Divorce, Dating and Starting Over

Sunny Greene is the hero we all need.

AHHHH!!! After a year of writing and editing, I’m so incredibly excited and proud to show you the cover of my very first novel: SUNNY SIDE UP! Coming June 24, 2025.

The book is now available to pre-order at your favorite bookstore! Pre-orders are so important in the book world, and I would be so appreciative if you could support Sunny Side Up in this way. (Side note: I’m planning some fun giveaways for everyone who preorders, so SAVE YOUR RECEIPT!) 

For my Lobby Coffee community, you’ve been with me through this process from the beginning. So I wanted to give you a glimpse into the backstory of Sunny Side Up and how much Sunny Greene’s story means to me.

You know the feeling you have when you drop something fragile? There is a moment right before you lose your grasp and it shatters on the floor. Your stomach jumps into your throat and internally or externally you scream NONONONONONONONONO as if at this point you have any control over the delicate piece that is about to be smashed to bits. 

That is how I felt when I found out my marriage was over. I had a feeling of desperate scrambling, pleading for nothing to change, for time to freeze, for the breakup to stop. Staring at the shattered mess of my marriage, I remember feeling, so now what? Who will ever love me again? Or even care about me as an individual? Should I move?

I felt with certainty that I would have to change my body. And remember, this was the old Katie. Towards the end of my relationship, I had put on weight and figured no one would like me in this new body. How awful is it that when we experience a breakup, the first thought so many of us have is that we must shed pounds to become palatable to the dating world. Instead of meeting ourselves with kindness and compassion and self exploration, we so often jump on a treadmill and hope to outrun our pain. At that moment in my life, I had not yet discovered the power of body acceptance. I felt absolutely helpless.

Ok so how does this relate to the book?

"The only way out is through" I kept hearing from people and therapists and meditations, and so as quickly as it had ended, I decided not to linger. I had to get moving through those trees. It wasn't smooth, and I was often falling in a mud pit (crying in the bathroom at a wedding) or getting hit in the face with a branch (attaching myself to new uncaring men), but I as I learned to keep moving, one thought I had in my mind was: I am going to write a book about this one day. Selfishly, I wanted to write a tell all. Display my marriage for all to see. But as time moved on and wounds healed and I got "through" it, the need for a revenge tale seemed pointless. I had discovered the power of connecting and helping people, mostly women, feel their best and find their inner strength like I had.

I also remember during the time of my lowest points, looking for TV, movies, or books for people to inspire me through my pain. Fictional stories I could rally around. Now, I had The First Wives Club, a classic. Not that I could relate to these women, but I could feel the same feelings of being discarded. Weight is a common theme of redemption in that movie though, so I couldn't quite relate, as I was not on the way down on the scale...I was moving up. What about Girlfriends Guide to Divorce? Yes, OK! I could get into this. Rejection. Check. The eye opening discovery that people in relationships often have blinders on to the spicy world of dating going on right in front of you. Exciting! But could I really relate to these women? No. Honestly, and this is embarrassing, one of the closest things I had to inspiration was "the chubby girl" from Love Actually. She snagged Hugh Grant!! At a size 8 maybe lolz. So there was hope for me, I guess.

Now some of you know that I was a dogager to my pup Toast in a past life and that I wrote a little book with her called Toasthampton, for which I got a book agent, Alyssa Rueben, who also became a friend. Several years later, Alyssa said I should write a book about body acceptance and my journey. Body Talk did better than I had imagined, and I am still so grateful to hear how much it helped people and continues to be a resource for people looking to stop hating their bodies.

Finally, Alyssa wanted me to pitch my novel, and I was not going to miss. I was lucky enough to have it sold to the wonderful people at Celadon Books. The result is a book I am beyond proud of and a character I think will inspire many women. I wrote the book I needed to read.

Now, this is not a tell all. Sunny is not me, but I took so many of the core feelings I felt on my journey and turned it into a story I love to read. I also love that this book shows the power of female friendships because there is no doubt that it was the women in my life that got me through my darkest times. I also wanted to make sure it was funny. And I hope you think it is. 

Social media may also have taught you the importance of pre-orders, they are essential for the success of the book. I never understood them before this. Why would I pay for a book in January that doesn't come out until June? That's bananas. I have since learned that preorders help the retailers know the appetite of an audience and that they make purchasing decisions based on how many books sell before the actual publication day. So whether you pre-order a copy from your local indie, Target, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any other bookstore, just know it is going to help get more copies printed and on shelves. TLDR, I am grateful for your support of Sunny and you can read more about the novel and pre-order it here. Just remember: SAVE YOUR PRE-ORDER RECEIPT!  Thank you for reading this far down, and I can’t wait to share more about Sunny Side Up in the months to come.

Want to get a sneak peek of the story itself? People Magazine actually shared the cover exclusively this morning along with an excerpt from Sunny Side Up!! Read it here.

MUCH more to come.

Xo

Katie