How To Win An Early ARC, My Next Two (and a bit?) Books, and I Need Your Help!

Hi lovely friends! We’v reached the end of October which means it's time for another newsletter send out! It's been a long, intense month (in a good way...for the most part!) but now that we're nearly out the other end of it I feel genuinely really proud of everything I've done and the progress I've seen. There's a lot of content to get through this month so I won't spend too much time on this intro and instead just dive right in.

(If you're new here, every month we do an Update Section, Monthly Inspirations and finish up with our Bonus Content - sometimes a snippet, but often more exclusive content than that. All of these are geared around either my debut novel 'Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming' (September 2025) or other upcoming projects.)

MONTHLY UPDATES

(We have a fair few to get through but not as many as last month, phew!)

• Anyone who read last month's sendout might remember that I had just commissioned an amazing artist for Dreamers' cover. Not only have I seen her primary sketches because she's an absolute hero (and perhaps also one of the only people I know who's at much of a workaholic as I am) I've actually seen her 50% progress update on the cover a whole month earlier than planned. Friends. When I tell you that the cover is STUNNING I'm honestly not even close to doing it justice. It's truly more than I could ever dreamed of, or hoped for while somehow looking exactly like I always saw it in my mind's eye? Sitting on it and waiting until March for the cover reveal is going to be so, so, so difficult. The only thing getting me through will probably be the fact that my lovely artist has already agreed to do my next cover (more on this later!) so I'll get to see her work her magic all over again!
• On the topic of covers I have a super fun opportunity coming up. December-January I'll be running a monthly contest where newsletter readers can guess which of three different images or design features will be appearing in Dreamers' front cover. The person with the most correct guesses over the three months will win the first early physical ARC of Dreamers and the opportunity to read it three months before anyone else! I'll remind you all again that this is happening before the first round of the contest, but given how busy things can get towards the end of the year I thought it would help to give as much warning as possible!
• Last month I ALSO told you I was neck deep in revisions for Dreamers. This is still the case! I can't wait for next year where I can tell you all about the changes I've made to the book/the reasons behind it but right now I'm mostly just feeling very proud of myself for the sheer ammount of work I've gotten done. I've just reached the end of a block of revisions and am taking a few days off before starting another chunk in November. This next phase is probably going to take the longest but it's also not only my favourite part of the book but the last major area of changes - leaving me one final and much easier phase to complete in December before the work is done for a while.
• In September I mentioned that I had finally caved and joined Tiktok. While I'm still far from in the swing of posting there regularly I'm finally actually using that account! I mention this mostly as I've made the decision, in the wake of the latest round of disastrous changes and mass exoduses (exodii?) to take place on the app formerly known as Twitter, to make my account on there Updates Only. Twitter is where I met 90% of my dearest writing friends and author colleagues and leaving feels like a real wrench. It also feels like a huge wrench considering how much of my most succesful marketing has happened on that App. If you're reading this and you came over from Twitter did you know I have an instagram (where I post daily - it's a lot but my god it works) with the handle clareyrobwrites17? If you're not over there what is the best way to keep in touch with you? I'll do anything except use Threads more regularly, which honestly is just filled with so many bad takes every time I check it that I need a lie down.
• And finally; more of an emotional update. Something I've shared on social media is that 2024 really hasn't been my year. Members of my wider family have been dealing with some really major and scary health issues, I had a big change in my personal life, and I took the decision to leave graduate school not long before I would have gained my final qualifications to practice as a licensed therapist, something I had been dreaming of for years. The combined stress of all of this, while also trying to parent my son, be a loving and supportive partner to Robin, a good friend and move house made me physically very unwell, as well as extremely sad and anxious. It's sucked, guys! But I've been starting to see real progress in my mood over the last few momths, largely because of working on Dreamers again and getting to share it with my community. I just wanted to acknowledge that here; not least because I'm so thankful for the outlet this newsletter offers. It's only been a few months but the way I look forward to writing these monthly updates can only have helped me in my healing process.

MONTHLY INSPIRATIONS

Books: It feels odd to write this from the midst of ANOTHER reading slump (and it was all going so well!) but there was a while this month where things really looked like they were looking up reading wise! I devoured Maggie O'Farrell's 'I Am, I Am, I Am' - I find narrative non fiction endlessly inspiring and the vivid and yet composed, meditative style of O'Farrell's prose here is something I really have tried to bring into my work this month. I'm currently working my way through Allison Saft's 'A Dark and Drowning Tide' which is truly gorgeous and extremely inspiring in terms of its rich, rich worldbuilding and character work - and yet I'm just so exhausted half the time, I'm really not doing it justice. If I manage to get through it I'm hoping to do a bit better in November; I would like to finally read the copy of 'Faebound' I bought over the summer, as well as Kate Young's debut 'Experienced' which I just picked up from my beloved Edinburgh bookshop.

