We chat with author Katelyn Doyle about Total Dreamboat, which is an irresistible rom-com about what happens when a cruise ship romance goes…overboard
Hi, Katelyn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a romance writer and I live in Los Angeles, where I spend my days mostly staring at my laptop, or my cat, or my cat sitting on top of my laptop attempting to prevent me from earning a living, which you would think she would support since I’m the one who pays for her Fancy Feast shrimp soup packets. I famously have no productive hobbies, but I do fiendishly devour thriller novels in audio while playing mindnumbing games on my phone, and mainline every Real Housewives show on Bravo as fast as they can film the ladies throwing wine on each other.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
When I was in first grade, my teacher assigned everyone in class to write a descriptive sentence about the weather. She loved my sentence so much she read it aloud to the class, and I’ve been seeking external validation for stringing words together ever since. (I don’t remember the sentence but I’m sure it was a masterpiece.)
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Babysitters Club I wrote fan fic of it before I knew what fan fic was.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. I read it as an eleven year old and am still confused by the erotic bears.
Your latest novel, Total Dreamboat, is out June 24th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Ex-lovers miss the boat. Whoops!
What can readers expect?
All of the highs and lows a cruise ship has to offer. Delicious tropical food, but also seasickness. Karaoke battles, but also bikini malfunctions during aquacise. A hot Carribbean fling you never saw coming, but also being trapped on a ship with a person you no longer want to be having a hot fling with because he/she has pissed you off deeply in your soul. Fabulous island locales, but also getting stuck on one with no phone or passport, and the person who has pissed you off deeply in your soul.
Where did the inspiration for Total Dreamboat come from?
In middle school, my best friend went on a summer cruise and met a boy so incandescently handsome I still can’t believe he existed in real life. They had a whirlwind cruise ship romance and he gave her her first kiss. They spent months sending letters to each other. I thought it was the most romantic thing I’d ever heard. A few years later, my own family went on a cruise and I had high hopes that I’d sweep someone off his feet too. Unfortunately, I only met old people, being trapped with my siblings drove me bananas, my most passionate relationship was with the midnight buffet, and I got incredibly sunburnt. This was the genesis of my obsession with the highs and lows being trapped on a ship can offer.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing the character of Lauren, who is the best friend of our heroine, Hope. Lauren is a twangy Texan TikTok influencer whose schtick is trying to marry a rich older husband, so she offers tutorials on things like flirting with bald guys and embeds herself on missions like going undercover at crypto conferences and taking golf lessons at luxury courses. She drags Hope onto the cruise because she receives a sponsorship from a luxury cruise line for the elderly promoting their solo cruisers program, and spends the whole trip finagling ways to pick up men of a certain age. I kind of wish she existed in real life!
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Every book is different, but the main challenge is believing you can actually turn a blank document into a 300 page novel. The only solution is to break it up into the world’s tiniest chunks: write the premise. Now write the outline. Now beat your head against the wall because you can only think up one third of the story. Now brainstorm with friends. Now scrap the outline and write a new, better one. Now vomit out the opening. Now refine it until you don’t hate it. Now refine the outline so it fits the non-horrible version of the opening chapter. And on and on and on until, magically, you have a book.
What’s next for you?
I am working on a new romance novel, naturally.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
My favorite of the year so far is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy—it scratched my thriller itch while also being a lyrical and emotional meditation on the human toll of climate change. In romance, I’m obsessed with Alexis Daria’s latest book, Along Came Amor, which is so steamy it will make your sunglasses fog up. And it came out last year, but I recently read The Husbands by Holly Gramazio and the concept—a woman’s attic starts producing husbands she’s never met before, and every time she gets rid of one it produces another—utterly delighted me. (And it paid off in a very satisfying way.)
