Shayna Douglas started writing stories about her favourite fictional characters falling in love as a teenager and never really stopped. More Than All the Miles Combined was born from her desire to write a sapphic love story that not only felt real, but one in which she could see herself. She wanted to capture what sapphic love in your twenties truly looks like: the uncertainty, the longing, and the way friendship and love blur together.

​

In many ways, this book is a love letter to her own past. Growing up, one of her favourite childhood memories was a family road trip from Ontario to Newfoundland—the journey becoming just as much a part of her as the places themselves. Writing this novel allowed her to weave that nostalgia into a love story while making sense of her own experiences with coming out and growing up. As a 26-year-old Canadian lesbian, she spent years searching for stories where she could see herself. In the end, she wrote the book her younger self had been looking for.