on living the author™️ life
july 2026 edition
I’m drinking a crispy Coca-Cola whilst writing this newsletter instead of my usual coffee. And I’ll admit it, it is, in fact, my second Coke during this newsletter session. Some days, I need the extra hit of caffeine, and maybe you do too.
Or maybe you’re unwinding from a long day with me. I have barely been able to catch my breath, so let’s all take a few deep breaths together, and then we can get into how this summer’s played out thus far for me.
AUTHOR LIFE OUTSIDE THE WRITING
I have officially popped my moderator cherry!
(God, am I really keeping that as the intro to this section?)
On the 14th, I had the absolute joy to be the moderator for Madge Maril’s launch event for her sophomore book, The Paddock Club. I can’t understate how much I love this book! (more on that later!)
And the day was spectacular too, Madge is just as cool and kind and hilarious in person as she is online! She invited me to come with her to a bunch of Cincinnati bookstores while she signed their stock, and it was literally my perfect day! Going around to bookstores, chatting with booksellers, and getting to talk about books and writing? Absolutely what I want to spend every single day doing, truly!
And the event was fantastic! Joseph-Beth is a huge, sprawling bookstore with the sweetest, most caring staff. I felt so welcomed and so at home! They had so many copies of BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS, which I got to sign in their private room upstairs. And then I got to ask all of my burning questions to Madge and listen to all of her brilliant answers. Every reader who came up and chatted with me was so lovely and sweet. So many picked up BC, too, which was an amazing surprise every time! And it was extra special because two of my best friends came to the event too!
Book events as an author are always a dream come true. And it’s such an honor that I get to share in the excitement of a friend’s book being ushered into the world. Readers, booksellers, bookstores, they’re the lifeblood of authors. Enthusiastic, kind, and always ready with a book rec, it’s really an ecosystem that I am happy and grateful to be a part of.
So, anyway, if any author friends ever need a moderator, call me, beep me! I love to talk about books and celebrate!!
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Let’s talk The Paddock Club now, because I haven’t been able to get it out of my head! Or my heart!
The Paddock Club follows our professional heartbreaker, Cat Cromwell, as she’s hired to date and dump a Formula 1 driver after he left his ex at the altar. She’s a fashion girlie, so she works for his team as their stylist. But everything gets flipped around when he leaves, and she’s left in the hands of Faust Ferreira Sanchez.
And GOD is Faust, just such an interesting man. No worries, I won’t spoil anything here, but he’s broody, dark-haired, and unwaveringly honest. She has her mission, though. Still, Cat is drawn to Faust (who wouldn’t be?), and he sees her, wants to understand her, and loves who she is at her core.
Their relationship is intimate, sensual, and calm, in a way I adore. Super sexy, but it was almost understated in its sexiness. A game of cat and mouse, fleeting in moments, but eventually blooming into a relationship that is built on trust, on genuine enjoyment of each other, of understanding. It’s truly so masterfully done, and I believe their relationship and attraction to each other.
Plus, The Paddock Club has interwoven commentary on women’s roles, wealth, fashion, power, control, and so much more. I loved all the literary and mythological references that give little hints to the characters’ journeys, arcs, and mental states. (Look, I have a degree in literary analysis, OF COURSE I loved all the allusions!)
And of course, the backdrop of the entire novel is Formula 1, which I am currently obsessed with, so it’s really a cocktail of elements I’m primed to enjoy and love. But really, I enjoyed every page of The Paddock Club, and I related so much to Cat Cromwell; she made my heart squeeze, and the unraveling of everything is so satisfying.
There is so much more I want to say, but it’d be getting deep into spoiler territory, so I’ll leave my gushing here. I hope you pick up and I hope you love it when you read.
You can pick up The Paddock Club at your favorite bookstore or at a variety of other retailers, or if you want to pick up a signed copy, you can check out the stores @’ed in Madge’s Instagram post!
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I’m still on my nonfiction journey! With all of my drafting this year and having books I need to read for ~work~, I’ve gotten behind on reading in general. On my way home from Cincinnati, I finally finished the audiobook of Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out by Leena Norms. As a recovering perfectionist, I found this book insightful into ways I can trick my brain into just doing the damn thing. And I think this is a book I’ll come back to whenever I start to feel overwhelmed by the guilt of not doing enough. This isn’t so much a self-help book. At least, I don’t see it that way. It’s more about finding the parts of our lives we can half-ass to feel better, to put in that little bit of imperfect energy, so our full energy can be devoted to what we want to whole-ass, as Leena puts it. It’s narrated by her, and I love her British accent, so it really felt like I was watching one of her YouTube videos! (And I recommend checking out her channel and seeing if her style is for you, because if it is, you will enjoy Half-Arse Human!)
I’ve also been trying to read a lot of house-building or bed & breakfast romances, for a variety of reasons. (Okay, one major reason, I want to write my own. It’s not that big of a secret.) So, I read The Devil is a Marquess by Elisa Braden because it’s my best friend’s favorite historical romance, and oh my, it DID NOT disappoint! Incredible prose, a broody, down bad man, and an industrious woman who is determined to find herself a home. Don’t be scared off by the cover; it’s so good. And then, on my way to Cincinnati, I reread Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert. Fun fact, the first book in the Brown Sisters series was the first romance book I read as an adult! And I love the entire series, but Act Your Age, Eve Brown is specifically so good. From the witty banter, the grumpy x sunshine dynamic that works for the characters, the way the friendship developed into something deeper and sexier, god, it’s so good.
Hmm, a lot of British books this month! Not a surprise to me.
OUTLINE-A-THON
Well, it seems we have a little more time to sit down and chat, now that I’m not running to and fro like a mad woman!
In my flyby newsletter, I told you that I finished the second draft of my Formula 1 romance. It’s still true, it’s done. But now that I’ve had time to breathe and decompress from the mad dash to get it into my agent’s inbox, I am itching to get back to it.
It’s such a nice departure from what I experienced working on TRIPLE THREAT, because I was so overwhelmed by everything in that book. Alongside the pressures of writing under a contract, of completely overhauling my entire process, of trying to make a throuple book work.
Anyway, I’m both so ready to be back with Jasper and Darcy, and also know I need more time. I have a lot of work to do, with TRIPLE THREAT, with reading books for blurbs, with preparing for events, with commissioning art, writing this newsletter, marketing, and preparing for the second half of the year, etc. As much as I would love to dive into whipping the F1 book into tiptop shape, I know it’ll likely need another developmental pass, and I’ll need to clean up all of the brackets I’ve left and fix all my typos.
And to prepare myself and practice what I’m going to say about this book, here is the quick and dirty of what the F1 book is actually about.
Childhood karting teammates, to Formula 1 rivals, to teammates-with-benefits, a passionate situationship develops between two high-caliber drivers as they fight for a championship. Heated Rivalry meets Pole Position. Erotic romance (kinky, freak for freak behavior).
And also, just for fun, it has a bunch of Katie Chandler classics - terrible dads and questionable father figures, angst, an egregious amount of blushing, a lot of sport described (aka we get a bunch of races, baby), and a cast of drivers you’ll maybe see more of in the future.
How did I do? We’ll keep refining it in future newsletters.
But what’s next?
Great question!
I have no idea.
There are a lot of moving parts to a career, and I’ve spoken in this newsletter about the potential pivot.
Since I’m sort of in a holding pattern at the moment with what I should pour my drafting energy into, I’ve decided to run a little event for myself. But hey, you can join in too! (If you’re reading this newsletter anywhere from today to July 26th!)
So, it’s no secret that I have a lot of books. What can I say? I’m a series girl at heart. It’s hard for me to want to let go of the worlds I’ve created and I want to explore so much within specific world frameworks I’ve made.
And so I have a lot of concepts, a lot of ideas. And before, I would just jump feet-first into drafting an idea. But that isn’t particularly efficient for what I want to achieve with my books, I want to write compulsively readable, deeply emotional, and enjoyable books. Which means I have to put a lot of work into developing them or else I will just spend all this time writing a draft that gets almost completely scrapped. I’ve found that the “cheat code” is an outline.
God, were the plotters right the whole time?
Probably.
At least, for my purposes. I have goals, and I want to be efficient even while enjoying the process, because part of the joy is sharing what I have.
Okay, we’re veering into author essay territory, so I’ll rein it in. I have a spreadsheet of all my book ideas, and I decided that I have a lot of ideas in different stages of development.
And so, while I’m dogsitting for a family friend, I decided I’m going to try to outline all of my outstanding ideas and get them up and ready for drafting when the time comes to get back into the writing cave.
So, every day, until I go home on July 26th, I’m going to go live for three hours, spin a wheel with all the ideas on it, and then work on just that project until it’s outlined.
Now, there are two categories of outline. First, there is a synopsis, there is a structure, and there is a core to the story that I can write in line with. So, with those, I’ll be making a chapter-by-chapter outline so that it’s fully ready to just draft.
The second category is more amorphous. I have a concept, maybe even a blurb, but no specific structure or plot. And my work will be to get into the shape of the first category. Put in the actual work to give it all that it needs to be a satisfying romance story. Basically, I give the story a backbone to stand on.
