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I write leftist romance and women’s fiction featuring smart, messy characters for readers who turn to books for joy and hope.

Coming soon: Pick It Up! Get The Free Playlist!

Sailor Grimspoon’s life is stagnant—her commitment to music feels more like a rut, and everyone around her is moving on. Her drum students are dropping like flies, her best friend is moving across the country, and every “Drummer Wanted” ad on Craigslist is at least slightly sexist. But Sailor can’t leave Southern California because she’s constantly on call for her eccentric hippie mother, who is too flaky to clean out the lint trap or pay her bills on time.

Jake Rosenblatt, Sailor’s high school bandmate and ex-boyfriend, is unhappy with his office job, and his pushy girlfriend is pressing for a commitment he’s not ready to make. But when he’s ambushed at Thanksgiving dinner about her biological clock, Jake realizes it’s time to find his identity apart from his relationship.  

Their holidays not going to plan, and desperate for the comfort of their favorite band’s holiday ska album, Sailor and Jake are devastated to discover it has disappeared from the Internet. After a chance encounter at the venue where they played their only show, they agree two brains are better than one and go on a hunt for the band. 

Jake, determined to convince Sailor the magic of their ska past can live again, plans a reunion show. But to pull it off he’ll have to wrestle an aging ska star, avoid his angry ex, and prove to Sailor growing up doesn’t have to mean selling out. Scared to let herself fall for Jake again, Sailor must decide if chasing her dreams, musical and romantic, is worth the possibility of losing everything, again.

About Becca

Becca Spence Dobias is a 2022 KissPitch mentee, working under the guidance of Jen Deluca, author of the Well Met series. She grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children.

She is the author of On Home (Inkshares, 2021) and has a book under contract with WVU Press about the North Central WV punk scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her work also appears in Inlandia: A Literary Journey, two Writing Bloc anthologies, https://lgbtqreads.com/, and https://diymfa.com/ among other places. She reviews books for Southern Literary Review and co-hosts Writing Bloc’s Indie Writer Podcast.