On a typical day in her home in New Jersey, Brittany Kelley ('12) has her writing routine down.

"I'd get my kids on the bus, grab a pot of coffee -- not just a cup, like a whole pot of coffee -- and get started. It's not glamorous, you know. A lot of it is sitting down and grinding it out. But there's a lot of magic in those moments, too. And you look up, and it's been five hours, and you're 50 pages further, and the characters have come alive."

In fact, that combination of grind and magic has earned Kelley some great payoffs. She's independently published 35 novels, all romantic comedies, and has a new novel, Relationship Goals, that will come out in July from a major publisher, Penguin Random House.

"I get to have fun all day and write and live in these worlds," she says. "But someone else is reading them, and it's making them smile or laugh. And that's a gift to me personally."

Personal History

After earning her bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Dallas, Kelley came to UNT to earn her master's degree in history -- while working as a high school history and English teacher for Plano ISD.

Inspired by a friend who immigrated from Kosovo, Kelley studied Middle Eastern and Balkan Studies. She learned how to speak up for herself from Nancy Stockdale, associate professor and University Distinguished Teaching Professor of history.

"She made me feel like I could hold the floor with people who had come from all walks of life to get their Ph.D. or their master's degrees, and that what I had to say was important. And, you know, that's something I've carried with me since then."

After graduation, Kelley worked as an intelligence analyst for the federal government in Washington, D.C., but she knew that career path wasn't for her. She, her husband and three kids moved back to Texas and then to New Jersey for his job.

Kelley had one constant -- her love for reading, especially romance novels.

"I'm like, 'Oh, I'm so oversaturated with news,'" she says. "'I'm going to pick up a romance with a happy ending and escape for a while.'"

And then she decided to write her own books.

'The Coolest Job Ever'

Kelley started writing seriously in 2018. Her first few books "were not good."

"You've got to learn how to do it by doing it badly. So, I did it badly for a couple of years."

Kelley kept at it. She found a writing community on X, in which others would critique her work and hold her accountable. She checked out books about writing from the library.

"I've been really trying hard, and almost every spare moment that I wasn't taking care of my kids or working on other things was spent writing -- and it was like all the squirreled-away time late at night, early mornings when I could grab it on my phone if the kids were busy without fighting for five seconds."

She spent years querying and submitted about five books to major publishers, but they were rejected. She realized she could start publishing on her own, using two pen names to release dozens of novels. The indie publishing world has been boosted by TikTok and other social media, giving authors another way to make themselves known.

Then Penguin Random House loved her idea for Relationship Goals. The plot depicts an actress making a docudrama about the soccer world. She is then set up on a fake romance with a soccer player, who is reluctant about the plan.

Kelley has been able to write full-time for three years, working in a barn on her property that stores 5,000 of her books for future distribution. When she isn't writing fiction, she's working on her newsletter, website, social media feeds or making graphics to promote her works.

"I love it because when I get tired of doing one thing, I can switch roles."

And there's the fan reaction. She frequently attends book conventions where she meets her readers. One woman with stage 4 cancer said her books helped her get through treatments.

"When readers say things like that, 'I was sick' or 'I went through a divorce, and your book helped me realize I could have more for myself,' it's like this is the coolest job ever."