117. K.L. WALTHER: A Risky Business retelling, romcom shenanigans, and heavy topics in YA romance

This week on LiteraryHype Podcast, K.L. Walther joins me to talk about her two upcoming books, We're A Bad Idea, Right? and The Summer of Second Chances. These two YA romcoms are set in the same world, but are coming out from separate publishers. We're talking all about the challenges of publishing with two teams, creating the perfect shenanigans for a YA romcom, and tackling hard topics for teens, including a grandparent with dementia.

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The Summer Of Second Chances

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00;00;03;07 - 00;00;19;16
Unknown
Hi and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stephanie, your literary hype woman back with another author conversation for Literary Hype podcast. Today I'm talking to an author who's doing some unique things. She's working with two different publishers and putting out books that kind of connect.

00;00;19;19 - 00;00;32;25
Unknown
So it's a fun little world that Karl Walther has created. She's got two books coming out this year. One is we're a bad idea right. And there's the summer of Second Chances. And you'll notice that these covers are very similar, but they're from different publishers.

00;00;32;25 - 00;00;35;08
Unknown
So we're talking about cover design as well.

00;00;35;12 - 00;00;44;24
Unknown
So stay tuned for this conversation with Karl Walther from Yale Fest 2025.

00;00;44;27 - 00;00;50;07
Unknown
Well, welcome to literary. It's so excited to have you on to talk about your plethora of romance books.

00;00;50;12 - 00;00;51;24
Unknown
I'm so honored to be here.

00;00;51;27 - 00;01;06;08
Unknown
So let's start with the one that is coming up soonest or about Isaiah, right? So for anybody who hasn't seen this on social media or in like it's not in bookstores yet because it's not out yet at festivals as it's being given out today at your office.

00;01;06;10 - 00;01;07;09
Unknown
What is this book about?

00;01;07;16 - 00;01;29;26
Unknown
we're a bad idea, right? Is a contemporary, gender swapped retelling of risky Business without the, you know, inappropriate part. But basically, Audrey is a glass blower, and she wants to kind of forgo college. She got into this glassblowing fellowship, and her parents are not on board with that.

00;01;29;26 - 00;01;47;19
Unknown
So when they go away for a big anniversary trip, she decides she's going to, raise the money to fund this fellowship herself. And we have, you know, the fan favorite fake dating trope and a lot of fun shenanigans. I had a great time writing these characters.

00;01;47;21 - 00;01;54;26
Unknown
The shenanigans abound in the many of your books. How do you decide what shenanigan is right for each story?

00;01;54;28 - 00;02;02;12
Unknown
Because we've got assassin again. Who's in line. You've got senior pranks. This one's listing an Airbnb of your house.

00;02;02;13 - 00;02;07;16
Unknown
When your parents are, we can do. It sounds ridiculous.

00;02;07;19 - 00;02;22;09
Unknown
since this is, a risky business retelling, you kind of have something to go off of. Of course, this was hard to, you know, replace the. You know, one night only brothel in the Tom cruise movie.

00;02;22;12 - 00;02;35;12
Unknown
But, yeah, I was just chatting with my mom about it, and I was like, what can we do? What can we do? And then at the same time, we were kind of like Airbnb. And so from there it was it was easy.

00;02;35;15 - 00;02;40;27
Unknown
That makes sense that when you're following a retelling that it would be easier to pick the shenanigans versus something else.

00;02;40;27 - 00;02;43;10
Unknown
It's not a retelling. It just had to come up with.

00;02;43;12 - 00;03;03;20
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, assassin, it was that was easy to come up with. Because I go to Martha's Vineyard every summer. We played Game of Assassin once. I played other games of assassin, and it truly highlighted the setting and made it shine so it fit. And then what happens after midnight?

00;03;03;20 - 00;03;13;29
Unknown
Which was the senior prank? It's based on a true story. My dad pulled a very similar, more simpler version in the 80s at boarding school. So

00;03;14;01 - 00;03;22;03
Unknown
it wasn't people pulling your real life and city stories, as well as your Taylor Swift fandom. Yes. What happens after midnight? Had I

00;03;22;06 - 00;03;24;00
Unknown
suffered these details when

00;03;24;02 - 00;03;30;18
Unknown
I went to town? Because the summer of Broken Rules, I wrote those references in for me, first and foremost.

00;03;30;18 - 00;03;48;03
Unknown
And then my cousin was reading a word document of it. She's. And she's a swiftie. She's finding these references and she's like, people are going to notice these. And I said, boom. I did it for me. And then they noticed that and I was like, okay, what happens after like we got to get our game face on and go hard.

