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