An Interview with Cat Sebastian
We read a lot of books. Every year, at least one person on the staff reads over 100 books. Our tastes expand across genres and decades, but sometimes, we find an author we love so much that we reread their work whenever we want to lift our spirits a little bit. At the Rochelle Park Public Library, that author is Cat Sebastian. Our director read two of her books four times each within one year, and we posted about one of them time and time again.
Sebastian was kind enough to let me ask a few questions about her writing and her forthcoming release, Star Shipped, which comes out on March 3, 2026. Star Shipped deals with complex family dynamics, mental health issues like OCD, addiction and what it means to care for others and have others care for you.
Since I conducted this interview, Sebastian released my favorite read of 2025, After Hours at Dooryard Books, which I will discuss when we post our 2025 Reading Wrapped. For now, though, here’s what Cat and I talked about:
G: In Star Shipped, Simon’s relationship to his OCD is incredibly realistic. There’s a part of him that wants to hide, a part of him that wants to be seen, and a part of him who fears being seen as “crazy,” and they’re all fighting for the spotlight. What would you like your readers to take away from Simon’s struggles?
C: Lately, I’ve been thinking that part of what makes an effective romance narrative is a character revealing their most awful self and being loved anyway. In Simon’s case, he knows logically that his OCD and anxiety are legitimate medical conditions, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling like they’re the worst part of him. I wanted to write a character who’s had a million years of therapy and knows exactly what’s wrong with him and is still a mess, on a permanent basis, and is loved as that mess of a person. He’ll never be anybody’s idea of normal and none of the people who care about him would want him to be.
G: Star Shipped directly counters the isolationist narrative around “protecting [one’s] peace.” It is a testament to showing up for one another, even when it’s hard. Did you set out to challenge the idea that isolation is peaceful? Do you hope this facilitates discussions around what we owe each other?
C: Isolation can be peaceful! And also it can make you forget that you exist in the context of relationships: you care about people and people care about you and, for most of us, this is a core part of our shared humanity. In Star Shipped, none of that comes naturally to Simon. He has to work to make sure his best friend knows he cares, and he also has to work to remind himself that when his best friend does something nice, this is evidence that he’s being cared for. It isn’t just romantic relationships, but also friendships, work relationships, family, and community.
G: There is a lot of queer solidarity among your characters’ found families. It’s nice to see a romance about gay men highlight the impact of lesbians and queer women on their lives. Thank you for including that. What motivated you to emphasize this dynamic?
C: This is a “write what you know” situation. I’m enjoying populating my books with middle aged queer women these days.
G: Your work has some of the greatest depictions of grief I’ve ever read. The first time I read You Should Be So Lucky, I cried, probably exactly where every reader tells you they cried – the jars of cherries. Where that angst usually tears most pairings apart, your characters grow closer together. Can you speak to your writing process around such a complex topic? Was it important for you to show grief’s soft underbelly?
C: Without getting too bleak, love (any kind of love) only makes sense as something that will some day end. If you’re really lucky and you get to keep loving someone for a long time, death is going to be the thing that ends it, and it’s going to be terrible. The world is full of people who manage to not think about that (or who haven’t had experiences that drive that reality home), and I love that for them, but I’m writing about the other kind of person.
G: Your characters hold onto their ability to be soft in a world that repeatedly tries to take that from them. With angst, there is levity. Is it difficult to strike that balance?
C: In Star Shipped in particular, I was writing about two characters who had a hard time being earnest for more than ten seconds at a time. So they’re slipping sincerity into the cracks of their banter, and vice versa. I, for better or for worse, need to be funny in the parking lot of the funeral parlor, the ICU, the doctor’s waiting room–because whatever happens, I’m still me, and the person who’s patiently tolerating my ICU/funeral/doctor nonsense is still them, and our relationship is still our relationship, regardless of what horrors life is throwing at us.
G: The marketing materials for Star Shipped mention that romance is shifting away from romcoms and toward drama. Is there anything you’d like to see the genre accomplish? Are there boundaries you’d like to see pushed?
C: I want more weird romance. I want poly romance. I want romance that’s actively political. I fully believe that historical romance is going to have a big comeback, and that when it does, it’s going to be different from what we’re used to, and I’m really looking forward to that.