This is a loose process, full of notes and jumping back and forth. It isn’t perfect, it isn’t for anyone but me, but I call it done when I can, gun to my head, write a synopsis and blurb for it, and be able to show the shape of the story.
There are ten stories sitting on the docket and they sit in three genre categories of their own.
The Sports Romances
Featuring: the final two Ricci sister books & the rest of the F1 books
The Cozy Romances
Featuring: a coastal town and a group of interconnected friends falling in love over the course of the four seasons.
The Romantic Suspenses
Featuring: my “thrill”ogy. slow burn psychological suspense romances full of creeping dread, family secrets, darkness both literal and metaphorical, and a town known for snaring strays.
If you’re a writer looking for productivity or you just wanna be nosy about the projects, you can join us on stream! I’m biased, but I love writing streams! They’re literally how I finished my first ever manuscript, and they’ve been powering me through the toughest times for years! And feel free to lurk and just use me as background noise! I don’t mind in the slightest.
HYBRIDS AREN’T JUST CARS
Is there a reason I’m burying my author essay at the end of this newsletter this month?
Maybe.
Okay, yes. Fine, I know I should stop hitting snooze on April’s alarm, but it’s still tough to put into words. Today, though, I’m opening up the vault a crack.
If you’re not in bookish spaces or following authors closely on Threads or in their newsletters, you might not see that it is kinda bleak out there. With the poor American economy, prices rising, and just a flood of so much content everywhere, it’s difficult not to feel like, sometimes, shouting into the void is pointless. The TikTok algorithm is a wreck ever since it got bought by the American government, Meta is using Instagram to push Facebook, but the users it’s pushing to aren’t bookish audiences. Everything feels fickle and uncontrollable, working one moment and then it doesn’t.
This doesn’t mean we authors aren’t trying. Sometimes, it feels like all I do is try. Even if it’s half-arsed on some days. (See, I did take something from my nonfiction reading!)
And look, as much as I would love to be Nora Roberts, tucked away in my little town and writing all of my books and just publishing them, I’m building my career. And to be honest, being able to effectively market is a good skill to have and harness! To know what your book is about in a few quick quips, to know what type of reader you’re looking for, to be able to buy into your own hype before it’s fully actualized, is how we get this whole thing to work. And does it also take luck, privilege, timing, and talent? Absolutely.
But the other truth is that in this landscape, there is no guarantee.
Way to state the obvious, Katie.
But no, really, it’s a hard lesson to learn. And what I can guarantee is that I will always write. It’s my why. It’s what I am meant to do. Even when it’s hard, when I’m tired, when I’m scared, when I’m struggling, when I’m emotional and upset. I’ve talked about that before when it comes to ambition.
And so, I’ve been contemplating being a hybrid author. Releasing books with traditional publishers and also independently. Because I love some stories too much to let them go. I am even more thankful that there are so many indie authors who have carved a path to not needing a traditional publisher and paved the way with resources.
I still love being in the traditional publishing sphere, don’t get me wrong. My team is absolutely incredible, and they work really hard to make my books successful. But I write a lot, quickly, and devote almost all of my time to this career. I don’t have to just publish traditionally. So many authors are doing this now for one reason or another. Because waiting for paychecks is hard, because sometimes a book doesn’t perform how the business expects it to do, and so they don’t invest again, because sometimes the story doesn’t fit perfectly into a snappy market niche. Sometimes it’s all for the love and joy of writing, and it’s about finding an audience who wants and needs your book.
So, this is my first little dip into maybe calling myself a hybrid author. Into putting a bigger slice of my career into my own hands. Into doing it because I can, because I’m capable, because I love to learn.
And because, yeah, I’m fucking ambitious.
All right, girlboss Katie has reached her capacity for now. The vault is closing, the alarm is snoozed, and we’ll chat more in the future.
And that is a guarantee.
We’re back to business as usual, which means it’s time for the puppy photos!
Right now I’m dog-sitting Piper, who is the tiniest little gal. She is almost the exact same age as Bear! I literally met her the day she was brought home, so she has a special place in my heart.
And this was, unfortunately, the only picture of Chauncey I caught while I was with the incredible Lindsay Puckett! I was too distracted by the boy aquarium (fútbòl)!
And of course, I won’t deprive you of my beans.
Love you all oodles and oodles 🫶
KATIEEEE i'm so glad we literally met-cute irl and now we're here. thank you for being a part of the paddock club's big day and I can't wait to celebrate YOU next!!