Book & Media

LOOKING FOR A KISS by Kate Walter

Publishing date: June 16, 2015, Heliotrope Books

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About Looking For A Kiss

How long does it take to get over heartache? Journalist and teacher Kate Walter wondered if she’d ever feel whole again after her long-term lesbian partnership ended.

A resident of Greenwich Village who spent years recording neighborhood life, Walter explores her recovery from despair in her debut memoir Looking for a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing. Dedicated to “women who have been dumped after 25 years,” the memoir shares her broke, brokenhearted state of being left by a partner of two decades. While many older women—gay and straight—experience divorce, Walter’s break up was more stressful since she was not legally married. But rather than dwelling in regret, Looking for Kiss carries a hopeful message: you can heal your life and land up in a better place. Readers are invited to share her journey to a more conscious life—or at least a hot kiss.

With brave and revealing details, Walter confesses her grief and rage and questions her past choices. Seeking answers and spiritual solace, she joins a gay-positive church, visits psychics, throws herself into yoga and chanting, and starts dating again at 60. Like the urban landscape that serves as her backdrop, Walter’s fast-paced dialogue has a raspy realness and soulful edge. She describes loneliness and longing with humorous and poetic prose. Anyone seeking hope will cheer this funny, gutsy narrator who loses love but finds herself.

Advance Praise for Looking For A Kiss

“Searching for love and spiritual healing, Kate Walter’s journey from cynical city denizen to hopeful romantic will inspire anyone who has felt left adrift in mid-life but refuses to give up on passion or self-actualization.”

—Jerry Portwood, executive editor of Out Magazine

“Kate Walter’s impressive debut memoir Looking for a Kiss is a hip, hilarious and heartbreaking story of romance gone wrong set in Greenwich Village. Just when the hurt feels overwhelming, the soothing steps of healing start, turning tears into hard-won laughter and inspiration. It’s the story of a brave gay woman who lost love but found herself.”

—Susan Shapiro, author of Five Men Who Broke My Heart and Lighting Up

“Until very recently, downtown Manhattan was a world of its own, a place where artists and writers, intellectuals and eccentrics lived freely and precariously. For years, Kate Walter has been that world’s Samuel Pepys, recording her life there in brave and revealing detail. In telling us this story of love, loss and ultimate recovery, from its quintessentially downtown title to its crazy yet redemptive final scene, she also reclaims that world with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies.”

–- John Strausbaugh, author of The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues

“When gay marriage was still out of reach in New York state, Kate Walter was left behind by her partner of over 25 years. Searching for answers to how the connection unraveled and how to connect once more, Walter has written a gift: this fast-paced, funny, touching memoir of triumph over love lost.”

—Alice Feiring, author of The Battle for Wine and Love and Naked Wine

“Kate Walter’s memoir Looking For A Kiss is a savvy and funny spiritual journey. Walter writes her unique story of lesbian love and heartache in New York’s Greenwich Village in a vulnerable, confessional way. Anyone seeking hope can relate to her tale of breakup and renewal.”

—Royal Young, author of Fame Shark

“In Looking for a Kiss, Kate Walter has written the queer low budget Eat Pray Love. Raw and intimate, she takes you along on her journey to enlightenment. The book is “Dedicated to women who’ve been dumped after twenty-five years.” Yes, the book tells the tale of the demise of this relationship, but it becomes clear early on that it also became a catalyst for finding a different—and more conscious—way to live her life. Incorporating “New Age” practices, including becoming more intuitive, became part of her healing process. It was enjoyable reading about her experiences with these practitioners and to cheer her as she celebrated victories and progress. There’s even the bonus of some common-sense dating wisdom by the mysterious “Dr. R.” which I couldn’t help but take to heart. A fun and fruitful read.”

—Susan Lander, Esq., author of Conversations with History

“Looking for a Kiss is so engaging. I read this book in one sitting. It was addictive. I could not stop. Kate’s story is my story, and the story of so many older women who endure a breakup in their 50s and 60s. As a straight woman who went through the breakup of a long marriage at 60, I could relate to everything Kate writes about especially her fixation on her ex and why she left. When someone dumps you without a real explanation, the hurt lingers. Kate really gets what that’s about. Her search for both a spiritual center and lasting love–or at least some hot sex– will resonate with every woman who’s been through a breakup—gay, straight and in between. Terrific writing.”

—Erica Manfred, author of He’s History; You’re Not; Surviving Divorce After Forty

“A poignantly told story of one woman’s journey from lost love to self-reliance in the heart of New York’s downtown, including scenes in the legendary artists complex, Westbeth.”

—Gabrielle Selz, author of Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction

“A real New York story. An unexpected mid-life breakup with her long-term partner sends Kate Walter on a search for recovery, spirituality, and a new love. We root for her as she tries different paths, endures questionable dates, and examines her past for clues to her current situation. As she discovers her higher self along the way, the readers’ own imperfections are also illuminated. We relive her moments, told through specific, colorful dialogue and a narrative full of high-def memories. We close the book having come to know this smart, quirky, and very funny woman.”

Kate Walter: The Village Scribe