Born in Oklahoma and raised outside Chicago, Maril didn't venture to the Queen City until her final years of high school, when she attended Wyoming High School. Having found a home in Cincinnati, she attended the University of Cincinnati and quickly used the city (and its sports) for inspiration.

Her debut romance novel, "Slipstream," released on May 20, follows the story of Lilah Graywood, a documentary filmmaker who is thrust into the world of Formula 1 racing, and Arthur Bianco, an enigmatic reserve driver with a career on the line. The book has already received a 3.84-star rating on GoodReads.

"I wrote 'Slipstream' very fast, which is not very normal, but I think the first draft was (finished in) two or three months," Maril said. "I wrote a lot of 'Slipstream' on my phone, on the couch, just lying down. I was working full-time, so sometimes I'd wake up at like 5 a.m., sneak out of bed while the house was quiet, tip-tap on my phone, and then get ready and go to work. It sounds very dedicated, but it was actually really fun."

Although the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library employee-turned-author didn't grow up as the biggest Formula 1 fan, her experience in journalism helped spark her interest.

From library employee to published author

Maril said she always wanted to be an author, but she started her career doing "a little bit of everything, writing-wise."

She freelanced at Cincinnati CityBeat before working as a fashion and beauty journalist, with her bylines appearing in Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. Her journalism career took a turn, though, when she began thinking about her long-term options.

While Maril had been writing and sending books to literary agents, she felt nothing was working.

"I was like, 'OK, I want to find some place where I can work there for 30 years and then retire, and that's what ended up bringing me to the library,'" she said.

Then, about two months into her internal communications position at the library in 2023, she acquired a literary agent for a book that was ultimately never published. Her luck, however, didn't stop there, as "Slipstream" went out on submission (when an agent sends the book to editors or publishing houses) in 2024.

About a month later, she got her book deal.

"(It) feels really crazy looking back," she said, as she also chose to pursue writing full-time in 2024, ultimately leaving a job she loved at the library. "(It was like) a month of spiraling, though, like, 'Oh my God, what did I do with my life and my career? That was really stupid,' but sometimes the leap of faith works."

And sometimes, faith is the only thing you need. Maril said "Slipstream" was the seventh book she had written and the fifth since 2020. However, it was her first to be published.

How a Cincinnati Bengals game sparked a Formula 1 romance novel

The cover of Cincinnati author Madge Maril's debut novel "Slipstream."

Maril was actually at a Cincinnati Bengals game when the idea for her debut novel, "Slipstream," was born. She and her husband were getting ice cream when they saw a media team run by, capturing her attention.

"It was like a woman with a camera, and I studied electronic media, so I'm always like, 'Whoa, what are they up to?'" she said.

One of her first ideas for the romance novel was for a camerawoman and backup quarterback to fall in love.

"I really wanted her ownership of the camera to potentially have a real affect on (the main character's) life, so he couldn't be a Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes, where if she made a bad documentary about him, that wouldn't matter if he was the star," Maril said.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes after the AFC championship game in 2023.

And although there's a huge market for the romantic football player trope (thanks, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce), the field is a little oversaturated with football-heavy media.

So, Maril asked herself what she could bring to this story that hadn't really been done, which brought her to Formula 1. Despite the author not growing up watching Formula 1 races, she fully immersed herself in the racing world for "Slipstream."

And Maril said she fell completely in love with the sport, adding that her admiration "happened very fast." So much so that a sequel is in the works: "The Paddock Club," which she teased in a June 6 Instagram post.

To aspiring authors: 'If you know you can do it, you've already done it'

For aspiring authors, writing a book might seem like a never-ending task.

Maril knows that feeling more than anyone.

"If you know you can do it, you've already done it," she said. "And it is so much rejection, and there's so much to overcome, and believing in yourself, and also learning all at the same time. If you know you want to write a book, then the only separation between now and then is writing the book. You just have to write it and keep at it."

"It sounds so cliche, but something I was told a lot while querying is: 'The only person who picks if you give up is you.'"

But where does a writer even begin? And what is that process like?

Cincinnati author Madge Maril released her debut novel, 'Slipstream,' on May 20.

"You write a book, and then you query, which is where you email literary agents. Some will ask for like five pages or the first 50 pages, but the query is basically three paragraphs about your book and one paragraph about yourself," she said.

"If a literary agent requests a partial or full sample, then you'd either send them half of the book or the whole book, and then if they like it and want to represent it, you'll sign with an agent."

Maril noted she wrote "Slipstream" while she was on submission for the other book that didn't go anywhere. She estimated that she has submitted books to at least 30 literary agents over the years, oftentimes getting rejection letters or failing to even get a response.

On how to handle the rejection and silence from agents, Maril said she thinks you have to be pretty "sick and twisted" to continue because you see so much progress from one book to another, only to get met with rejection again.

"It's celebrating those little milestones, but then also, being very motivated by spite and wanting to be better," Maril said. "You learn, and sometimes agents or editors will send a little bit of feedback, so as a writer, you think about what you can do next time you write."