Novelist Kaira Rouda Proves Dreams Come True at Any Age
If you’re an avid reader of fiction -- thrillers in particular -- then it’s likely you’ve come across the works of Kaira Rouda. Her novels have garnered numerous awards and have made her an international bestseller.
The Laguna Beach-based superwoman originally got her start penning a society column for The Columbus Dispatch and contributing content to Columbus Monthly Magazine. But her journalism career, though successful, wasn’t completely fulfilling her dream of writing. After a career in marketing where she started a real estate firm with her husband (which earned her the Stevie Award for Women in Business), she released her first book, a nonfiction piece titled Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs. Following its success she tried her hand at fiction, her true passion, and released Here, Home, Hope in 2011. For Rouda, this was the realization of a lifelong dream.
“I knew by third grade I wanted to be an author,” remembers Rouda. “Our teacher asked us to write a letter to the person we wanted to be when we grew up. I wrote to Robert McCloskey, author of Make Way for Ducklings -- he wrote back and I still have the note.”
Rouda, who didn’t publish her first novel until her 40’s, knows that rejection is par for the course. “Rejection is at the heart of the publishing business. If you can’t get past it, you won’t survive,” she notes. “The good news is that today, there are so many options. You can self-publish, publish with a small press, or publish with one of the New York giants. I’ve done all three, proudly. Some people look down on folks who self-publish and I think that’s a shame. Just the accomplishment of finishing a novel should be celebrated. Readers don’t care who the publisher is as long as they like your story.”
And people like Rouda’s stories, indeed. She is a USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestselling Author and has won the Indy Excellence Award and the USA Today Book Award for women's fiction, as well as an Honorable Mention in the mainstream fiction category in the Writer's Digest International Book Awards. But she takes her success in stride, grateful to have fans that keep her writing.
“To me, success isn’t a moment: it’s all the stops along the way,” she explains. “The first time I saw my novel on the shelf of a bookstore, the first time I walked into a convention and saw my book’s cover on a huge banner, the moment a book-to-film agent asked to represent my novel, the moment I became an international bestseller (Thank you, Canada!), the times I’ve made the USA Today list... I hope to have many more moments during this career and I plan to cherish each one.”
While many connect with Rouda’s novels about family and motherhood in The Goodbye Year, A Mother’s Day, In the Mirror, and Here, Home, Hope, her domestic suspense novels Best Day Ever, The Favorite Daughter, All the Difference, and the forthcoming Second Wife are geared towards those looking for entertainment. “If I keep a reader up into the night, that’s a win!” she laughs.
This summer pick up the paperback version of The Favorite Daughter, and watch for her domestic suspense novels, The Second Wife and Somebody’s Home, scheduled for release in 2021 and 2022.
Marissa Stempien is a freelance editor and writer that loves collecting books and has them piled in every free corner of her house. With a degree in English Literature and a minor in Asian Studies, she has written on travel, fashion, beauty, technology, culture, and food, and enjoys writing short stories in her spare time. Find her on social media at @paperandlights.
