Hellooo it’s been a while, but I have a few exciting things to share!
First of all, my debut novel has a new title! The book you may have known as WHEN THE SKY IS DEEPEST BLUE is now ✨ MIDNIGHTS WITH YOU ✨
Second, it has a pub date: November 12, 2024! (Kind of makes sense that this book is a Scorpio?)
And, and, and—ahhh look at this!
I’m so, so thrilled to share this cover, with incredible art by Dana Lédl and design by Marci Senders! Huge thanks to my editor, Rebecca Kuss, and my agent, Amy Bishop-Wycisk, for making this all happen.
I teared up when the final version hit my inbox. For one thing, it’s overwhelming in the best way to see these characters, looking a lot like they looked in my head. And the color scheme! The vibes! The very specific car they drive around in, which means a weird amount to me!
In so many ways, this image really feels like the essence of the story I wrote. It’s like an idea that was tucked away in my heart for years, half in secret, has suddenly been made visible for everyone to see. It’s such a special, surreal and lowkey terrifying feeling, watching a private daydream become public (which, I guess, sums up a lot about the debut experience?) But more than anything, I’m so grateful I got to tell this story. I really love these characters and the wild emotional ride they go on together, and I can’t wait for you to meet them.
And if you’re on Netgalley or Edelweiss, that time will be…kind of soon? I’m told it should be on there sometime in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out! (And, of course, I’ll be running here to immediately inform you).
Here’s what the book is about:
Most nights, 17-year-old Deedee lies awake thinking about her family ghosts and her endless fights with her strict Filipino single mom (who, among other things, won’t let her learn to drive). But when she sneaks out and meets Jay, the boy across the street whose family life is also keeping him up at night, she convinces him to teach her how to drive in the wee hours, while the rest of the world is still asleep. Over the course of these midnight driving lessons, their growing connection pushes them to confront the pain and secrets they’ve inherited.
In this story, you’ll find:
💜 night drives & parked car conversations
💜 liminal spaces
💜 diaspora angst & diaspora joy
💜 complex family relationships
💜 confronting generational trauma
💜 the feeling of being understood for the first time
💜 so much longing
You can add it on Goodreads here!
Getting to celebrate this milestone has made me think back on when I was first drafting this book, about three and a half years ago now, and how wild all this would seem if you told me about it then. So I’ll end this with a note I wrote myself back in the summer of 2020, when I had just started this story and I was trying to give myself permission to keep going:
If you start to sabotage yourself with extremely premature doubts, just put it off for one more day. Remember how fun it was to think of this idea all in a rush, to lean into telling the kind of story you’ve always wanted to tell but basically never let yourself. Just believe in yourself for one more day. Let your writing be bad or good or however for another day. Enjoy the process without thinking about the end for one more day.
As I’ve been muddling my way through my next book, it’s been comforting to look back on those words. And I’ll be channeling this energy all through debut year—trying to enjoy the process for one more day without thinking too much about the end, and doing that again the next day, and the next.
Thanks for being along for the ride so far! 💜
Love always,
Clare