iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Talarico is texting me 5-6 times a day. Dude, enough!

Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Started Katie Roiphe's oped about journaling this morning and in the first graf she says people handwriting in them (in cafes, ok, jeez) are "obviously caught up in romantic notions about themselves." What a judgmental crock. Mind your own business.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Eerie dawn on the Columbia River

Gray sky, gray water, lights on in town. Streak of shining silver across the river highlighting container ships.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Gina Berriault’s collection, The Infinite Passion of Expectation is so good. Is she still read (god I hope so).

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Year 1 milestone for SHE'S UNDER HERE. Out of the blue, my cousin texted a photo of a shelf at Vroman's in Pasadena. It lives! Still! I'm grateful to Algonquin (and my wonderful editor Kathy Pories) for taking a chance on this story, and to everyone who's been so kind and supportive along the way.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oh, Annie Dillard. Sui generis, every line a thrill. Her work meant so much to me. Decades ago, I wrote her a letter and she generously wrote back, even including pages she'd torn from a magazine (about single engine planes used in flight shows), meant to help me with some research I was doing.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

My fellow humans: It's hard to not be discouraged these days— tell me what brings you joy so I may ride along. Also, for my fellow writers: Publishing, as a business, feels so bleak—are there bright spots? What gives you hope and renews your creative spirit?

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Reading Emma Cline's novel Switzy, which is excellent—conceptually, and line by line—but for someone at my stage of life it is also terrifying.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

We had a father/son duo cut down some seriously overgrown bushes on a steep slope, and when they were done, the dad said to make the check out to the boy, because it was his business, and I can't express how happy it made me that their last name was Heavenrich.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is a brilliant way to keep track of your novel's timeline, both the story's events and what's happening at the same time in the wider world.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Bullshit. The category is "Prince."

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Still going through stuff in the basement and came across this note from Lucia Berlin from 1999 about my novel ALL SAINTS, which I don’t remember at all but am so happy to have found.

Nov 30, 1999
Dear Karen
I have a confession to make ..
When we were discussing what books our students are not bothering to read our work—I did not admit to not having read ALL SAINTS myself. I would have but then I'd be whining about how busy I am. [I can't make this next part out, but I think it says, "It's hard to ??? up at books here, etc. etc. I would buy it at Xmas break."]
Sunday I went to school—to read as many applications for teaching as I could. (I do have only some up time a day.)
read one chapter of your book, brought it home & read straight through. I will buy it & read it again. It is an impressive, amazing book—
I had assumed that you would be an excellent writer. You are seamless & skilled, lyrical, clean etc, but there are many excellent writers. There are few writers nowadays with spiritual depth and passion. All Souls terrific title—You showed us their souls & yours, ours!
I loved your book—
Lucia

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

When you buy an old house that's been f***ed with: basement edition.

basement ceiling strung with a chaotic mess of electrical wire

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Found all my research for my first novel ALL SAINTS, pubbed back in the dark ages. Photocopied chapters from library books, articles @ NOLA, Cajun culture, the South's early recording studios, maps, recipes. Notes on flora & fauna, weather, geology, the early civil rights movement, Charity Hosp.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

This video shot me back. When our younger daughter was tiny, she used to wake up in her crib singing "Wa-O Wa-O" to herself.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Reading a commercially successful thriller published by a large house, to see what I can learn from it, and am aghast at the typos. It's extraordinary, like they didn't even bother to run spellcheck.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Uh-oh, I'm coastal grandma-ing again. (Japanese glass fishing floats. You can't really tell from the photo, but they have air bubbles and scuffs that catch the light.)

Basket filled with pale green Japanese glass fishing floats. 2-3.5 inches in diameter. Set in a window with a view of the Columbia River.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A friend was watching an Insta reel bc she knows the little boy talking to Sharon Stone (he's interested in design and apparently they were discussing fabrics). Then something else caught her eye. SHE'S UNDER HERE on a kitchen table w/ Sharon Stone! You just never know where your book will end up.

Sharon Stone sitting at a kitchen table talking to a young curly haired boy. In front of her is my memoir SHE'S UNDER HERE.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Not to go all Coastal Grandma, but I bought wind chimes.

