Philly Sillys Author K. Iwancio on Baseball Romance, Ding Dong, and Manifesting Phillies Wins
She Writes Baseball Romance Novels. The Phillies Keep Winning. Coincidence?
Eleven books. A cracked Liberty Bell mascot named Ding Dong. And a track record of manifesting Phillies victories through fiction that is starting to feel less like luck and more like something the league should probably look into.
Kristen Iwancio — the self-published mastermind behind the viral Philly Sillys sports romance series — sat down with J.R. at SuperFan Diaries, and the conversation was exactly the kind of delightful, chaotic, deeply Philly energy you would expect from someone who built an eleven-book empire out of pure love for her city and its teams.
Born a Phan, Built a Universe
Kristen did not decide to write sports romance and then pick Philadelphia as a backdrop. Philadelphia was always the point.
Growing up a die-hard Phillies fan — the kind of fan who feels the losses physically and the wins spiritually — she spent years watching a city pour its whole identity into its teams. The passion, the heartbreak, the absurdity, the loyalty. All of it.
At some point, she decided to write it down. And then she wrote eleven more.
The Savannah Bananas Changed Everything
The Philly Sillys did not come from nowhere. They came from the Savannah Bananas.
When Kristen discovered the Bananas — the barnstorming baseball entertainment team that turned the sport into something between a game and a Broadway show — something clicked. The joy of it. The silliness. The idea that baseball does not have to take itself so seriously to be taken seriously by its fans.
She took that energy and pointed it straight at Philadelphia. The result is the Philly Sillys: a fictional baseball team with real heart, ridiculous puns, and a mascot — a cracked Liberty Bell named Ding Dong — that somehow perfectly captures the spirit of a city that has never once done anything the conventional way.
Ding Dong: An Origin Story
The mascot deserves its own section.
A cracked Liberty Bell. Named Ding Dong. Who cheers for a fictional Philadelphia baseball team in a sports romance novel series.
Kristen did not stumble into this. She designed it with intention — leaning into the iconography of the city, the irreverence of Philly fandom, and her own instinct that the best mascots are the ones that feel both completely ridiculous and completely right.
Ding Dong is both. Ding Dong is perfect.
The Manifestation Problem
Here is where things get interesting.
Kristen has a habit — possibly a gift, possibly a superpower, possibly something that should be studied — of writing Phillies victories into her fiction before they happen in real life. Plot lines that end in championships. Comeback stories that mirror the actual season.
And then the Phillies go and do it.
She talked with J.R. about this pattern, what she thinks is behind it, and — most importantly — what she has already written into her next book. She is not telling. But she is hinting. And if her track record holds, Phillies fans might want to pay very close attention.
Running an Eleven-Book Self-Publishing Empire
This is not a side project. This is a business.
Eleven books, self-published, with a fan base that has grown organically through a combination of genuinely great storytelling, a deeply relatable love of Philadelphia sports, and the kind of community-building that happens when readers feel like the author is one of them — because she is.
Kristen walked J.R. through what it actually takes to build something like this from scratch: the writing, the publishing, the marketing, the covers, the community. She does most of it herself. She makes it look easy. It is not.
What She Wants You to Take Away
Write the thing. Make the mascot. Name it Ding Dong if you want to.
Kristen Iwancio did not wait for permission to build her universe. She did not wait for a publisher to tell her her idea was good or a focus group to approve the Liberty Bell concept. She just loved her city, loved her team, and loved telling stories — and she built something real from all three.
The Phillies keep winning. The books keep coming. Ding Dong keeps ringing.
🎧 Hear Kristen's full story on the SuperFan Diaries Podcast — where passion meets the game.
Connect with Kristen & the Philly Sillys:
Follow Kristen on Instagram Find the Philly Sillys series on Amazon
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