00;03;48;10 - 00;03;53;03
Unknown
How many Taylor Swift references would you estimate are in if we're about to do it right?

00;03;53;05 - 00;04;15;02
Unknown
I don't count anyone. I think this one is more Taylor Swift like for like her bleached hair, for example, and certain outfits people wear. But honey from life of the show girl. Like I listen to that. And I even spoke with my editor and were like, That's Audrey Henry's that song.

00;04;15;06 - 00;04;21;05
Unknown
There is a Calvin Harris song reference. Was that specifically for Taylor Swift?

00;04;21;08 - 00;04;22;21
Unknown
this is strange.

00;04;22;24 - 00;04;48;01
Unknown
So I yes, I, when I was drafting it, I wanted her to bleach her hair. So I had, you know, the friends playlist and she was listening to that and so fun. I wrote the scene where she bleaches the hair. That weekend, that concert when she played This Is What You Came For. I flipped out because this song is you know, so such a throwback.

00;04;48;01 - 00;04;54;07
Unknown
And I put it in the book and then she plays it as a secret song. So.

00;04;54;10 - 00;04;55;23
Unknown
Mine was blown.

00;04;55;26 - 00;04;58;20
Unknown
What is it about pop culture that you love, including in your books?

00;04;58;26 - 00;05;01;15
Unknown
Because it can be so touchy of, like, it could date it.

00;05;01;17 - 00;05;14;05
Unknown
Well, exactly. So, like, I grew up in a pop culture household like Jennifer Aniston has always been, Jen in our house, like Brad Pitt is Brad, Zac Efron is Zac. Like, that is how my family works.

00;05;14;06 - 00;05;40;15
Unknown
So I'm always up for a pop culture reference. But you always have to, like, think about it for a minute. Like again, is this going to be dated Taylor Swift? No. Even like Dave Matthews Band? No, I will say in the first draft of what were a bad idea. Right. I did put espresso in there as a song they were listening to, and it didn't make it to the final draft because I just wasn't sure.

00;05;40;16 - 00;06;00;20
Unknown
I'm so sorry, Subversion Carpenter. I just wasn't sure. So and there are a lot of kind of niche things my family loves that I do put in originally as placeholders. And I'm like, now people aren't going to get this, but this one, you do have a lot of unique because they're such movie buffs. References.

00;06;00;23 - 00;06;04;06
Unknown
the author's note said that this is was not a fun one to draft.

00;06;04;06 - 00;06;05;21
Unknown
What made it so difficult?

00;06;05;24 - 00;06;27;04
Unknown
It was nothing to do with the plot itself. I got really bad tendonitis in both hands not long after I started work on it. Just painful up and down the arms. And then, I was preparing and then did a cross-country move, which was really emotional.

00;06;27;04 - 00;06;50;06
Unknown
So it was definitely my personal life, like seeping in. And I had to take a break because of the ten nights, and I did not want to take a break. I don't like breaks if I if the creative worlds fall like, I just want to go, go, go. So it was hard to take the break. But I did finish it on time.

00;06;50;06 - 00;07;05;09
Unknown
I was worried I wasn't going to, and by the end it got a lot better. I was doing like 5000 words a day, which is not usually my pace, but. And then I reread it and I'm like, this is so funny. You would not be able to tell

00;07;05;11 - 00;07;13;05
Unknown
it's fun and it's like a book that's so enjoyable. And then it was like, I have the worst time and you're like, but it's so good.

00;07;13;07 - 00;07;34;17
Unknown
The good thing is, I reread it and I, I think some authors like this. I might not like this book because it brings back memories of the tendinitis and the moving. It's not me at all. I reread this and I'm like, I love this. It's so much fun. I love these characters, so it is a special one to me.

00;07;34;19 - 00;07;42;29
Unknown
You mentioned that Audrey is a glass blower. How did you get into that as an interest? Enough to write about it? What was your research like?

00;07;43;02 - 00;08;00;08
Unknown
So a family friend of ours is a glass blower. She started, as a teenager, kind of like Audrey and then now she has a business with her, partner. And it's just always been fascinating to me.

00;08;00;08 - 00;08;24;10
Unknown
I wanted this to be more niche hobby. And, yeah, I went to her studio multiple times. I spent, like, a couple hours there asking questions, taking footage, and a lot of it didn't make it into the book, but I would not have been able to write this character without all of that time spent in her hot shop.

00;08;24;13 - 00;08;33;17
Unknown
Yeah, Henry and Audrey have such a fun little relationship. And their nicknames. Talk a little bit about to the nickname shenanigans. Going on.

00;08;33;20 - 00;08;52;26
Unknown
I knew from, like, the first chapter that this was going to be a very cheeky relationship. And I do like nicknames. And I think this is the first one where it's a continuous, like thread, like it's a different nickname each time, but it's the same adorable reason why.

00;08;53;02 - 00;08;58;05
Unknown
And, you know, Henry's definitely not a hag, so I loved throwing that all around.

00;08;58;08 - 00;08;59;02
Unknown
He's.

00;08;59;05 - 00;09;00;16
Unknown
Yeah, he's very Henry.

00;09;00;18 - 00;09;13;00
Unknown
There are a few German phrases used in this book, and my college German brain was so excited that I actually remembered something to do in the translation. This is talk a little bit of why you included some German in this book

00;09;13;03 - 00;09;36;06
Unknown
Audrey was name dropped in, while we're young because she is Grace and James is cousin, and I had her family living abroad in Vienna. Family, friends. And of ours have. They're now in North Carolina, but they've lived in all of these interesting places. Hong Kong, Switzerland. So I wanted to slip a little ode to them in there.

00;09;36;06 - 00;10;00;25
Unknown
And talking to jam, my glassblower friend. That Prague. Vienna. They're big glassblowing hubs there. Some famous glassblowers she admires from there. So that is why they speak German in Vienna. And I did not take German, so I double checked with my husband, who has a German streak on Duolingo.

00;10;00;27 - 00;10;06;09
Unknown
That's awesome. There's a password in this book that is Stella Blue.

00;10;06;10 - 00;10;10;13
Unknown
Is that a reference to Walker on The CW?

00;10;10;16 - 00;10;22;29
Unknown
No, it's not. It's. It's a version of my aunt's password for that. Stella is their dog. I changed the color, but. No, it's a reference to McCann.

00;10;23;01 - 00;10;31;17
Unknown
Can we call her? Walker. So blue. Like, that's her name. That's really. So I was like, oh, blue is my pop culture references.

00;10;31;18 - 00;10;33;29
Unknown
Yeah. I was like, oh, I love that. I that's

00;10;34;01 - 00;10;38;26
Unknown
kismet. But yes, now blue is my favorite color. And Cindy has a different one.

00;10;39;04 - 00;10;55;29
Unknown
So these books are if you have several books, you have two books coming out in 2026 that are your books are all in the same world, but not sequel in like series vibes, but you also are doing these across two publishers, which is really unique.

00;10;56;01 - 00;11;03;15
Unknown
So talk a little bit about your process of keeping these two story. These stories with two publishers, but still keeping them all connected.

00;11;03;15 - 00;11;18;11
Unknown
Yeah. So the movie retellings are with Delacorte romance. So it's kind of it's a different, you know, muscle you're working with. And it's different creative outlet for me. So I'm having a ton of fun with that.

00;11;18;14 - 00;11;45;00
Unknown
It is. I don't really separate the universes by publisher. It really is. What, like Luke and Charlie from Maybe Meant to Be, which is source books. Fire and my debut novel they appear in were a bad idea, right? And I just I love the, crossover because, you know, they're standalones. You write the happily ever after that, you know, happy for now.

00;11;45;02 - 00;11;58;25
Unknown
And I love having them pop up again. I try to age them a little bit if they come back so you can see like where they are now, what they've done, which is, you know, a ton of fun for me. But also I'm finding for readers

00;11;58;27 - 00;12;00;11
Unknown
that your cover is also

00;12;00;18 - 00;12;01;19
Unknown
the covers

00;12;01;21 - 00;12;04;09
Unknown
are so great and they look so connected.

00;12;04;09 - 00;12;09;18
Unknown
So how do you keep the same vibe for these books across two different publishers?

00;12;09;24 - 00;12;28;14
Unknown
They've been wonderful at, kind of sharing. Monique. My Monique, Amy, my cover artist, who is a genius. Because, yeah, we're very aligned with wanting to have, like, the cloth or like, brand. We want, you know, to look at a cover on the shelf and now it's fine.

00;12;28;14 - 00;12;30;27
Unknown
So I'm very, very lucky.

00;12;31;05 - 00;12;32;10
Unknown
And it's they're doing a great job

00;12;32;13 - 00;12;32;15
Unknown
because

00;12;32;23 - 00;12;46;14
Unknown
I would not had guessed if I had not been preparing for this, but they were two different publishers. They would look so good next to each other and so coherence that I was, I was like, oh, wait, this, this is wild. I don't think I've seen anybody execute this, this well.

00;12;46;16 - 00;12;53;20
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, again, I'm very, lucky. I love both my publishers and I love that we're all on the same page.

