Judy Kiehart, Writer
Calico Lane
In this two-time international award-winning memoir, the question "How does one survive when she is not the person everyone expects?" is woven into a story about secrets, lesbian love, and living authentically.
What readers have said about Calico Lane:​​
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* Judy’s memoir transported me to Calico Lane and made me not want to leave. The Lane is as much a character in her book as the human ones she so deftly renders. This coming-of-age tale will rivet readers, not only because the author combines heartbreak with humor, but because she tells her story with love.
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* Judy gives easy, accessible insight of her Russian Orthodox upbringing without disdain or liberal sneers. Powerful!
* The excerpts I have read of Judy’s memoir have delved into the emotional tangle of family relationships: the expectations, demands, rules of right or wrong, and choices made in the name of duty and love. Introspection is dealt with realistically and the reader comes to know Judy as a unique, funny, loving individual.
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* Judy has chronicled a particular segment of a generation of immigrants, the great migrations of the 20th century, and then the great attempts to homogenize and blend – it’s all here in Calico Lane.
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* My best friend in school was gay, a secret I kept for him... Judy Kiehart’s memoir of growing up knowing she was attracted to girls and not boys ...brought me closer to an understanding of my friend’s struggle.
January 2021, an excerpt from Calico Lane was a semi-finalist in the nonfiction category in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards competition.
COMING JUNE 2025
In Mixed Shorts, you'll find:
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Fiction and nonfiction works from heartwarming love and family tales to creepy, spine-chilling scenarios
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Short stories that are then shown as one-act plays with alternate endings and stage directions
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Notes featuring backstories and the author's thought processes
Ebooks are
available
through Amazon.
PREORDER
your Ebook today
for delivery to your Ereader on June 2.
Brace yourself for something different​
"Listen the Board is Talking" and "Girl Crushes" PLUS the stories that inspired my one-plays will be among the 25 short reads featured in Mixed Shorts.
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A complete reading experience with varied themes and genres!​​​​​​​
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Short Stories
Whenever someone read a short story I wrote, it was guaranteed they'd ask, "How do you know how many words for your story?"
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I suppose my best answer was, "When the story is finished, you count the words. And that would be the number you needed for your story." Now, however, I understand that there are more than one 'kind' of short story.
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One of my favorite sites, in the New York Times, , manages to lighten our hearts, with 100 word or less love stories.
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Definitions for the SHORT STORY
A story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and
less elaborate than a novel - Oxford Dictionary
An invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually
dealing with a few characters
and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of
mood rather than plot - Merriam-Webster
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2,500 - 5,000 words
Definition for a SHORT-SHORT STORY
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A very short piece of prose fiction, much more condensed than the average short story.
500 - 2,500 words
Contests are held for stories with as little as two words.
A well-known two-word story: Jesus wept.
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Many contests have asked for submissions for four-or five-word stories. Each has a subject, an object, a verb and maybe one description or refining notion.
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My favorites (authors unknown) include
a sad story:
We all die someday.
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and,
a horror story:
Just saw my reflection blink.
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There's not much that compare with the feeling you have when seeing your words in print
or hearing a recording of a poem you've written,
or watching the characters you've created on paper come alive on stage.
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That's magic.
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"Writing is the only thing, that, when I do it,
I don't feel I should be doing something else." - Gloria Steinem
Stories that have been included in Independent Anthologies
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​​​​​​​​​"Girl Crushes"
Collected and Edited by Sue Bavey
Not Marriage Material Anthology 2025​​​
"Listen, the Board is Talking"
​NIWA Anthology 2023
Harbinger
"The Slips"
Chaffee County Writers
Valley Voices Anthology 2002
Ripples in the Streams of Life
Calico Lane
Thurston County readers, skip the shipping fees and pick up a copy at
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Lewis County readers, get your copy at
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Washington: Thurston County Libraries
Washington: Longview Public Library
Colorado: Chaffee County Libraries
New York: Earlville Free Library
Pennsylvania: Lackawanna County Library System
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Let's work on getting Calico Lane into a library near you! Just go to your librarian and ask if they could add Calico Lane to their inventory. When they see it's a two-time award-winning book (and if you tell them you know the author) they may be inspired to order it for their collection. If your library does order Calico Lane and is not listed above, let me know via the Contact Form I'll send you a gift.
Then, tell your friends it's in the library! More important than sales, is to put it into the hands of readers! ​
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Calico Lane is available through several libraries: