I wrote a book (+ a cover reveal)

about a couple and some couplets

Hey. Welcome. It’s Katie.

Senior year of high school, I stood up in front of the entire school and spoke for 15 minutes about romance for my Senior Speech¹, a requirement for graduation. Specifically, the absence of romance in my life.

I went to an all-girls high school, so there weren’t really cute guys floating around the cafeteria—but that’s an excuse. We had a brother school nearby, and there were opportunities, but to paint you a picture, I was more adept at studying for the AP English exam and making comprehensive college planning spreadsheets than flirting. In the speech, I offered up my lack of a love life in excruciating detail and it struck a chord. A brand was born².

I’ve always loved love. I spent the better part of my young adulthood, like so many of us, reading age-inappropriate fan fiction about whatever couple I was obsessed with du jour: Draco and Hermione, Logan and Rory³, Jim and Pam. My favorite sport is ice dancing⁴ and the reason is not because of the couples’ athletic prowesses (yeah, yeah twizzles, whatever: Are y’all dating or not?) In high school, I used to outline a fictional world—it was a boarding school universe centered around one girl and one perfectly matched boy (shoutout Elizabeth & Robert, my OG one true pairing!) and I’d create complex timelines of their relationship and all of their friends’. I’d cast them with headshots from IMDB, and they’d live solely in my head and in my first laptop.

This is me in high school. I spoke to maybe one boy that year. But I had aspirations.

I’ve always loved writing and storytelling, and majoring in creative writing in college was a given. The fact that I concentrated in poetry, however, and later got an MFA in the same genre remains slightly mystifying to me even to this day. It probably was a result of the complex alchemy that causes me to make many life decisions, factors of which include: 1) I thought it was “cool,” and 2) I got validation from someone I respected at the right time. But indeed, very little intellectually stimulates me more than writing a poem. There’s something about the small real estate I find exciting, and the fact I got paid to do it for four semesters with some of my best friends? My MFA years were some of the best of my life. I was looking at my thesis recently and while sometimes I look back at my old writing in deep cringe, I’m truly still proud of the work I did there. All in all, it was a fantastic time, full of growth, friendship, and hangovers (I only recently recovered from MFA Prom 2018.)

This is all to say, I wrote a novel about two pining poets who slowly and deliciously fall in love over the first year of their MFA program. Looking back, it feels like the obvious conclusion given my interests: I love couples, and I love (unrhymed) couplets.⁵

That book, YOU BETWEEN THE LINES, is slated to drop February 18, 2025 from Forever/Hachette. And now it has a cover. Behold!

I absolutely love it. Call me delusional, but I think it’s giving Beautiful World, Where Are You vibes. His shoulders and glasses! Her pink dress! The dreamy flowers! The serif font! A novel in that red cursive? Please!

For those interested in the behind-the-scenes of it all, I sent my editor a brief with examples of covers I loved (so yes, the complete Sally Rooney oeuvre), details of what my characters look like, a link to a Pinterest board I’d made for inspiration. A bit later, she came back with some roughly sketched directions, and this one stuck out immediately. Colors were adjusted and refined and that was that. A home run with basically zero effort on my part. Thank you to Caitlin Sacks, the amazing illustrator!

And now, if you want to preorder it, you can! Preorders are hugely important for authors, as they allow publishers to gauge demand, and increase the chances I can do this for more years to come. I, Bernie Sanders, am once again asking you for your support. (Humbly. I am wildly grateful.)

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Books-A-Million

Bookshop.org (to support your fave indie)

And for my Swedish friends, while you can’t preorder as of right now, you can sign up to be notified when it is available, so you can buy it the second it’s out! So far I’m seeing it on Adlibris, Akademibokhandeln, and Bokus.

One other (free!) thing you can do that would be delightful and helpful is if you add my book on Goodreads.

That’s all for now! I’ll let you know when I have any more exciting news :)

1. I was voted the winner of the People’s Choice Speech Award, an achievement that honestly felt more exhilarating (and less mental-health-spiraling) than my book deal.

2. My brand is 50% yearning, 20% horndog, 20% cat lady, 10% All Too Well (10 minute version). I love the idea of my parents reading that sentence and not understanding a single word.

3. I used to be a total Rory & Jess girlie but we’re rewatching Gilmore Girls now, and I gotta say, Logan hits different these days. It’s the Ace of it all.

4. I once made a 48-slide Powerpoint about Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir if you’re interested. It’s absolutely in the top 5 most deranged things I’ve ever done.

5. I mean, sometimes. I love a long-ass stanza too.