means to hide your primary sexual relationship from the people you love but flaunt it in front of strangers. 

Enjoy this flip and witty take on gender dynamics, deliciously explicit, as it probes themes of submission, permission, and admission.

Just Released!

 

          

    

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Vivid family fiction for those who read
between, around and beyond the lines. 

     

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I set three goals for the first five years:  make books, establish online catalog-outreach, and sustain a social media presence.

Twelve books.  100+ posts here.  450+ Tweets.

Done, done and done.

This is the foundation for the next five years.  The turning point may be when I am accepted as a content-provider to an alternative-indie periodical of some sort for print and digital access: a home base from which to syndicate-replicate someday.  I represent a distaff voice, in the tradition of lady wits and witches… sassy, sexy, smart, scorching, and self-contained.  Right now I’m angling to luck across a keen scout who pulls my work forward and sees the business I am building… it’s all about the books.

Another bet that paid off was selecting Kirkus Reviews professional service as a trial-by-fire for the books themselves.  Consistent positive reviews from Kirkus bolster my literary cred, which is especially valuable for the Indie publisher.  “We see you.”

A witty and wise read, especially for fans of tough-minded heroines.

Stainless Mary — Kirkus Reviews Aug. 2012

A beautifully woven novel about an unusual boy… and how he learns to be a father, without having really been a son.

The Lent Hand —  Kirkus Reviews  Jan 2013

Quotable tags like these shorthand the type of book it is, indicating the style and tone rather than touting a thriller-killer plot or genre-buzz.  Consider this discussion on how readers might pick their books.

I leverage the GoodReads.com Give Away program to garner hundreds of “looks” from specifically-interested purposeful readers seeking books and willing to invest an actual click.  I can “look back” at the entrants via online profile image and presence: I skim past fast, going for the overall energy.  I’ve worked on the down-low so long, it’s exciting to start the next five years with a more public stance on my planning.  So many people imagine the things they would create if they had an audience but I took the opposite approach, I created what I wanted to create for the challenge-fun of fabricating bedside readers for the adult mind.  Groundwork laid, now I seek the rowdier readers who will at least pull my words to their screen.

Whether it turns out to be squibs of romantic-graphic poetry scattered around a gritty weekly, providing a quick jolt of thinking for the wandering mind, or excerpts serialized from my vignette-rich and scenario-driven books themselves between art-concept glossy covers, I can only imagine.  This sought-after periodical presence would be in the long tradition of actual literature in counter-culture small presses and little magazines.  With Playboy dropping nudes, they are conceding the porn-pic war as rendered irrelevant to their mission, we only hope they stay alive in the literary and arts communities which was the other revolution Hugh Hefner took on.  Remember those glorious interviews and break-out stories between the impossible beauties and those crazy-cool parties “in the Grotto”?  There is more to “getting it” than sex.  What they called a club we now call a community.  Like-minded.

I’m walking fertile ground since Fifty Shades of Grey helped weaken the grip of male-modality in adult entertainment:  those books weren’t about content-quality but about the surge of consumer fever whether or not the literary community approved.  Traditional publishers were aghast at the volume of mommy porn.  Really?  (Really.)  I’m not banking on a book or three, I’m presenting a 12-book collection available online today.

My investment in the actual book masters establishes my freedom, each title is available on demand with no further cost or effort on my part.  It’s a leap of faith to call a book finished, ending that interlude when a character’s bailiwick first exists without public criticism or praise, product of paper-pen-pixels grappling with the ineffable.  And then at one moment in time the writer declares the book to be complete as it will be, the people and places forever captured there.  Now, offered here.

Kathleen K Books — Next Five Year Plan

Produce five book print-digital masters.

Maintain online catalog-blog.

Sustain delivery of reTweetable @KathleenKxxx Tweets or similar evolving “pithy” webiverse.  Reactivate @Potcentric

Continue branding efforts as both a book collection, and as a dozen discrete titles.  To that end, I leave a steady set of markers: I was here, and here… and over here too.  Just linkin’ along.

Thankful.  Hopeful.

November 30, 2015

Book Lovers’ Book: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore mixes old knowledge and new-for-now tech into a quest for perspective.  Robin Sloan earned the praise he’s receiving from the literati, and I admire the competent delivery.  It is one thing to think up an intricate story but it is quite another to properly pace that action using the colloquial structures circa 2013.  Throw in clashing cultures of the printed word (analog, if you will) and the digitized (sanitized) world.wide.wonderful with a feckless (yes, I said it) recorder of the realm.

He stands at the divide of worlds, not known for his decisiveness.  He feels the power and beauty of historic books, and he understands that the internet extracts and compiles information in context of all the other stuff it can get its virtual mind around.  What is lost is the specificity of a single book at a specific point in time in one pair of hands.  Books manifest the more general phenomenon of tribal knowledge: cross-cultural, inter-gender, transnational, and “in the air” obtained by osmosis.   The persistence of almanacs, for instance, speaks to our pattern-recognition preferences.  We love our weather forecasts whether based on a farmer’s reckoning or Doppler’s radar.  Is the sheer abundance of the internet sufficient to grant it supremacy as the sharer of knowledge?

Did you know that ninety-five percent of the internet was only created in the last five years?  But we know when it comes to all human knowledge, the ratio is just the opposite—in fact, [Old Knowledge] accounts for most things that most people know, and have ever known.

  — Raj, of fictionified Google by way of the Stanford geek-feeder stream (per narrator)

Mr. Penumbra is the embodiment of an eccentric old soul, successful in his own odd way it seems, while narrator Clay Jenson is a down-sized web designer who takes the overnight shift at the 24-Hour Bookstore.  Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is launch point for a mission to unlock the key of life with overt gaming structure applied, another artful bit of weaving.  It is the metaphor for both worlds, and captures the FINITUDE of the narrator’s choices.  There may be many but each one made determines the variables next presented.  If he does, or if he doesn’t, if he is too quick, or too slow… all those choices!  And not just his.  There are cabals and cliques and rogues and the mindless faithful.

What results is a well-written adventure story complete with an interior wisdom delivered successfully at the end:  Everything is already here.

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COMMENTARY:

The fact I’m a bookmaker means I took definite satisfaction in the presentation of craft serving “knowledge transfer” that is so well captured in this book.  I happen to fabricate bedside readers for the adult mind.  I work  toward print layout; the book is a physical manifestation of ideas expressed in fonts and escapements.  KathleenKBooks are purpose-built to tuck into the nightstand, vacation tote, Christmas stocking or briefcase.  I surrender them to Kindle format to be e-fingered by people who may get the content but lose the tactile fundament of the book’s very existence.  Each of my books in print weighs a specific something, it has a texture and a layout; it has presence.  All Kindle books feel the same, compressed into the one-size-fits-all screen.

Not that I have anything against technology:  I  fund my indie book biz with money I earn as an IT pro.  I get the Google.

Bookmaking is a venerable art sped up by technology but bottom line is words are human currency.  Reading these words arranged by Robin Sloan is time well spent.