EP 295 - Body Brokers, Vital Organs, and Selling Direct with Dharma Kelleher

Mark chats with Dharma Kelleher who writes action-driven thrillers that explore the complexities of social and criminal justice in a world that favors the privileged. She is one of the only openly transgender authors in the crime fiction genre. They talk about that and a lot more. Prior to the interview, Mark reminds listeners about sending THEIR reflections for forthcoming Episode 300, provides a personal update and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.   You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.   In their conversation, Mark and Dharma talk about Dharma's "long, torrid" life-long affair with writing, and beginning to write on a manual typewriter in their teenage years What happened in the intervening years, including getting a degree in journalism Coming out as transgender, initially to self in college, and then later on. And the challenges of doing that in the deep south of the US Celebrating 25 years of marriage in 2023 Falling back in love with writing in 2007 thanks to NaNoWriMo Spending eight years focusing mostly on the craft of writing Pitching to 90 agents and then landing a deal with a New York publisher Coming to the realization that the trad pub model wasn't going to work (due to the publisher requiring print book rights even though they weren't planning on publishing beyond eBook) Getting tired of hearing the "we already had a transgender author book this year" from publishers Red Market's release in February 2023 and how Dharma is selling it directly before doing a wide publishing release How you get it early and get more when you buy it direct from the author Switching from a WooCommerce to a Shopify website for direct sales Doing the best they can to deliver their books to any customer wherever they are on the planet Being the first person in Arizona to donate a kidney to a stranger and how that was part of the inspiration for Red Market The Jinx Ballou Crime Thriller series and how crime thrillers, mysteries, etc are often about "justice" Some of the things writers can get wrong when they include transgender characters in their fiction Disclosure (Netflix) - that takes a deep dive into those tropes The importance of giving transgender characters agency in fiction How the tropes can cause real harm, not just hurt feelings Dharma's love of numbers and love of writing being among their biggest passions And more... After the interview Mark reflects on two of the things that came up in their discussion.   Links of Interest: Dharma's Website Queer Women Kick Ass (dot com) Red Market (direct sales link) Trailer for Disclosure (Netflix) Lambda Literary: Three Transgender Crime Writers (Dharma, Robyn Gigl, Renee James) Talk Thrills and Challenges of Writing in the Genre Epic Reads: YA Fiction with Transgender and Non-Binary Characters Goodreads: Novels of Trans Protagonists by Trans authors Findaway Voices Submit YOUR reflections for Episode 300 Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Dharma Kelleher writes action-driven thrillers that explore the complexities of social and criminal justice in a world that favors the privileged. She is one of the only openly transgender authors in the crime fiction genre. Dharma lives in Arizona with her wife and a black cat named Mouse. 

Learn more about Dharma and her work at https://dharmakelleher.com.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0