00;12;53;26 - 00;12;57;17
Unknown
Yeah. And with your source books side of things, you do have a book coming out in 2020?

00;12;57;22 - 00;12;58;19
Unknown
I do

00;12;58;24 - 00;13;01;11
Unknown
for them. So talk a little bit about that one.

00;13;01;15 - 00;13;04;17
Unknown
Yes. So it is called the Summer of Second Chances.

00;13;04;17 - 00;13;35;15
Unknown
We are back on Martha's Vineyard. It is a triple threat companion to maybe meant to be the Summer of Broken Rules and a first time for everything. My main character, Olivia, she's stuck. She is taking a gap year. Both my girls have unconventional roads to colleges this year. Her grandmother is battling dementia, and Olivia and her grandmother are very, very close.

00;13;35;17 - 00;14;04;23
Unknown
So she's spending the year kind of with her grandmother. Was inspired by my relationship with my grandmother, who passed, with dementia. But she goes to Martha's Vineyard on a family vacation with her stepmother's family. Who are the Carmichaels for? Maybe I'm meant to be. And they live across the oyster pond from, you know, Parkway Farm, our Fox family residence, and we have some shenanigans and love happening.

00;14;04;25 - 00;14;17;09
Unknown
Connor, from a first time for everything. He might get his girl this time. He is a romantic lead, and it was so nice to be back on the vineyard and write another summer book,

00;14;17;12 - 00;14;38;07
Unknown
But you just touched on the dementia side of things, which I just started this book, so I'm not too deep in it, but even just a little bit at the beginning about the dementia. As someone who's also lost a gram for the grandmother to dementia, it hits. So talk a little bit about how you balance something so heavy in a teen book with the romance.

00;14;38;09 - 00;15;09;03
Unknown
It's so. It's tedious. I mean, the first, I would say 40 pages of the book, they're heavy. But I specifically wanted them to be because, you, you know, travel from new Jersey to Martha's Vineyard at some point. I, I just want you to be as restless and upset as Olivia and realize that she needs this fun, romantic vacation.

00;15;09;05 - 00;15;12;18
Unknown
So hopefully that hits when you take the ferry to the vineyard

00;15;12;20 - 00;15;21;27
Unknown
is there anything from your journey with your grandmother that you adapted and put into this story, like a specific thing that she did during her free time?

00;15;21;29 - 00;15;26;08
Unknown
Oh yeah, a ton of it is, inspired by her.

00;15;26;11 - 00;15;30;01
Unknown
you have to you have to, find the humor in it, of course.

00;15;30;01 - 00;16;07;18
Unknown
But my grandmother had this Cartier watch that she just loved and wore all the time, and it disappeared from her wrist one day. So we suspect she threw it out. She refused to believe she threw it away, but I think that's what happened. But it's now a running joke in my family because, you know, we've inherited certain things of hers that somebody will find the Cartier watch in, like, a coat pocket or something or a box of her things.

00;16;07;18 - 00;16;39;07
Unknown
So I put that in there. Yeah. She refused to say that. She probably threw the watch out and, like, little things, like Olivia's grandmother, Annie, she was a world traveler. My grandmother traveled everywhere, so I loved including different trips of hers and stories. She told me Olivia's grandmother loves pajamas. My grandmother love nothing more than to be cozy like she always had to be cozy and just, you know, her warmth, her love of tulips and Pinot Grigio.

00;16;39;08 - 00;16;54;02
Unknown
Like, I really I started writing this six months after she passed away. I bottled up a lot of grief because I'm like, it needs to come out in the book. So I. I wrote this one very quickly.

00;16;54;04 - 00;17;04;19
Unknown
Grief has been so big in why looks lately over the last couple of years. What is it about grief that is pulling on authors to write about it for teens?

00;17;04;19 - 00;17;05;27
Unknown
Specifically?

00;17;05;29 - 00;17;32;12
Unknown
It's difficult because everyone grieves differently. I lost my dad in 2020 from brain cancer. Helped inspire the summer of broken rolls. And I wrote about, grief 18 months after I. Meredith's sister died. And it was really, hopefully a guide for me for how I was going to feel 18 months after my dad died. And it was similar.

00;17;32;12 - 00;18;02;04
Unknown
But then I entered a different phase. And while we're young, like Everett, I was just angry and kind of crippled by his passing. And then, with this book, it's different because now my grandmother was not gone yet, but we were losing her in a sense. So I think it's, important so that teens can relate to it and know that they are not alone.

