Free preview of Complementary Colors

The first two chapters of Complementary Colors, my novel that's coming this summer, are available to those who'd like to preview the book. Email me or leave a comment here with your email address, and I'll be happy to send them to you as a PDF. No strings attached...although if you'd like to blog about your reactions, I'd love it, of course!



Acclaim for Complementary Colors:

Sophisticated and nuanced ... resplendent with the grace and wonder that accompany self-discovery. --Jayne Pupek, author of Tomato Girl and Forms of Intercession

In a way not often found in contemporary fiction, Kate Evans’ poetic prose richly captures the awakening of a woman to what she truly needs in her life: poetry, art, and the love of another woman. --Susan Gabriel, author of Seeking Sarah Summers

Kate Evans has struck gold again with her second novel, Complementary Colors. Gwen Sullivan’s self-discovery and exploration of her sexuality is one of the most realistic “coming out” stories that I’ve ever read. It’s organic, it’s moving and, since both Evans and her heroine are poets, every line sings. – Collin Kelley, author of Conquering Venus


Kate Evans has carefully, firmly, and personally contextualized the ever present dilemma of being a woman poet: millennia of misogynistic assumptions about the worth of a woman’s mind and the honoring of a woman’s body. Through the pages of this engaging, well-crafted novel, Evans delineates the ways in which the language of men degrades the language of women. The good news is that Evans' protagonist doesn’t take it lying down. --Merry Gangemi, Woman-Stirred Radio

As with her first novel, For the May Queen, Kate Evans explores not so much a coming of age story as a coming to terms story in her new novel Complementary Colors. Gwen Sullivan returns to the Bay Area after a stint teaching English in Japan. With nowhere else to go, and mostly only the clothes in her suitcase, she moves in with her boyfriend, Daniel, a genius but self-absorbed scientist who, though inviting Gwen to live with him, makes no accommodations for her presence—physically or emotionally. Along with her increasingly unsatisfying relationship and a job that doesn’t thrill her, Gwen decides to take a poetry class to ease her discontent; it is here that she meets Cat and Jamie, a couple of rollicking rough and tumble dykes, who are as intrigued by Gwen as she is by them. And while poetry may be the medium, a myriad of creative and sexual fires are alighted within Gwen against a backdrop of a widening void between herself and Daniel. As we follow Gwen’s journey for self-awareness, we are not so much rooting for her peace as we are cheering for her to come to terms with and embrace her truest desires. Whether she is imbued with confusion or clarity, we are rallying for Gwen’s appreciation of her creative and sexual self as she comes closer to realizing and living her own truth. A deftly crafted exploration of self-identity as only Kate Evans can achieve. Brava! --Cynn Chadwick, author of the Cat Rising, Girls With Hammers, Babies, Bikes, and Broads, and Angels and Manners.