Chelsea Curto on writing the book of her heart
Back in 2022, I was in Florida to help my parents get their house prepared for a Category 4 hurricane churning toward the state. Hurricane Ian made landfall at night, and I watched the video roll in of the devastation and destruction the storm was unleashing havoc on communities from Southwest Florida up through Orlando like I’ve done for every hurricane that hit the state where I was born and raised.
While watching, the news coverage sparked an idea: What if there was a romance book featuring two meteorologists who spent the summer covering natural disasters together?
That same night, In Stormy Weather was born.
I’m not a scientist. I’ve never studied meteorology (I got my degree in art history), and I can’t tell you the first thing about physics, but I’ve always been deeply fascinated by hurricanes. With a loose plot for a book in mind, I started to consider the characters. Understanding weather isn’t easy. There are variables and moving parts that dictate where a storm will go or how severe it will be. The protagonists of In Stormy Weather needed to be smart and unafraid of tackling dangerous elements head-on, and that’s when Quincy Monroe and Sebastian Dunn came to me.
Expanding on my love of hurricanes, I decided I wasn’t going to make Quincy someone who watched from the sidelines. She was going to be in the action, right in the path of nature’s most severe weather, and she was going to be one of the most brilliant people in the field of meteorology.
The field dominated by men.
Over the last two and a half years, I’ve built my author brand on crafting stories that feature women existing in spaces where men don’t think they belong, and male main characters who do everything in their power to uplift them and give them a platform to showcase their talents. In Stormy Weather is no different. Quincy has a PhD in Atmospheric Science, has social media channels that highlight weather patterns and changes with millions of followers, and is going for a position at the National Weather Service. Sebastian is the senior meteorologist on the nightly national news, is loved by women across the country, and has been handed opportunities because of his name, not his expertise.
Throughout In Stormy Weather, Sebastian makes a point to mention how Quincy is smarter than him. He tells her that he loves her brilliant brain—it’s his favorite thing about her—and has no problem calling out men who want to question her credentials. Women are so often told to keep their accomplishments quiet in real life as to not be too boastful or arrogant, but Quincy is unabashedly proud of her success. She’s worked hard to get to where she is, and she’s not going to dim her achievements to make a man more comfortable.
And Sebastian doesn’t let her.
In Stormy Weather is the book of my heart. It’s four years in the making. It’s hours spent researching weather trends and post-cyclone documents. It’s the culmination of pouring over multiple bulletins from the American Meteorological Society because I wanted the dialogue and scenes in the book to feel authentic and believable. It’s my love letter to Florida, hot summer days, and strong, independent women.
I hope you love this story as much as I loved writing it. Enjoy your visit to Oak Valley and the group of friends that feel like a family. And, in the words of my remarkable girl Quincy Monore, I’ll chase ya later.
In Stormy Weather is published by Pan on 16 July 2026
