Greetings from the Baltic

+ casting TAKE IT FROM THE TOP!

I’m currently sitting in an AirBNB in Sopot, Poland¹ with two day sea hair. I’m attempting to stick to my goal of 500 words a day but it’s pretty tricky when jet lagged children who are out of clean underwear are arguing for more string cheese and more stories and more Nintendo. They have sand in their swimsuits and we’re all wishing we could have Diet Coke with ice or better yet, air conditioning. I swear, when we get home I’m walking straight up to the AC and cranking it down to like 50 degrees.

I’ve traveled internationally multiple times with my kiddos. The reasons are twofold: the first and most obvious is that K is from Poland and most of us family is still there, so we go see them as often as we can. The second is that ever since I was a Samantha-Brown-obsessed seventh grader, I knew I wanted to travel as often as I could as an adult. I’m a firm believer in motherhood both shaping you and not cancelling out your dreams, so here I am, schlepping across the world with three children, a sleepy husband, and more suitcases than the SAS² airline attendant believed were allowed³.

When we tell people that we’re off across the ocean, we’re often met with wide eyes and a loose jaw. Really? people say. With all those kids? And I’ve found international travel⁴ with the kids to consist of two wildly different moods.

The first is: see? This isn’t that hard. These are times when it feels like we kinda-sorta have it together, like on this particular 8 hour flight from Chicago to Copenhagen when I told the kids an hour in “okay, we’re going to bed now!”, tucked them into their seats with their airport blankets, and watched them doze off in under five minutes. Or when we stumbled upon a hot dog stand that ended up being a famous hot dog stand, and took our dinner to a park that ended up being a famous park, and let our kids run around on a playground featuring a giant stone dragon. Magical moments that make me feel like I should ditch the book writing thing and become one of those family travel influencers.

The second is: I am going to die. These are times when at least two kids are crying, and possibly me. Times like when we’re hauling our bajillion bags off a crowded airplane with a screaming toddler, or like when we’re arguing with the Legoland ticket guy about how we’re aware our tickets won’t scan but it clearly says today’s date on them so can he please just let our children in before they wail, or like when it’s 11 PM in the hotel and we give up and let the kids just sleep on us so that we can maybe squeeze in six hours or so of shut-eye.

And it occurred to me that these feelings correlate very closely with writing. I’m currently awaiting edits on my 2025 middle grade novel and drafting my 2025 (…ish) adult novel, and while some days feel impossibly difficult, some days feel as if I’ve sailing along the River Hemingway. Some writing sessions fly by with 2000 words written, some consist of 200 jumbled words that sound like Anthony Doerr fan fiction. As much as I wish I could be one of those Author Girlies on Instagram who constantly shares their aesthetically pleasing desk and Boston Cream cold brew, the truth is that writing occasionally (…often) looks like me staring at a laptop, bleary eyed, and willing my words to not totally suck.

But I’ve learned with traveling—and with writing—to just hang in there. Keep going. If you have to hand the kids a tablet (or work a few nights to make up for a few writing-garbage days), nobody will die. There are going to be some very, very low moments but when you look back on it, those aren’t going to be the emphasized highlight. They’re going to be little silly side stories you tell as an accompaniment to a much larger tale: you made something.

And the views were worth it.

Casting Take It From the Top

If you’ve been around this newsletter for six seconds, you know that I love a good casting take. I’m a super visual writer + reader, so I tend to have incredibly clear images of my characters in my head. That being said, I loathe when an author shares a casting that’s completely different than I had imagined⁵—so feel free to skip ahead!

Eowyn Becker. Age: 13. Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff, through and through. Eowyn has an exceptional singing voice and an even-more-exceptional case of stage fright. Her mom died when she was little, but she doesn’t want to talk about that. Jules doesn’t want to be her friend anymore, but she really doesn’t want to talk about that either. Her brother has become a ridiculously famous celebrity after dating a certain popstar (#TheNickEra) but she really doesn’t want to talk about that, either.