Wind chimes hanging in a corner of the front porch. Blue blue sky.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I resent the implication that everyone secretly uses AI for writing. Most authors I know absolutely do not. I never have and never will. I do admit to asking what my kitchen would look like painted another color. Serious question for fellow haters: Is that unethical?

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I made the mistake of watching one of those sea shanty videos that were popular a few years ago, and I've never had an earworm as persistent as Wellerman. Out of nowhere I'll start stomping around, which makes the husband laugh, but holy hell, have some mercy, IT'S BEEN DAYS.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Abolishing ICE is the only acceptable position.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Good god I found in the basement a box full of printed-out AOL email correspondence from the motherf***ing 1990s.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Can't get into my Instagram account. Can't reset the password. Ah well.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Still unpacking. When does it end?

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

More reporting (w/texts) on Max Miller not returning his daughter's blue bunny—her lovey. It's so familiar, punishing the toddler bc he's furious with her mom, followed by professions of love for his child. My ex used to say "I'd do anything for my kids," which apparently included trying to kill me.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Rep Miller on TV talking @ his child's injury feels like when my abusive ex blamed me for our daughter's black eye—which happened *while he was home alone with her.* Anyway, my memoir SHE'S UNDER HERE is about what it took to escape. It's a good book and, alas, always timely. tinyurl.com/4v2kb6v7

tinyurl.com

The woman who made her family disappear: how Karen Palmer escaped her abusive husband

He had threatened her, locked her up and absconded with one of their daughters. Palmer knew she and her girls needed to escape – but it would involve huge risk and total reinvention

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The NYer has an article about Dr. Fauci's diary that's giving me flashbacks to that time when a group of 12-yr-olds secretly read my scribblings during a sleepover. I never kept a journal again.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The sun is hidden behind clouds (and maybe some smoke) but still shows up as a red reflection upon the Columbia.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

This framing is false. Until the last moment before I ran from my ex, I was placating him and making nice and still hoping things would change.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Every day the dawn is different.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Our daughter Erin (mayor of Spookyville) has been putting on this spectacular community event in DC for ten years now. It's so much fun, and there are lots of ways to help, if you're interested. Info below.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It's been a long day filled with hard-headed bureaucracy, but now I get to look at this while I write.

View of dowtown Astoria and the Columbia River. Blue sky, blue water, container ships all in a row.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Found a 1980 Hustler magazine shoved to the back of the tippy-top shelf in my new office. Omg, the racism, the hatred of women, the ads the cartoons the photo shoots ...

Photo of built-in bookshelf in my office. Goes to the ceiling. Magazine was found on the top shelf, shoved to the back.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

At the Clatsop County Fair watching “extreme lumberjacks.” Climb to “Hot-blooded” by Foreigner. City mouse here—a different life.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Last week, while I was teaching for Lighthouse Writers up in Grand Lake, CO, a mama moose right strolled past my cabin window.

Mama moose strolling amongst pine trees and rocks. Taken through my cabin window in Grand Lake, Colorado.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

There are a lot of deer in Astoria. They're super cute but a hazard, as Vinnie found out the hard way when one jumped onto his truck on the main drag, jumped off unhurt, and then fled. His deer companions loitered on the sidewalk, looking pleased. Good job, fellas.

Closeup of Vinnie's shattered windshield with kaleidoscopic impact from a deer.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Not looking forward to our first winter in far northwestern Oregon, where the sun won't rise until 9 a.m. Thanks, Congress. (Don't you have better things to do?)

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

This is incredibly selfish. No one wants to hear about Biden's disastrous decision to renege on his pledge to be a one-term president. He could have insisted they wait to publish until after the election.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Well, this was nice to find in the inbox. SHE'S UNDER HERE is immersive, by definition, but it's also filled with introspection and preoccupied with language. Best of everything, right? lol www.oprahdaily.com/entertainmen...

oprahdaily.com

Looking for a Book That Feels Like a Movie? These 7 Picks Deliver Blockbuster Energy

Fast-paced, visual storytelling makes these novels especially easy to get lost in this summer.

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Karen Palmer @karenpalmer.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

We made it. Whew. Unpacking will have to wait—off now (back in the car lolsob) to teach for Lighthouse Writers in Grand Lake, CO.

Photo of river view in Astoria, Oregon. Blue water, wispy clouds, greenery and rooftops in the foreground. Washington State on the other side of the Columbia River.

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