Michelle C. Harris: I Was Never Actually Going To Query This Book
In this interview, author Michelle C. Harris discusses how a personal writing challenge led to her new romance novel, A Latte Like Love.
Michelle C. Harris grew up deep in the heart of the Central Texas Hill Country, devouring as many books as she did tacos. By day, she wrangles academics at a university, and by night, she pens stories about love, magic, and men who yearn under the intense supervision of her Shiba Inu, Pippa. In her spare time, you can find her playing volleyball, buying more tea than she could ever possibly drink, and writing fan fiction about star-crossed space wizards on AO3. Follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Michelle discusses how a personal writing challenge led to her new romance novel, A Latte Like Love, the fateful meeting of a publishing professional at an off-Broadway play, and more.
Name: Michelle C. Harris
Literary agent: Jessica Watterson, SDLA
Book title: A Latte Like Love
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: March 17, 2026
Genre/category: Contemporary romance, new adult
Elevator pitch: Love is brewing as a barista falls for a reclusive artist struggling with the tragic aftermath of an accident in this charming, epic romance.
What prompted you to write this book?
I had been working on querying the first Book of Graves novel (my witch romantasy series), which didn’t feel like it was going well at the time. I was only getting form rejections from agents. I was editing it and contemplating scrapping it entirely when I decided to step away and take a creative break.
During that break, I was scrolling through my Twitter writing community feed, and I saw people posting about a 30-day writing challenge. Each day had a one-word prompt, and for whatever reason, two of the words stuck out for me: “scar” was one of them. When I saw that word, the image of an artist walking into a café popped fully formed into my mind (which is not something that usually happens to me for book ideas). He was scarred in more ways than one, and I decided to sit down and write a quick story about him, the sweet barista he encounters in that café, and how they fall in love and help to heal each other in the process.
The story didn’t turn out to be “quick,” of course; nothing I write ever is. But what the story did turn into, and what I’ve always intended it to be, is a healing comfort read. I wanted to write something that was more about the importance of kindness than it was about anything else—kindness toward ourselves and toward others.
I wanted it to be cozy, so the personal challenge I set for myself was to see if I could write the two sweetest people on the planet communicating well while still making the story emotionally compelling. I love a good miscommunication trope or third-act breakup, but sometimes you just want to snuggle up with characters and watch them fall in love while working together to overcome their difficulties.
The kind of true partnership Audrey and Theo have in Latte is the most romantic thing I could personally imagine.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
For A Latte Like Love, it will be a little over two and a half years from idea to publication. I had the idea in late August 2023, and it took me about five and a half months to write the original draft of the book. The idea changed quite a bit along the way; I’m more of a plantser than a plotter, so while I usually have an idea of where I’m going, I don’t really know for sure until I write it.
I was never actually going to query this book. I had written it mostly to try my hand at contemporary romance versus fantasy or romantasy, which is normally what I default to. The entire thing was just a one-off meant to help me practice and develop my craft while I let my other work (Graves) sit in a digital drawer and marinate.
I finished Latte in early February 2024, and didn’t think much about it … until I met my editor in person in September of that year. That’s when everything changed.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The biggest surprise was meeting my editor. I was still un-agented and working on a completely different project at the time (one that I had actually intended to query once it was finished in its entirety) when I went up to New York to see an off-Broadway show with a group of friends. We weren’t able to get all of our seats together for that particular showing, so I volunteered to take the lone single ticket slightly further back from the stage—and that’s when I found myself seated next to a woman named Cindy.
We got to talking, she asked me what I did, and I couldn’t help but start spilling about how while I worked in academia, I wanted to be a writer. She asked me questions about my work, what I wrote, my process, and I was just having a great time thinking I’d found a kindred spirit until she smiled at me and said, “Oh, full disclosure: I’m an editor.” I asked, “What imprint?” Her smile widened, and she said, “Berkley.” The lights went down, the show started, and that’s when I embarked upon the longest three-hour existential spiral of my life.
As it turned out, the ticket I had volunteered to take was next to Cindy Hwang, Vice President and Editorial Director of Berkley. She asked to see my work, I sent it to her, and a few months (plus some agent representation) later, I had inked a three-book deal, not only for the manuscript that would become A Latte Like Love, but also for the first two books in the Book of Graves series—the witchy romantasy that had gotten nothing but agent rejections at the start of this journey.
Everything since then has felt like a fever dream in the best way, and I keep expecting someone to wake me up and tell me that I’ve just imagined all of this—except that I very much haven’t, given that I now have a lot of deadlines. I’m not, in fact, just hallucinating the plot of one of my own books, and every day I get to do something new and exciting.
I’ve genuinely found the entire publication process to be fascinating, and while everything has all been one massive learning moment, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It all happened really fast, none of it happened like I thought it would (I think I did just about everything backwards), and all I can do is buckle up and try to hold on while I see what happens next.
It’s a good thing I love a roller coaster, because that’s basically what it’s felt like since last September.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Without giving too much away, my main male character, Theo, practices a unique artistic medium, and it’s one of my favorite brainwaves I’ve ever had. That brainwave was absolutely a surprise, even though it was one of the very first revelations I had about that character. Everything about that medium is mesmerizing, and it’s not something I personally have seen depicted in a romance novel before (but if I’m wrong, I would love recommendations!). I won’t list what it is here because it’s one of the biggest reveals in the story.
I did a lot of research about the history and craft of that medium, and now I want to go try it for myself. Contacting a local artist and asking for lessons and/or a demonstration is on my bucket list, and it’s something I would love to do when I’m not on deadline, maybe sometime next year. We have a decent amount of these types of artists in my local community, and I think it would be really fun to support their businesses by getting some of their art for my office.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
A Latte Like Love deals with heavy themes like grief, insecurity, anxiety, depression, difficult family issues, and, probably above all else, wrestling with self-worth. Our life experiences leave marks on us, whether they’re physical scars or emotional ones. But the truth is, we are not the sum total of those things.
I hope people see themselves in my characters and their scars. And I hope that they see that while our experiences shape us, we are not them. We are all more than the scars we carry.
And as someone who’s pretty terrible to herself generally, I think we can also stand to be kinder to ourselves as well.
Just like Theo, I know I’m still working on that.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I’m going to cheat and give two pieces of advice: Make writing a habit, and write for yourself.
I write almost every single day. If I don’t, it feels weird, and I don’t know what to do with my hands. I don’t think you have to be as intense about it as I am, but over time you will improve and find your voice if you incorporate it into your routine, and your voice is going to matter to someone.
Your stories have value. If you feel the need to tell them, I can promise you that someone out there is going to need to hear them. And that is the greatest feeling that I can personally imagine.
Not only that, but the internet is full of hot takes about this and that, POVs and tropes, subgenres and content.
Ignore it all. It doesn’t matter.
Trends change so quickly, and you’ll never please everyone, so you can only please yourself. If you have fun with it, it comes through in the work in a big way. Writing should be joyful.
And not only that, but for an author, it truly is more about the process than the outcome. The outcome is for readers. The writing of it is for me. And if I’m enjoying what I’m writing, then someone else will too—and that’s what matters most.