00;18;02;06 - 00;18;10;11
Unknown
you mentioned the cross-country move, and you post on Instagram, which recently got married. How has getting married influenced your writing process?

00;18;10;14 - 00;18;11;12
Unknown
my gosh.

00;18;11;15 - 00;18;14;29
Unknown
Because having that extra person around it changes things.

00;18;15;05 - 00;18;33;23
Unknown
It does. I love him. A First Time for everything was the first book I started like from a blank page after we got together. And I just think my husband is a serious person ever. But I really have to be in love with my love interests. Like, I just can't.

00;18;33;23 - 00;18;56;11
Unknown
I can't just think, oh, Henry's good for Audrey. I have to be like, I'm in love with Henry. So it was difficult to start writing a book and be like, oh, because Marco is great as Chris, I don't know. And I'm very I very much love Marco, so I figured it out. But, you know, I used to like to write on the weekends.

00;18;56;13 - 00;19;08;22
Unknown
I now know it's important that we spend time together on the weekends, so it's very much transformed into a 9 to 5 job. Instead of, you know,

00;19;08;25 - 00;19;24;17
Unknown
me writing whenever I feel like it until whatever time. But it also helps because I can just spew what I'm thinking to him and he will give me feedback or, you know, encouragement.

00;19;24;20 - 00;19;41;08
Unknown
There's. I'm not good at math. There's a thing, and we're a bad idea, right? And I could not untangle how this thing was going to play out. So we were literally walking to get pick up our Chinese food, and he came up with the perfect solution, like, thank you.

00;19;41;11 - 00;19;42;29
Unknown
where it's people need the math person.

00;19;43;03 - 00;19;46;21
Unknown
Yeah. Because we can't do that. Yeah. My brain does not. Yeah.

00;19;46;25 - 00;19;56;07
Unknown
I mean, my editor and I had a call about this certain piece of the book and couldn't we couldn't figure it out. And then it takes Christina, like, a walk to the Chinese restaurant. And that

00;19;56;09 - 00;20;01;24
Unknown
love it so much. And I also thought that you're going to be part of a Taylor Swift short story.

00;20;01;24 - 00;20;03;02
Unknown
I am.

00;20;03;04 - 00;20;13;25
Unknown
I am so honored to be. I mean, Meg Cabot is also contributing a story and Jodi out. I'm, like, amazed that I will be in the same anthology as Slam.

00;20;14;01 - 00;20;24;24
Unknown
I have not written the short story yet. I feel a little bit of pressure because I wrote short stories in college, and I always was trying to put like a book into 50 pages.

00;20;24;27 - 00;20;34;08
Unknown
But no, I'm excited. I have a couple ideas. Right now I'm working on my 2027 Delacorte Romance book, but I'm excited for the short story ahead.

00;20;34;11 - 00;20;38;17
Unknown
the last question we always ask now, because this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about?

00;20;38;20 - 00;20;56;02
Unknown
I am reading an arc of Matthew Hubbard's Drop Dead Handsome, right now, and he the pop culture references. I'm like, you get me, man? Oh, you so get me. And then, Jessica Lucas's,

00;20;56;05 - 00;20;57;23
Unknown
debut. We've hit turbulence

00;20;57;23 - 00;20;59;12
Unknown
and we are very good friends.

00;20;59;14 - 00;21;08;24
Unknown
The book is so much fun. I want to book my ticket to Hawaii. That's how fun it is. And I'm moderating her launch and I can't wait to blab about it.

00;21;08;26 - 00;21;17;04
Unknown
I just met her at our writer meetup last night, and we're. Reese. Where did I just hear your name? And it was your college entrance. And I was like, okay.

00;21;17;04 - 00;21;18;16
Unknown
And so we just got the book,

00;21;18;18 - 00;21;23;06
Unknown
I think, yeah, I think she's a young adult romance queen in the making.

00;21;23;09 - 00;21;26;25
Unknown
Thanks so much for taking time to talk to Literary Night about so many books, but

00;21;26;27 - 00;21;33;04
Unknown
I left. Thank you for having me. I love blabbing about

00;21;33;07 - 00;21;51;07
Unknown
Thanks again to CL for hanging out with me at your first talk all about her upcoming books, the Summer of Second Chances and We're a bad idea, right? These are such fun. Why a rom com? So you should definitely check them out. And if you're interested in ordering them, the links to do so are down in the show notes for you, as well as where to find her on social media.

00;21;51;14 - 00;21;57;10
Unknown
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the Literary Hype Podcast. Give us some stars and share it with a friend.

00;21;57;13 - 00;22;00;02
Unknown
Thanks so much for listening to the literary hype podcast.