Someone will read it, maybe: A recovering overachiever gives herself some grace

My novel Other People’s Kids came out in August of 2025 with Sibylline Press. I am the author of five other novels for teens and I’ve been teaching high school for almost three decades. Other People’s Kids is my first novel for adults. It follows the lives of three middle-aged educators in different phases of their teaching careers.

Kirkus said lovely things about the novel, and I’ve had some incredible events with it – like a launch with my local independent bookstore, an oceanside conference for English teachers at Asilomar, and a book club with the National Writing Project, a program I have worked with for years and hold dear. Perhaps the most remarkable thing: the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) selected it as a finalist for their 2025 Golden Poppy Award in Fiction (alongside writers like Isabel Allende and Bob the Drag Queen!). I was floored by this recognition. And so, so grateful.

But I haven’t done as much as I probably should have to promote this book. I certainly haven’t done as much as I’d done with past books. There are many reasons for this. The world has felt heavy. The last six years of teaching have been challenging. Part of the reason I wrote Other People’s Kids was to process some of the trauma we all went through during Covid as educators (which is why I set the book during the 2022-23 school year).

The discussions I’ve had with other educators who’ve read the book have filled my heart. This book is truly a love letter to them. But it is also very much a book about mothers and daughters and first love and second chances and small towns. And I had intended to do much more outreach for these themes– write articles, reach out to podcasts, try to find spaces that might want to feature it. I just…didn’t. Perfect example: Books by Women offered to have me write an article for them ten months ago, and I didn’t make the time to take them up on it. I’m grateful they are letting me atone for that with this post (thanks, Barbara!)

Truth is, I’ve been in an insular mood that has impacted the promotion of this book. I can make all sorts of other excuses. The school year has been (as always) hair-on-fire busy. We have so many kids struggling: with food and housing instability, with mental health, with issues at home. The time I initially carved out to promote the book suddenly seemed like it could be put to better use. And I had some health issues this year – nothing major, just enough sickness and relapses to chisel away at time and motivation. And I teach a lot of writing workshops (which I love and fill my heart). But, if I’m honest, I didn’t always make the time because I wanted to hang out with my family, or walk my dog, or read a book. I remember telling my husband: “Someone will read the book, maybe,” as we settled in on the couch to watch our favorite BritBox show instead of me disappearing into the office to send emails or write more articles or research places I could contact for promotion. 

Months passed. 

Then, something magical happened: everything was perfectly fine. Maybe I hadn’t sold as many books as I had in the past. Maybe the book wasn’t featured in a bunch of places. Maybe people weren’t writing to tell me how much they loved it. But I was well and truly fine. More than fine. I was happy.

I’ve spent most of my life as an anxious overachiever and (recovering) people pleasure. Most of my past book promotions were riddled with anxiety. I never felt like I was doing enough and was always surprised anytime someone read one of my books and took the time to connect with me. It’s a sort of magic – the alchemy it takes for a book to reach a reader. This year, though, I let the anxiety go. I kept repeating someone will read it, maybe as a sort of mantra to give myself grace.

I’m lucky in that I have always loved teaching. I’ve never been a writer who “has” to teach. I’m more a teacher who happens to write books sometimes. I love my students – from my teenagers to my grad students to our 30-Minute Flash workshop participants who show up to the Flash Fiction Institute Substack live sessions. And I adore all the literary and book-related organizations I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years.

This is such a rich group of humans who value things I value: stories and love and interiority. I’ve been so fortunate to find the community of readers and writers that I have along the way. I feel weirdly proud when I see other writers I’ve known for decades succeeding; I find myself thinking, “way to go, you! This industry is hard!” as I curl up on my couch, the sunlight streaming through the window. The older I get, the more I’m finding I don’t need to be in the spotlight. Turns out, I enjoy this community most when I’m not stressing out about book sales and promotion and attention for the books and simply basking in the bookish world I’ve built over the decades.

Wait…is this what that elusive work-life balance feels like? It’s delicious. 

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KIM CULBERTSON is the author of the YA novels Songs for a Teenage Nomad (Sourcebooks 2010), Instructions for a Broken Heart (Sourcebooks 2011), which was named a Booklist Top Ten Romance Title for Youth: 2011 and also won the 2012 Northern California Book Award for YA Fiction, Catch a Falling Star (Scholastic 2014), The Possibility of Now (Scholastic 2016), which was named a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (2017 edition), and The Wonder of Us (Scholastic 2017). Much of her inspiration comes from her background teaching high school since 1997. In 2012, Kim wrote her eBook novella The Liberation of Max McTrue for her students, who, over the years, have taught her far more than she has taught them. Kim also works as a fiction mentor for the Dominican University MFA in Creative Writing. 100-word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing (Heinemann 2023) was born from two of her two loves: teaching and 100-word stories. She is also one of the co-founders of the Flash Fiction Institute. Her first novel for adults Other People’s Kids was published in 2025 (Sibylline Press) and was named a finalist for the CALIBA 2025 Golden Poppy Award in fiction. She lives in Northern California, where she is probably reading a book on her couch next to her dog instead of doing whatever she is supposed to be doing. 

OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS

SOMETIMES, LIFE DOESN’T FOLLOW A LESSON PLAN…

After being attacked by a disgruntled parent in the parking lot of the private San Francisco Bay Area high school where she has taught English for the past twelve years, traumatized Chelsea Garden flees to her hometown of Imperial Flats in the Northern California foothills. When Chelsea meets beleaguered principal of Imperial Flats High School, Nora Delgado, the two realize they might have found each other at an essential crossroads. To complicate matters, her former classmate and messy first love, Evan Dawkins, has also recently joined the faculty at IFHS to teach music. And he wasn’t expecting Chelsea to walk back into his life. Other People’s Kids follows three educators: one at the beginning of his career, one in the middle of hers, and one on her way out.

A story about teaching, hometowns, and risking change in midlife.

BUY HERE

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing