Surprise: I'm going to be a published author!
Super secret surprise bonus newsletter—for a good reason!
Hi, friend!!!
I know I said you’d be getting newsletters every 15th of the month, but I have a good reason for dropping another newsletter into your inbox. I have exciting news: PRODIGAL TIGER, my debut YA Malaysian contemporary fantasy, is debuting in FALL 2025!
There are a lot of feelings bumping up against the corners of my brain right now, but I’m mostly feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. 2023 was a year to remember, between beginning the querying process and ending with a book deal (if you’re interested, I can tell you the story some other time—HUGE rollercoaster), and I am 100% keenly aware that none of it would have been possible without three things: hard work, luck, and friendship/community.
Hard work is hard work. