Hello, fellow readers!

You might be wondering: “Claris, why are you sending this through Buttondown? Didn’t you switch to using Kit.com to send emails to us late last year?”

I switched to Kit back in November 2025. However, I had one HUGE issue: Most of my emails sent to you through Kit were ending up in Spam instead of directly to your inboxes! 😱

I tried fixing ALL of the common issues with this problem during the rest of last year, but nothing worked. I have switched back to using Buttondown for now.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience that this issue caused. I hope my emails now show up more often - especially since I have two new books releasing this year!

For those of you that previously subscribed to me through Kit.com, you’ve been moved here! I hope you stick around for the journey, and thank you for your patience!

What Am I Writing Recently?

If you missed the posts on ​my website​ or ​social media​ at the beginning of this month, you missed me announcing TWO new books being published this year! They are:

Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace

• What it is: My debut kidlit fantasy chapter book!

• Inspired by: Daisy Meadows' Rainbow Magic book series and Gwyneth Rees' Fairy Dust book series. (If either author is reading this, hi! 👋 Thanks for inspiring this book into existence.)

• Great for: Readers yearning for magic, friendship, and a bit of fairy dust in their kids' books.

• Publication date: February 23rd, 2026

• Cover illustrated by: Lora Elezovic (here's ​her Instagram!​)

Found

• What it is: A YA fantasy short story collection

• Inspired by: Grimm fairytales, and the games it gets so lonely here and the end of an obsession by ebi-hime (ebi-hime, if you're reading this by any chance: HI! 👋I love your work!)

• Great for: Fans of the two games I mentioned, lovers of reading fairytale retellings, and TV shows such as Once Upon A Time and Emerald City.

• Publication date: May 18th, 2026

• Cover illustrated by: Claris Lam (that's me!)

I look forward to sharing more about both books when the time comes, and I hope you enjoy reading them!

What Am I Writing Lately?✍️

The Secret Gardens We Grew Together

• Status: 100% written (Draft 3)

• Next steps: Draft 4 to begin either later this month or in February/March 2026, depending on how occupied I get with Sadie Rowe being published in February 2026.

I'm glad I got back into writing The Secret Gardens We Grew Together!💐 I just completed writing the third draft back on January 7th. The full book has expanded to 25 chapters in total (previously 23). I’m really proud of how this third draft expanded a bit on developing one of the side characters, Shadow. He’s got his own fun history with Lyle, one of our main three characters.

I sincerely hope that Draft 4 will end up being the final version. I am getting at that point in drafting where I want it to be perfect, but I also want to move onto writing other projects! 😭

Other writing-related things I did recently include:

• Prepared socials and other marketing for Sadie Rowe and Found

• Prepare Sadie Rowe for preorder in February (preorders will be available in early February!)

• Dropped submitting any works to lit mags or contests for 2026 (at least for a few months if not the whole year). More info on that in this Instagram post.

What Am I Reading Lately?

I read many books over the winter holidays, and most of them were nonfiction. I developed a deep appreciation for nonfiction last year, and it seems to continue into 2026 so far. I also read some fantasy novels, too!

Books I read include:

• Burn The Playbook by Joe Pulizzi

• Bottom Of The Pyramid by Nia Sioux

• Please Unsubscribe, Thanks! by Julio Vincent Gambuto

• Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (the novelization)

• Spy x Family, vols. 6-8 by Tatsuya Endo

Sales!

There are TWO sales that are currently ongoing.

One of them is The Best of 2025 Sale. You can get 27 books for $15 USD as part of this sale, which is pretty awesome. My poetry chapbook Refilling The Well is included in this bundle!

This specific sale ends TOMORROW (Jan. 14th, 2026). Get your bundle while you still can!

The other sale is Kobo’s Start A Series Sale!

My murder mystery book Winner Takes All is part of this ongoing sale along wiht many others. If you want to start reading a new series, check out my book and the other featured books on Kobo!

This sale ends on Jan. 21st, 2026.