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Giving away ten copies of the secret-late-night-driving-lessons romance you never knew you needed ✌🏼

Months until my debut novel comes out: LESS THAN TWO

Heyyy it’s been a minute! All the little things an author has to do in the lead-up to a book coming out were starting to really weigh on me, and I just kept putting off writing this newsletter. 

But hi, now I have some exciting things saved up to tell you! Most immediately, that there is a GOODREADS GIVEAWAY going on for Midnights With You as of today, and the winners will get fresh new hardcovers of the book! I haven’t even gotten to see one of these in person yet!! You have until October 17 to enter! (U.S. and Canada only for this one, sorry!!)

Secondly: I’m partnering with the Ripped Bodice LA on a signed preorder campaign! I absolutely love this romance-focused bookstore—it’s one of my favorite places to go in LA, their events are always excellent, and the whole store just has impeccable vibes.

If you preorder from them at this link before November 7, you’ll get a signed, personalized copy, as well as an art postcard and two mini prints by the wonderful @jiyaneru, and a bookmark featuring the cover art by Dana Lédl.

(You’re getting to see the mini art prints in here before I’ve revealed anywhere else! Thank you for being subscribed to my newsletter 🫶🏼)

If you preorder from the Ripped Bodice, you’ll get all those things automatically with your order! If you preorder from a different indie bookstore, you can still get the art prints and bookmark by filling out this form. (And if you order from a non-indie, I’ll still mail you the postcard and a bookmark!) 

This preorder campaign is open internationally, and I really appreciate every single person who orders it early like this—it makes a big difference for debut authors like me, in terms of convincing booksellers to carry my book in-store and signaling to publishers that I should get to write more books in the future.

And I’ll have some exciting events news to announce soon, so keep an eye out for that in the October newsletter! (NEW YORKERS! Save the date, November 20, I am coming for you!!)

The craft department: Cutting and combining scenes

Sometimes when you’re revising a novel, and you need to get your word count down or you need to tighten up your pacing, you’ll find yourself wanting to cut a scene and merge it with another one. In those cases, here’s what I do:

—I read through the two scenes that I need to merge, and I highlight all the most important things that I want to keep. 

—In a new doc, I’ll copy and paste lines I want to keep, or summarize the information or aspects of the scene I want to keep in bullet points, even if I’m not going to keep the exact words.

—Then I’ll go through each item in that doc and write down where else that thing can go in the manuscript—whether it’s in the new combined version of these two scenes I’m writing, or whether there’s somewhere else I can work it in that makes more sense. One tool I’ve found really helpful when I’m doing this: super brief flashbacks in the POV character’s inner thought. I look for another moment in the book that might naturally trigger the memory of the thing I’m trying to find a home for, and make a note to work it in there later.

—Once I’ve decided what should go into the new combined version of these two scenes, I’ll write a scene skeleton (basically like a messy outline or plan for the scene) that lays out how all these elements fit together in a new, cohesive scene. Then using that as my guide, open in one half of the screen, I’ll write the whole scene through in the other half. (Scrivener makes this split-screen thing easy).

—Then I go through the rest of the manuscript and weave the different lines or bits of information into the other scenes I’ve identified as good places to relocate them.

Five things people love about MWY

My original intention with this section of the newsletter was to remind myself that I love my debut novel and to challenge myself to talk about it more. But over the past few months, I’ve started to feel like…maybe I love this book too much in a way that is hurting more than it’s helping? So this month, I’m going to give myself a break and tell you some things other people loved about it.

1. Ann Liang called Midnights With You “everything I’ve ever wanted in a book.” (I feel like I need to pinch myself every time I read this quote, but my publisher even put it on the front of the book, so I will be reading it often!)

2. Randy Ribay called MWY “a tender and aching story about family and first love, about finding stolen moments in which we can heal, forgive, and find ourselves.” 

3. P.H. Low, author of one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read, These Deathless Shores, said MWY gave them a 14-day book hangover.

