1–What is the title of your latest release?
BEAR WITH ME NOW, out April 25
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A man in the middle of a nervous breakdown hires the wannabe park ranger who saved him from a bear attack as his sober companion—even though he doesn’t drink.
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The first trip I took after the pandemic started was driving through Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in Big Sky, Montana with my sister, and it felt like the world was opening up for me.
4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
I’d want to go on maybe the first three miles of a hike with Darcy! After that she’d have to carry me.
5–What are three words that describe your hero?
Sweet earnest liar
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone National Park by 1926 and only reintroduced in 1995. But after wolves lost their federal protections, the states around Yellowstone authorized increasing numbers of wolf kills, and in 2022 hunters baited, trapped, and shot 20% of Yellowstone’s wolves. Darcy, the book’s heroine, is a conservationist and especially worried about keystone species like wolves and her boyfriend Teagan.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I’m done! I think that comes from starting as a fanfic author and publishing as I go, but I find it easier to make plot changes in multiple places at once if I can see the entire thing.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Perhaps this is not the fanciest drink imaginable, but I love passionfruit La Croix above all other food things.
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I have a red chaise lounge in the front room of our house where all my houseplants live. I write on a lap desk surrounded by plants and cats.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Ali Hazelwood. I got to watch her whole publishing journey from finding an agent to multiple bestsellers, and the kindness and grace she displayed from beginning to end gave me a model for how I wanted to react to all my highs and lows.
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
So the first “adult” books I read were Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children books because my school library had them. I will always be grateful to her proto-feminist hero and his consistent appreciation of the main character’s roomy vagina as my sex-positive introduction to romance novels!
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
I was actually at Disney World with my family. I was lurking in the bushes near the Indiana Jones show trying to find somewhere quiet to talk, but the Indy theme kept playing!
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read mostly romance, of all sub-genres, with a little science fiction and urban fantasy thrown in for variety. I actually read more historical romance than anything else just because I love the heightened stakes where a relationship can alter the course of the characters’ lives.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
The Princess Bride. I could probably recite it line for line: My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
15–What is your favorite season?
Fall: hot chocolate, men in sweaters, leaves, food holidays.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
My mom makes me a giant chocolate cake with pecans, and I eat it for over a week.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I haven’t read the book, but I’m really enjoying the HBO adaptation of Station Eleven. The acting is just fantastic.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Tex-Mex. Cheese and chiles and chips in all their beautiful manifestations.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Video games and Taylor Swift! I love all the Bioware and Final Fantasy games, and I do a lot of Animal Crossing on my phone when I should be writing.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
Sweeten the Deal is out this December. You’ll meet the hero during Bear with Me Now and read about how he ends up on a sugar baby website in the teaser chapter.
BEAR WITH ME NOW by Katie Shepard
Love makes life a little wilder in this romantic comedy by debut author Katie Shepard.
After a panic attack puts him in the hospital, charity executive Teagan Van Zijl is dragged by his sister to a wilderness therapy retreat in Montana. Lost in the woods while absconding from midafternoon meditation, Teagan is nearly eaten by a bear before his rescue by a furious angel in muddy hiking boots: the program’s handywoman, Darcy Albano, who was mostly worried for the bear.
Darcy thought she was going to work as a trail guide when she was hired onto the camp staff but ended up cleaning and hauling instead—merely the latest screwing-over she’s endured since her ex stole her car and her parents ruined her credit score. Teagan becomes the silver lining she didn’t expect, a man clearly going through something yet willing to commit to Darcy’s unique brand of wilderness education as the cure for what ails him.
After weeks in the mountains with Darcy, Teagan doesn’t want to return to New York without her. He hires Darcy as his sober companion—a position he doesn’t actually need filled and for which Darcy is completely unqualified—hoping she can help him figure out a way to move forward. But once they get to the city, all Teagan can think of is how to confess the truth without losing her. Together, they begin to imagine what their lives might look like if they could depend on each other for help—even in outrunning a bear.
Romance Comedy | Women’s Fiction Contemporary [Berkley, On Sale: April 25, 2023, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593549292 / eISBN: 9780593549308]
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About Katie Shepard
Katie Shepard studied Soviet history and worked in human rights law before burning way—way out—and achieved professional tranquility as a simple country bankruptcy lawyer. She lives in Texas with her husband, kids, and elderly rescue cat, but is often found hiking in the Rocky Mountains or the virtual woods of Thedas.
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