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You Between the Lines is out now. Let me ramble for you.

It’s Tuesday, February 18, 2025 and You Between the Lines is officially out. Only it’s not—because I’m writing this on Sunday, and I’m trying to channel how I will feel two days from now, which isn’t so hard because it’s sort of felt like YBTL has been out for ages. It hasn’t felt like mine for a long time.

It is SO cold in Ohio right now. But you gotta get the pic, you know?

They say writers tend to have obsessions, and that those obsessions play out both consciously and unconsciously on the page. It’s the stuff we return to again and again in our work, the way our fingers perch on top of a Ouija board and just can’t help but veer a certain direction. I wasn’t sure what that thing was for me, but I suspect it’s vulnerability. My therapist said recently that she actually has no idea how I feel about most things even though I spend 50 minutes a week telling her how I feel. I saw my book in Barnes & Noble and my strongest emotion wasn’t an emotion, but an “Oh.” And yet, I wrote an entire character who I maintain isn’t me (she’s not, I swear!), and yet when she’s misunderstood I feel like someone’s dug their fist into my chest, grabbed an organ, and pulled.

All of this is to say, I have both a hard time accessing emotions and an obsession with trying to. And publishing a book is possibly one of the greatest exercises of vulnerability in existence. Here I am, offering up 368 pages of data on Leigh and Will— two poets who are very much the figments of my overactive imagination—as well as a treatise on what it means to be vulnerable with your art and with other people. It’s almost meta. It’s a “so tell me everything is not about me—but what if it is?” kind of thing.

While I’m a neurotic overthinker (they call it overthinking, you know, not overfeeling), in the moments that I let myself, I feel a great amount of pride in offering up You Between the Lines to the world. So many of you have commented or messaged me about how the book felt like I was reading your diary, or how it felt like going to therapy, or how it felt like I was in your own therapy sessions (creepy but delicious). When people get it, they get it—and damn, if that hasn’t felt rewarding, life-affirming, and made me feel a little less alone. I loved every minute (okay lmao sometimes I was dying) of writing this book, and getting to put it out there is an immense privilege I don’t take lightly.

I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who’s played any role at all in this journey—my wonderful publishing team, my husband and friends and family, and yes, you who preordered or read and reviewed or just subscribed to this newsletter because you were curious (LITERALLY all of you. Every comment and DM has been the biggest burst of serotonin.) If it’s your first time in Yearntown, what I dub my little pining, longing land of YBTL, welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay. If you’ve been a resident for a while, welcome back—and may you choke in lavender again and again.

The YBTL Tour

YBTL is out, so my tour begins now! If you’re in Cleveland, OH, Greensboro, NC, or New York City, I would absolutely *love* to see you. I’m so lucky to be in conversation with three amazing authors. And in April (new date!), I’ll be at the English Bookshop in Stockholm, Sweden—so I hope to see my European friends there then!

Tonight, I’ll be with Jen Devon, one of my favorite romance authors of ALL TIME at Black Cat Books & Oddities in Medina, OH at 6:30pm. There will be good conversation and stickers and merriment. See you there?

To see the rest of my events, look here. And if you’re interested in the ticket NYC event, please RSVP soon - I’m told there are only a handful of tickets left! Exciting!

The bonus scene

If you’ve submitted your preorder receipt to get the Will POV bonus scene (thank you!), you’ll get it next week sent to your email by my publisher. If you haven’t submitted it yet, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time! You can still submit through February 21 via the form here. I’m truly REALLY excited about it - I loved returning to Leigh and Will, and I’m quite proud of the writing. Excited to hear what you think.

Me signing a stack of books at my childhood B&N! I even watched someone buy my book in front of me! I didn’t go up to them because I was afraid I would be weird and then they wouldn’t buy it HAHAHA

Talk soon :)

I’m off to enjoy the day. Trying to figure out what delicious thing I can eat. Trying to not be on my phone 24/7. Tell your friends if you like YBTL, okay? I want to be vulnerable with y’all for a really long time.

Yours,

Katie

P.S. Oh, I should add links to this, right? You can buy You Between the Lines wherever books are sold—here are some ideas:

For those in the UK (and rest of Europe, I think, Sweden included): Blackwell’s

The indie where I did my poetry thesis reading: Scuppernong Books

A fantastic romance bookstore I’d like to be buried in: The Ripped Bodice

The chicest NYC bookstore where I’m doing my event: McNally Jackson

A Portland institution I loved visiting: Powell’s

For an ebook that supports indie bookstores: Bookshop.org