It all started with Adam Driver and a dream.
Michelle Harris always wanted to be a writer but hadn’t gotten her big break. In August 2024, she and a group of friends booked a trip to New York City to see an off-Broadway play featuring Driver, most known for his work as Kylo Ren in the “Star Wars” franchise and the dramatic film “Marriage Story.” A chance encounter at the show led to Harris becoming a published author.
Harris, the department manager for the Department of Religious Studies and a die-hard Driver fan, bought tickets for multiple nights to see the show with her friends.
“If you’re gonna go all the way up to see one show, you should probably see it a couple times,” Harris says.
On the second night, her group couldn’t get seats together, so Harris volunteered to take the solo ticket. She ended up next to a woman whom she had met earlier in line.
“She started asking me very pointed questions about the stuff that I wrote and the process,” Harris says. “I started talking about this piece and then she goes, ‘Have you ever thought about publishing it?’”
The woman, it turned out, was an editor.
“I forgot I was in New York, which is the publishing mecca of the world,” Harris says.
Moments before the lights went down and Driver took to the stage, Harris asked the woman what publisher she worked for.
“Berkley,” the woman replied.
Cindy Hwang doesn’t just work for Berkley; she is the vice president and editorial director at the longtime publishing house, now owned by Penguin Random House. It specializes in fiction, romance, science fiction and mystery. The publishing group has signed authors including No. 1 New York Times bestsellers Emily Henry, Carley Fortune and Ali Hazelwood.
Harris kept in touch with Hwang for several months, including by traveling back to New York that December, and she eventually signed a three-book deal.
It is everything that I could have asked for and would have manifested for myself, which is why it feels absolutely surreal.
Harris’ dream came true after several difficult years. She had been laid off from an extension unit at UT, which was cut due to economic constraints during the pandemic. She then worked briefly at a tech startup and quickly realized her heart wasn’t in it. She was miserable, she says, because she wasn’t doing what she really wanted to be doing: writing.
“I didn’t write for the longest time because I didn’t think I could finish anything, and I was afraid of failure because it’s a rough industry,” Harris says. “It’s art, so it’s deeply subjective.”
Harris eventually found herself back at UT, starting as graduate coordinator for Religious Studies in March 2021 and taking over her current role in August 2023. Her debut novel, “A Latte Like Love,” hit shelves March 17.
“It still feels like a cosmic joke, but it’s very real,” Harris says. “It is everything that I could have asked for and would have manifested for myself, which is why it feels absolutely surreal.”
The novel is a romance that follows Audrey Adams, a barista in a Brooklyn coffee shop. Audrey is used to her regular customers, so it throws her for a loop when Theo Sullivan starts frequenting, ordering a large, extra-hot Americano every time — but never drinking it. One day, Theo leaves his book in the coffee shop, which prompts Audrey to find him and return it. And, like any good romance, a spark ignites between the two.
Harris studied French literature at UT, so writing romance was a natural fit. She also enjoys writing romantic fantasy, known by many readers as “romantasy.”
“One of the things I love about romance and romantasy in particular is the guarantee of the happily ever after,” Harris says. “This one in particular I specifically wrote to be a comfort.”
Harris says the book hasn’t come without hours of dedication. When writing “A Latte Like Love,” Harris would sit at her desk at home, knee-deep in manuscripts, accompanied by her Shiba Inu, Pippa Rose. She says she basically works two full-time jobs. Her parents even moved back to Texas to help her take care of herself.
“I will leave this job, go home, my dad will probably cook me something to eat,” Harris says. “I eat and then go to my apartment, and then I’ll write. I’m pretty chronically exhausted.”
Harris says she spent around 18 weeks working on edits for “A Latte Like Love.”
“I can’t be doing anything other than working this job and then editing,” she says.
As she looks to the future, Harris continues to work on the other books in her deal, a romantasy series about witches caught in the midst of a brewing holy war. The first, “The Book of Graves,” is slated to publish in spring of 2027.
“The best advice I can offer is literally just to write,” Harris says. “It’s really fun for me. It’s also really fulfilling, and seeing people react is always really gratifying.”
