Welcome to the new and improved Out of Practice! If you followed me from Substack, thank you so much. And if you’re new here, welcome!

I’m Kat (or Kate, or Katya, depending on when and where you met me). My debut novel WASP’S NEST, a contemporary queer homage to the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story, comes out with Celadon/Macmillan in June of 2026.

I didn’t always want to be a writer. I wanted to be a veterinarian, an archeologist, a historian, an anthropologist, and a librarian, roughly in that order. But I’ve always been a reader. I grew up loving Brit lit—Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, H. H. Munroe, E. Nesbit, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien. Brideshead Revisited has been my favorite novel since I was eighteen. I also love screwball comedies, particularly the elite subgenre of George Cukor adaptations of Philip Barry plays starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Watching black and white movies on repeat definitely fostered my fondness for writing dialogue.

I grew up in Maryland, then spent a few years in Michigan during college before moving back. I’ve lived in Baltimore since 2013. I’m an East Coaster through and through, and love my city. I have a daughter, Sidney, who’s in first grade. One of my earliest jobs was barista-ing, and I’m still in the coffee industry as a catering and events coordinator.

I’m passionate about supporting local bookstores, public libraries, and other writers. Some of my favorite living authors are Sarah Waters, Sally Rooney, Louise Erdrich, Brandon Taylor, Ann Patchett, Alexander Chee, and Curtis Sittenfeld. If I ever have the means and opportunity, I plan to start or support a writing residency program geared toward disabled writers and parent writers, both of whom need support in a way the literary community can’t always provide.

There are a lot of writers out there like me. We have full time non-writing day jobs, we balance our careers and our chosen work (writing!) with parenting or caretaking responsibilities, and when we’re lucky enough to make money from our fiction it goes directly toward paying rent.

I started writing WASP’S NEST at the end of 2021, and while that feels like ages ago, it’s also…not that long ago. I started this newsletter in part to chronicle my path to publication. Since selling my debut in spring 2024, I’ve drafted and abandoned one novel (Sibling WIP), started drafting another novel (Campus WIP), and planned out a third novel (Vermont WIP). This newsletter is one of several ways I hold myself accountable in my writing practice.

I publish Out of Practice monthly (most of the time), and you’ll find news about my forthcoming debut, updates on my writing process, mini book reviews, and whatever else I feel like sharing. Sometimes I include a short essay, sometimes I don’t. On the whole I’m just chatting about my own process, what I’ve learned and found useful.

The major headliner: we adopted kittens! The house was really lonely after losing Pheebs, and I wasn’t ready for another dog yet, but Sid and I fell in love with a pair of kittens when we visited the animal shelter.

Meet Emerald and Oscar! They are rambunctious, adorable, cuddly, and only occasionally violent siblings. We love them so much. And yes, Oscar is named for Oscar Wilde. He’s the token man of the house.

We also spent a couple days at the beach last weekend celebrating my sister’s birthday. I read approximately ten pages of a book, watched “Cake Pop Demon Hunters,” played in the waves with Sid, and did NOT get sunburned. Success all round.

I’m midway through a few books right now, and there are a couple recent debuts that I am absolutely pumped to get into, but the only book I’ve finished recently is Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou, which I really enjoyed. I don’t usually gravitate toward pure satire, but the academic setting and central mystery really grabbed me. It’s definitely politically relevant, and the way Chou deftly unravels Ingrid’s relationship to her colleagues, her mentors, her work, her fiancé, and herself had me racing to the end.

I completed my edits on the First Pass pages for WASP’S NEST, which means the text of the book is pretty much good to go (cue off page screaming). My agent and editor and I have been refining the jacket copy for the book, which is honestly really fun. I write my own “jacket copy” (a short summary and pitch that is attention-grabbing without being spoilery) when I’m starting a new book, and continue to revisit it throughout the process. It helps me hone in on what I’m actually writing about. It’s been amazing to get professional perspectives on what works on a sales level.

Now that I’m officially out of the editing stage for my debut, I feel like I can finally focus my attention on Campus WIP. I’ve got an outline I’m using as a roadmap. The first section is pretty fleshed out, since I’ve written all of those scenes and I’m more confident about where they need to go and how they need to function. The following sections are much less detailed—individual bullet points rather than sections with subsections.

I’ve gotten notes back from my critique partners on the first portion of Campus WIP, and I’m incorporating that feedback into my draft before finally (finally!!) sharing with my agent sometime this…fall? TBD.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how differently I approach the writing process now compared to six or eight years ago. I used to just sit down and start writing without much of a plan. To be fair, this works really well for some people. Plenty of successful authors don’t outline. But for me, it was an exercise in anxiety. I had no idea where I was going and I would quickly hit a wall. I had no grasp on pacing, among other things. And when I did outline, it felt stifling.

But as I’ve read more, and written more, and learned more about craft, I can approach a new project with confidence. The whole experience feels lighter and more flexible. I know that if something isn’t working, I can remove it, or reposition it without throwing off the whole book. An outline doesn’t feel restrictive. I see it as notes on structure, why and where things intersect. And that frees me up to have more fun with the process.

I was chatting with my bestie this week about how far we’ve both come in our creative work since we met. She said starting a project used to feel like chipping away at a solid block of something, wood or marble. Now, five years and countless projects later, it feels more like using building blocks or framing a house. We’re combining familiar shapes to build the shape we want to create. It lets the light in. I just think that’s neat!

Thanks for being here. I hope the transition to this platform is seamless, but if you have any issues with your email let me know and we will work it out!

Hopefully the next time I post a newsletter I will have a cover reveal—I can’t wait to share what the amazing team at Macmillan has come up with.

Now to send this out before it’s officially October.

Until next month,

Kat