A Page From Her Book: A Short Story Romance

by Katie Fitzgerald

Back in June, Ivy Hillman was excited about her plan to skip college and devote her attention to building a writing career. Now it's October, inspiration is scarce, and she's wondering if it's all been a mistake. Ryan Page, her high school classmate who also lives and works locally, claims to believe in her writing, but Ivy doesn’t trust that he's not just teasing. When she makes the switch from literary fiction to romance, however, she begins to see Ryan in a new light. Has she been misreading him all along? She'll find out on Halloween!

20 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 24, 2025

About the author

Katie Fitzgerald is the author of two collections, Library Lovebirds and Literary Lovebirds, five stand-alone short stories - All Year with Anthony, Batter Together: A Short Story, Green Gloves: A Short Story Romance, Gnome One But You: A Short Story Romance, and Strangers in the Sand: A Short Story Romance - and a novel in flash, The Bennetts Bloom.

Her short stories and flash fiction appear online at Havok Publishing, Syncopation Literary Journal, Painted Pebble Lit Mag, Spillwords.com, Spark Flash Fiction and Micromance Magazine. Her serial romance, "The Plus One Pact" appears quarterly in Clean Fiction.

She is a 2024 Sparkie Award recipient for Best Romantic Suspense, a 2024 nominee for the Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist in three categories of the 2025 Cupid Prize. A graduate of Vassar College and a trained librarian, Katie resides in Maryland with her husband and five kids.

Katie's work also appears in the following anthologies:
✿ Wither and Bloom
✿ Of Ink & Paper
✿ Crowns: A Heartbooks Anthology
✿ A Winter Promise: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology
✿ Summer Sweethearts: A Contemporary Romance Collection
✿ Tails, Scales, & Tiaras
✿ Another Chance to Get It Right: A New Year's Eve Anthology
✿ Written Tales Chapbook XV: Echoes of Ink
✿ 12 Days of Book-Club-Mas
✿ The Dragon Bone Journal: 2025 Issue
✿ Recipes for Romance: A Sweet Valentine's Day Anthology
✿ KissMet Quarterly : Spring Issue
✿ Unconventional Love: Anthology on the Expanse of Love
✿ A Serendipitous Summer
✿ The Zest of the Lemon Volume 2: Capturing Slices of Life and Beauty

Reviews

[Aunt LoLo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, that was a delight! When the description said it was a short little palate cleanser...they meant it.

This took less than an hour to read, and while it felt like the romance was on fast forward (it *is* a super short story, after all), it was utterly adorable.

She's a writer that can't...seem...to write. He's her unwitting muse.

“But someday soon I want to hear more about how you think my hair is swoony.” And then he walked quickly away, leaving Ivy to deal with blushing cheeks, a flurry of dancing leaves in her stomach, and no idea what to do next."

Gah. So cute. Five stars!