NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT!

📚!

Friends,

Pardon me for hopping in your digital living room an extra time this month, but I can finally announce something exciting I’ve been sitting on for a while.

I am so excited to let y’know that my next novel for adults, LIKE A MOTHER, releases fall 2025.

I have so much to say about this story, but let me start with this.

After Funeral Ladies, I submitted an idea to my editor for my next book. HarperCollins owns my “options”, meaning that they get a first look at any books I want to publish. (QuillTree, William Morrow, and Avon, all of which I’m published under, are all under the umbrella of HarperCollins.) So I excitedly sent an idea over to my adult editor and…

…got the ole de-ny.

It stung. But here’s the thing: it didn’t sting that badly. In fact, pretty quickly I was like, eh, I’m kind of glad I don’t have to go write that book. That was a FLAMING RED HOT FLAG that I shouldn’t take the idea out to other editors but instead, hop on the phone with my previous editor (who I adore) to find out what she liked vs. didn’t like about the idea. During that phone call, we somehow got off on a tangent about our mutual love for Netflix documentaries on cults. We also started talking about how we’d both obsessively followed the case of Ruby Franke, the momfluencer who’s now in prison for abuse. From there, we started going off about parenting pressure from in-laws, tradwives, gentle parenting, helicopter parenting…and on, and on, and on.

“If you change your mind and suddenly want to pitch me a book tomorrow about lobsters, no pressure,” she said. “But…this sounds really interesting to me. Something in here is a book.”

And from there…Cass Simon appeared in my head, sitting out on a dock with her pregnant sister-in-law, wondering how the hell she wound up back in Port Holcomb, Wisconsin.

I can’t wait to share more with you about this book. Thank you so much for being along for the journey. You want the cold, hard truth about why I was able to get a deal for Like a Mother? Because so many of you bought The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County in Meijer. You are a *ginormous* reason I’m here, and I do not forget that.

Happy reading this summer. May your margaritas be spicy and your hammock be swingy. More soon. ❤️

Best,

Claire

PS: If you’re local, I have some library events coming up—including one Thursday! I’ll be at Pauline Haass Library in Sussex, WI at 6:30. The event is free but they’re asking people to register. Copies of The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County will be available for sale; I’m also happy to sign any that you bring.