What is the title of your latest release?
THE WRITE OFF
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Two rival authors are forced to confront a decade of love and heartbreak when they are forced together at a weekend book festival on their old college campus.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I attended The University of Arizona as a student and later returned to The Tucson Festival of Books as an author, so it was only natural to write a book about authors set in the same places I love so much.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Yes! We would meet up for coffee and writing dates and inevitably spend the entire time talking about writing, publishing, and book boyfriends.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Devoted, charismatic, funny
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I have a lot of big feelings about the publishing industry, and I had fun exploring those through my characters’ very different experiences in publishing.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
A little of both depending on the book, but I’m a big believer that editing as I go kills the momentum.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
This isn’t really a foodie thing, but I could eat warm homemade bread and butter every single day.
Describe your writing space/office!
I have an office with a desk that I rarely use. Instead, I’m usually curled up on the couch under a blanket or writing from the sidelines of one of my kids’ many activities.
Who is an author you admire?
Ali Hazelwood is incredible. I’d kill for an ounce of her work ethic. Her books are funny, sexy, smart, and compulsively readable, no matter what genre she touches.
Is there a book that changed your life?
THE HATING GAME by Sally Thorne is the book that pushed me headfirst into the world of contemporary romcoms. I don’t think I’d be writing what I am today (or the genre would be what it is) without this book. I reread it every year!
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My book was up for auction, which means I already had offers from other publishers, but Berkley’s offer blew me away. I love their books, and my editor had such a perfect vision for the story. The official offer came while I was on a long drive, and I was so antsy for it to end so I could check my phone and celebrate.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Contemporary Romance
What’s your favorite movie?
You’ve Got Mail
What is your favorite season?
Winter in Arizona, which feels like fall in the rest of the country.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I make it a point to leave Arizona every year on my birthday. So far in my thirties I’ve spent my birthday in New York, Paris, Hawaii, Seattle, and Chicago.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Heated Rivalry is the new high bar for book to screen romance adaptations. They really wanted to do justice to the source material and give fans what they wanted, and it shows.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Mexican food! Chips, salsa, and guac are always a good idea.
What do you do when you have free time?
I love to bake but don’t do it often when I’m on deadline or life is crazy. Cinnamon rolls are my favorite, and I’m finally getting into sourdough six years late.
What can readers expect from you next?
Nearly lethal levels of banter and a Scottish castle.
Two rival authors are forced to confront a decade of love and heartbreak on the campus where it all started in this captivating debut romance by Kara McDowell.
It’s been thirteen years since Mars Darling first met West Emerson on a bench outside their writing class. What started out as a friendly rivalry turned into a best friendship and then, for a brief time, a romance. Now over a decade later, as Mars stands at their college campus as a once-esteemed YA fantasy author, ready to take on a book festival, she comes face to face with West—the muse behind her infamous trilogy’s heartthrob hero, the man who betrayed her in the worst way.
Mars is determined not to let her comeback tour be ruined by the fact that West is also at the festival as an author. But the longer they are on the campus that holds so many shared memories, the more time they have to untangle their past, and Mars starts to question if maybe it’s not only her writing career that deserves a second chance.
Told in two unfolding timelines—Mars and West’s frenzied college days where they grapple with their undeniable connection, and their tension-filled present of heartache and familiar yearning—this charming romance shows that while you can’t rewrite the past, it’s never too late to chase your happily ever after and get back the one that got away.
Romance Comedy [ Berkley, On Sale: April 7, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593955697 / eISBN: 9780593955703 ]
Kara McDowell is the author of The Prince & The Apocalypse, One Way or Another, This Might Get Awkward, and Just for Clicks. She lives with her husband and a trio of rowdy boys in Mesa, Arizona, where she divides her time between writing, baking, and wishing for rain.
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