Hi! Welcome to my writerly Substack.
This is a space dedicated to the craft and catharsis it is to string words into heartbeats that pulse across pages and platforms, from me to you.
When it all began — A love affair with words
In 2017, I wrote my first novel. It was a wild love affair. I’ve only truly felt that way twice in my life, with my husband and with that story. It was a story that tied my world to his in all my long-lost childhood dreams. It was the true story of outlaws who traveled from the American West (like my childhood) to the heart of Argentina and the Patagonia (his childhood). For two years, I vacillated between living in a fictional world of Wild West outlaws, and traveling the world while writing a PhD dissertation on global health policy. While I defended my PhD successfully in 2019, my fiction writing was, erh, subpar at best. The PhD taught me to think critically, to research, to observe and assess with the nuance of subjectivity, to commit, and to finish what I started (no matter how badly I wanted to quit). But those outlaws—Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, they taught me something about love, about life, and about when to follow the rules, and when to let go, and how to tend the seed of passion that still needs room to grow. Writing in either context is part work, part pleasure, and like a marriage or any relationship, needs space to take root and to flourish.
When passion takes root — A novel that just might fly
In the years since my first loves—my husband and writing, I’ve given them my most valuable resource—time. I now have a three-year-old, my other true love, so the value of time has appreciated considerably. Time is not to be floundered; it is to be invested wisely in all the worthwhile errants of this fleeting life. So somewhere between Minnesota and Argentina, between night wakes, pre-school drop-off, and that full-time job working and traveling as a global health expert, I’ve continued to build my writing craft. Now, in 2026, I’m finally ready to share my next piece of work—Flying Tigers.
*Pitched as when Kya from Where the Crawdads Sing meets Spencer from Paramount’s Yellowstone: 1923
Flying Tigers is a coming-of-age story set in the rugged hills of 1940 pre-war Montana. It’s the story of when privileged Jamie Dawson, heir to a lumber fortune, crashes his father’s biplane in the foothills outside of Bozeman, Montana. There, he meets Ada Tate, the rumored ‘Ghost from the Gallatin Forest,’ a scrappy, self-reliant girl who has survived alone in the woods. When Jamie enlists Ada’s help to rebuild the plane, they form an uneasy alliance, calling themselves the “Flying Tigers.” Together, they work in secret toward a daring goal: competing in a high-stakes regional airshow. For Jamie, summer is a rebellion and a chance to prove his bravery and volunteer for war. For Ada, it’s a desperate bid for survival and the hope of escaping the dangerous life that haunts her. But when Ada is charged with murder, only Jamie knows the truth, and it comes at a cost: protect the girl who gave him his wings, or safeguard the future he was born to claim, the war he’s hell-bent to fly in.
This story was inspired by the true story of the Flying Tigers, the first American volunteer air squadron to enter World War 2. I wondered, what would make a man brave enough to volunteer for a war oceans away before it had even been declared? Perhaps, just perhaps, it could have been akin to a friendship like the one between Ada and Jamie, where the smallest threads of our shared humanity, crossing class and status, cultures, and continents, gave life to the most powerful virtues of all: love, bravery, and honor. Flying Tigers, tells that story. It is a story of loyalty and longing, of friendship born in the shadows, and the courage it takes to chase the light. A courage we may all hope to possess.
Where to next — The stories that connect us
Stories find their way to us for all sorts of reasons, but it’s always the heart that connects us. And for me, Flying Tigers, is the first story I’ve truly wanted to share. But sharing anything from the heart comes with vulnerability, with stepping into ‘the arena’ and not remaining a mere spectator. It is scary. Love is scary; it draws us to the edge of everything we’ve ever known, begs us to step off the ledge, onto the stage, or into the unknown. And in the unknown, on the other side of fear, is where, like Jamie Dawson, we just might find out if we are brave enough to face our tigers, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally fly.
In this Substack, I’ll share a little more of my writing journey and the life I live between the lines, the days that end up scribbled somewhere across the margins of my latest work. I’ll aim to share monthly for now, and as the momentum builds, I’ll share more.
Words are my art, and my art is for you. Thank you for coming alongside me, for connecting with me in this sacred writerly space.
From my pen to yours,
Kaylee