Music: i'm sort of shocking myself by still having 'The Tortured Poet's Department' on repeat! I really wasn't sure what to make of it when it first came out but I'm finding I've basically stopped listening to most of the rest of good old T Swizzle's songs (although I'll be real with you; we're having a really big mirrorball moment this week, your girl truly has never been a natural and truly DOES try, try, try) in favour of the TTPD tracks. The Manuscript, in particular, is just such a great fit for my work, 'and at last/she knew what the agony had been for' is the kind of lyric that not only sums up my emotional state this Autumn but which really is the crux of every emotional journey I ever want to write, tbh.

Misc: Stardew Valley is keeping me sane at the moment. I have nothing intelligent to say about it. I just would have definitely had way more meltdowns were it not for my tiny screen and my lovely pixel farmer (am currently on a new save called 'Carrot Farm' in honour of the new kitten. Am strongly considering marrying Leah but I've told myself I can't make any big choices until I've gotten all of my potential romances up to full hearts). I listen to the incredible Worlds Beyond Number podcast while I play and it's genuinely both the most relaxing and creative well-refilling experience possible. I imagine next month's update will be more of the same tbh, unless I finally make good my threat to play Dragon Age for the first time.

BONUS CONTENT

Every month I try really hard to make being subscribed to the newsletter feel like a genuinely exclusive experience. This month I'm going to be giving you a closer look at what comes AFTER Dreamers, now that I've nailed down my publication schedule for the next couple of years. Take a look and get hyped, tbh! I love Dreamers so much but I also love both of these books and am so grateful for the creative freedom I have because of the publication choices I've made; it truly feels like a privilege to be able to have this much choice over what you'll see next from me and be able to put out the kind of books that I'm planning on.

The Witches Of Heene Tallow

Announcement Date: November 2025

Release Date: 1st November 2026

Genre: Romantasy with a side of cozy horror

Comp Titles: Howl's Moving Castle x Once Upon A Broken Heart x Strange Horticulture

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, There's Only One Bed, Resisting The Call, He Falls First

Misc: This is genuinely my favourite book I've ever written! It's truly delicious - our main character has Francesca from Bridgerton (the tv show, not the books, sorry!) vibes, the romance is extremely Loganica inspired (iykyk), it's a love letter to the book that ever made me want to be an author, to cozy horror and to high femme, 'girly', vapid and vain but still strong as hell female characters (think Cordelia Chase and Lydia Martin, the two queens of my heart).

Flower Princess WIP (Cannot stress enough this will not be the real title I just haven't found one I like yet and for some reason this one really cracks me up)

Announcement Date: December 2026

Release Date: December 2027 (God that feels a long way away!)

Genre: Romantasy

Comp Titles: Lord of The Rings, Arthur High King of Britain

Tropes: The Unchosen One, The Quest, Rivals to Lovers, There's Only One Bed (I have a problem), Seelie/Unseelie Courts

Misc: It took literally two seconds of talking about this book with my dear friends Amy Clarkin and Charlotte Hayward for me to realise I not only HAD to write it but I had to publish it. It's a true letter to the high fantasy novels we grew up on, the female characters we love and the journeys we want to see characters go on more and more. I'm so grateful to them both for being such smart and supportive sounding boards for my work and I really hope I make them proud with this one.

And to finish...

I'm going to need your help.

Over the next few months I'm going to be asking you guys some questions. Some of these will be about my upcoming pre order campaigns and the incentives I'll be offering through them and others will be about a 2026 project of mine (not a book...or at least...not JUST a book). I'd be so grateful to you guys for any of your feedback through the google forms I'll be linking over the next little while. I want to make sure everything I do and offer around my written work is working as well as it possibly can for you guys, whose support gives me so much joy and motivation and it would mean a lot if you could take the time to give me feedback on these various things when we get to that point.

But for now, thank you so much, all of you! I can't wait to write to you again next month but for now, take care, be gentle and kind to yourselves and we'll speak soon!

Clarey

P.S - I have checked this newsletter over to make sure it's vaguely grammatically correct and readable - I am, however, SO TIRED. This is me right now, I won't lie to you. It's been what the kids call A BIT OF A WEEK. I am literally going to hit schedule then immediately fall asleep. I did my best!