LIBIDO TSUNAMI: Awash with the Droll in Life is a collection of forty short stories exploring human tragedy, drama, vulnerability and adventure. In them, I salute the absurd and quirky in life through humor, using the pen name, Cate Burns, to honor (or defame) the lineage in my maternal family that dates back to the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The stories are grouped into four themes: A Flood of Family, Male Amazements, The Unknown Hawaii, and The Life Divine. From surviving complicated relationships to embracing Aloha and saving wild chickens, this work has something for everyone.


LIBIDO TSUNAMI has it roots in "My Daily Diary," a padded pink vinyl diary with a well-used lock and key. I have continued journaling life's joys and absurdities to the present.

This rich material, combined with my family tradition of humor, both dark and light, inspired me to birth forty, well-polished, non-fiction essays, along with several short stories. Under my given name, Kaethe Kauffman, I was fortunate enough to win first place for my non-fiction short story, The Girdle, in the 2015 national competition, the Lorin Tarr Gill Writing Contest.

Collectively, these poignant bits, pieces, articles and short stories became the award-winning manuscript and now published book, LIBIDO TSUNAMI, a winner in the 2016 Pacific Rim Book Festival. It is my sincere hope that my readers will find joyful insights within these pages.