Jules Marrigan. Age: 13. Has too many sisters and not enough money so she’s on scholarship, but whatever—it’s fine. Mostly. She’s been working on her singing all year and knows that this is her year to finally get a lead role in the camp show. Eowyn used to be her best friend: emphasis on used to be. Enjoys theater references, nail art, and daydreaming about her future as a Broadway actress.

Eva Mizrahi. Age: 25. Opinions: many. The director of this summer’s MainStage show doesn’t take any of your crap. Look, it’s her job to turn these kids into stars. Is she secretly a cinnamon roll on the inside? You’ll never know.

Nick Becker. Age: 22. Most famous graduate of Lamplighter Lake Camp for the Arts due to his starring role in Vanish, a musical about Harry Houdini (and, fine! For dating a certain Very Famous Popstar! It was three dates and not his fault at all that those photos were plastered on the internet!) He’s got the Supportive Big Brother thing on lock, but knows that it isn’t always easy on Eowyn having a brother like him.

Dr. John Becker. Age: 49. Occupation: Fancy Pants Pulmonologist, because as he and Eowyn joke, people gotta breathe. He’s a widow, a COPD specialist, and a pretty great dad. Has he been to any of Eowyn’s shows the next few years? Well, no—as Nick’s manager, he’s pretty busy. Does he ever like to talk about Eowyn’s mom? Well, no—he’s got enough going on, with two talented children and a hospital full of patients. Does he ever make it to Parents Night at camp? Well, no—but he’s trying his best, ok?!

If you’re excited to meet the TAKE IT FROM THE TOP gang, the very best way you can help celebrate is to preorder the book wherever books are sold. It releases 11/19 and truly helps so much. If you’re a book reviewer or bookstagrammer or bookToker or if you send out bookish messenger pigeons, and you got your hands on a digital advance copy (no physical advance copies for this one, apologies!) please consider leaving a review on GoodReads!

And lastly, a book I’ve loved lately for…

Kids: We’re currently traveling and at the last minute, I threw the Frog and Toad treasury by Arnold Lobel in our suitcase. I’m so grateful I did. All three littles (ages 8, 6 and 3) find Frog + Toad’s escapades hilarious and they’re nice and short, but the treasury is perfect for travel since we can read a new one each day.

Middle graders: The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day isn’t just one of the best middle grade books I’ve read lately, it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. Possibly ever. It’s the hilarious, smart, fascinating story about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre just before World War 1⁶. If you have a middle grader who enjoys history, I can’t recommend it enough—it almost reads like a Lemony Snicket book (the illustrator is the same as Series of Unfortunate Events, too!) and any kids who turn their nose up at nonfiction will be way more open to it after this read.

Adults: I brought an absurd amount of books on this trip but my favorite so far has been I Feel Bad About My Neck, a collection of essays by Nora Ephron. I could almost get weepy when I talk about just how much Nora’s films have meant to me in my life, so reading this essay collection is like sipping coffee in a giant sweater with a sweet, sassy friend.

Thanks for reading along!

-Claire-

1. We have very observant neighbors, if you know where we live and are thinking of robbing us! Someone got the cops called on them in our neighborhood for driving a golf cart!!!

2. Don’t fly SAS. That’s all I have to say.

3. …until I pulled up the weight requirements on my phone and Karen’d two different managers. Okay, THAT’S all I have to say.

4. And let me just reiterate that as adventurous as, like, Denmark sounds, it’s still very Western. The real Gryffindors are the ones hauling their kids to cultures without metro systems or coffee shops with English speaking baristas.

5. Also, I HATE when you form a mental picture and then like three chapters in the author describes a character’s “bushy red hair” or “blonde pixie cut”. That’s why I try to describe my characters visually the first couple of times you meet them.

6. Random tangent: I’m juuuust obnoxious enough to have a “favorite Parisian tour guide” and last time I was in Paris this tour guide gave me + my parents a tour of the Louvre, explaining to us his disdain for Mona Lisa. “There’s nothing special about her except that she got stolen,” he muttered, whisking us past the hundreds of tourists with their selfie sticks. It was the perfect Parisian moment: a grump, some famous art, and a bunch of tourists. I loved it so.