4. Booklist gave MWY a starred review (!) and said it’s “achingly authentic” and perfect for fans of Erika Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Mary H.K. Choi’s Yolk.

5. Kirkus called it “gut-wrenching,” which I am choosing to take as a compliment lol!

And several other authors I love and admire have very generously blurbed MWY, but I’m going to be trickling those out slowly on IG over the next several weeks! 💜

July/August/September recs

Here are some standout things I’ve been reading, watching and listening to from the past couple months:

1. These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low — As mentioned above, I am in love with this genderbent Malaysian-inspired Peter Pan retelling! P.H. Low’s sentences are so gorgeous, in this almost-painful, feel-them-in-your-bones way that really stays with you. And the longing! I initially read an early draft of this book a couple of years ago, and I still think about Jordan and Baron all the time.

2. Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay — This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it did not disappoint! It’s so impressive to me how much narrative work Randy Ribay was able to do in such brief amounts of space as he told the story of four generations of men in one Filipino American family. And apologies to Sabrina Carpenter, but this book literally made me cry when I’d done my makeup so nice—one time when I was all dressed up to go to an event, I thought “I have a few minutes to read before I have to leave” and picked up this book and—bam, tears! Anyway, you’ve been warned!

3. Eighteen Roses by Shannon C.F. Rogers — I loved Shannon’s debut novel, I’d Rather Than Bloom, with my whole heart—such a nuanced and true portrayal of messy grief, teenage girlhood and fraught diaspora feelings. So I’ve had her second book on my anticipated reads list for a while, and I loved the main character of Eighteen Roses immediately! Luz’s voice jumped off the page with personality and humor, and I related so hard to the ways she felt at odds with everyone around her but so deeply longed for connection. A beautiful story about family, friendship, and learning to let yourself be loved.

4. And They Were Roomates by Page Powars — I was truly privileged to get to read this super early, and oh my God I devoured this book in like two days! It was so fun, and some of the jokes and absurd parts had me hooting and hollering. There are some books I categorize in my head as “pain-relief reads,” and this is one of them. I especially love the way Page writes big casts of vivid, loveable side characters. Also, the love interest in this book—and how much I grew to like him by the end!—really took me by surprise.

5. Pop Star Academy: Katseye — I love a good documentary, and I found this docu-series riveting. It follows several trainees vying to become members of a K-Pop group, and man, it really made me think about how brutal the intersection of art and commerce can be. It…kind of made me think of publishing in that way, though obviously this is a more extreme manifestation of all that! Other authors who watched it: please message me immediately so we can discuss.

6. The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes — I’d never heard anything about this and just randomly stumbled onto this browsing around on Hulu one night, but I found it very moving! (And…uncannily MWY-coded in some ways?? But with a speculative premise). Here’s the IMDB summary, because I’m writing this late at night and my brain is tired: “In a sleepy country town, a traumatized boy and a transfer student from Tokyo stumble upon a time-bending tunnel that may grant them their every wish.” I loved the way the speculative element brought out the emotional themes of grief and loss, and especially loved the ending.

7. Apple by Charli XCX — I was slow on the uptake on this one, but I had this moment over the summer when I was sitting at my desk and actually listened, for once, to the lyrics to “Apple.” And I basically froze and was like…wait. WAIT. Is this song actually about generational trauma and driving all night?? Because that’s also what MWY is about??? Anyway I’ve been listening to this song on repeat pretty much ever since.

8. Keshi’s Requiem — If you know me, this is way too predictable, but YES I LOVE THE NEW ALBUM. I love “Soft Spot” and “War.” And “Texas” somehow sounds like the exact shade of longing I have when I think about the way writing felt four years ago, when I was just doing it for myself and there was this endless feeling of possibility and discovery. I listened to this song on loop for…a nonzero number of hours when I was feeling down about publishing recently and really missing that feeling. Anyway! Good album.

Well, that was fun! Let’s do it again next month <3

All my love,

Clare