Meet Kathryn K. Murphy

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathryn K. Murphy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kathryn K. , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I am fortunate in that my family baked resilience into me from a young age, and it’s a good thing because I wouldn’t have gotten this far without it. I come from a family where hard work and persistence were modeled from an early age by multiple family members, many of whom did not have the same opportunities I did. My mother always encouraged me to say yes to every opportunity because the worst they could say was “no.” My grandmother has long said, “The cream always rises to the top. It might take a while, but eventually it does,” implying that hard work always pays off in the end.

I’m no stranger to hard work. When I started my career as an author, I taught middle school history for twelve years. Some of my students loved history, but some of them hated it. First off, being the first person to talk about Abraham Lincoln to a student was an enormous privilege, which I never took for granted, but teaching a twelve-year-old about nineteenth-century political compromises in Congress can be a tough sell. It’s a good thing, though, because it taught me plenty of lessons, including that everyone can be successful at something and that the only thing that determines the outcome is determination. It also taught me how to deal with a tough crowd and not take things personally. All three of these lessons are invaluable as an author.

I set out to write my first manuscript as a New Year’s resolution, during what would become one of the most challenging years of my life. After what seemed like devastating setbacks, I had to step back from my writing for 6 weeks, until I decided to take control of one thing in my life and complete the manuscript. I enrolled in a few online classes and entered contests, eager to hear positive feedback. None came. I queried and received over 100 rejections, but I decided to write a second book, only to face the same results. I wanted to do better and learn what to do next. I entered more contests and registered for my first conference in New York City, where I paid extra to go to pitch literary agents in person. I worked on my pitch for months, and all three agents politely rejected me to my face. Ultimately, they were right, but it was still a powerful lesson in growing a thick skin. I’ll never forget the long elevator ride back up to where my husband and six-month-old son were waiting in the hotel room, an unbelievably extravagant purchase at the time. I stood in the elevator alone all of the way up to what felt like the millionth floor, and when I opened the door, my husband asked with a big smile, “How did it go?” He was so supportive when I told him the news, and still is. We went out for pizza, and on the long train ride back to Virginia, I got the idea for what would become my debut novel, The Secret About Time.

I wrote my manuscript and decided to join the Romance Writers of America and my local writing chapter, Virginia Romance Writers, which, looking back, was the biggest takeaway from that conference. I went in October 2018, almost three years after I had initially decided to write a story. I don’t remember when I did everything else, but at some point during this time, I launched a Facebook page, started an Instagram account, learned how to build my own website, and started blogging. I set myself little goals. First, it was to build an online presence, and since TikTok hadn’t been invented yet, I blogged every Sunday about my journey, building it with every post. From there, I shared on my fledgling social media accounts and kept attending workshops, but most of all, I kept writing.

At this time, independent publishing was all the rage, so I asked for feedback from other authors, many of whom were excited by the idea and trying it themselves, so on another fateful New Years Eve, I posted to my blog that I would be publishing my book in July of the New Year, which got so much positive feedback and encouragement from everyone who had been following my blogs for years. The funny thing was, I didn’t have a clue how to do that, and I couldn’t believe I even posted that. I mean, what did I know about publishing a book? I didn’t know where to start! Terrified, I took it one step at a time. I hired an amazing editor I found online, and survived my first developmental edit. I found an equally talented cover designer, and she put together what is still one of my favorite covers. Then, at my local writers group, I attended a workshop with Ines Johnson, who shared her screen and walked me through how to publish a book on Amazon.

When July came, I was so nervous, but I clicked publish and self-published my very first book. The feeling was incredible. My family and friends were so excited, and I will never forget the feeling of people coming up to me at work, saying, “I have your book on my nightstand.” It’s completely exhilarating, so I did it again. This time, unfortunately, the pandemic had hit, and the second book, Simply A Matter of Time, did not do as well as the first. To this day, it is one of my favorite stories, but also my least-selling title. With those two behind me, I decided to write another book in a completely new series. I wrote A Touch of Healing in the first month of the pandemic, breezing through sixty thousand words in thirty days. That was the early days of the pandemic, when we thought it would be over in a few weeks. Unfortunately, that period ended, and the rest of the year was personally and professionally difficult for my family and me. During that time, I almost gave up. I knew A Touch of Fire was supposed to be released the following year, but I couldn’t get there. I felt like a failure. The plot was difficult, and I struggled so much that I hired a coach. Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised. My family was reeling from loss, my husband’s job was at a low point, and professionally, I was navigating virtual teaching and then hybrid teaching. Eventually, I finished the book a year later than I expected.

I have now finished what became the Sisters in Sirens series, as well as two additional manuscripts. I have also started writing and querying children’s books, and am looking forward to what comes next. I still have disappointments and goals, but throughout it all, I keep going. It is incredible how much you get done when you keep going one step at a time.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Being an author is an incredible privilege because I am creating a world someone chooses to enter. I think of people who are struggling, whether they’re in an unsatisfying job or trying to juggle caregiving or stress in their lives. When they pick up my books, they’ll immerse themselves in a heartfelt story about two characters who fall in love and have a happy ending despite everything they’re going through. That’s the most important thing because I think that’s what we all want. We just want to be loved and have a happy ending.

Readers can find that in all of my books, including my upcoming release, The Last Loyalist, which is coming out in February 2026. It’s a heartfelt time-travel story that combines my love of history with contemporary romance, and I think many readers will appreciate the themes of finding family in a world that feels unfamiliar.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Some of the best advice I’ve ever received was bend like the willow, don’t break like the oak. We need to be flexible. Things rarely work out the way we think they will, and adaptation and flexibility make things possible. The world is rapidly changing, and no one could have predicted the impact social media would have, let alone AI. I think people too often get afraid of new technology and ideas, and while I’m not saying everything new is better, I think one of the most dangerous things we can say is “But that’s how we’ve always done it.” Things change quickly, and it’s good to be forward-thinking and explore how we can leverage new information and technology to stay current and not get left behind. Much of what we had today was unimaginable twenty years ago, and it’s exciting to think about what possibilities lie ahead. The sky is the limit.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

This year, my goals were to improve my direct sales, develop an accessible marketing plan, and increase my presence on TikTok, which has been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed making new friends and have even connected with other authors and booksellers, which has led to a wonderful series of new opportunities. It can feel lonely as an author, and meeting like-minded people who are doing the same work and enjoy reading similar books has been a welcome boost that even led to my first direct sales on the platform, and seeing my books in an independent bookshop for the first time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kathrynkmurphy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathrynwrites2/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathrynwrites2
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kathrynwrites2
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19321144.Kathryn_K_Murphy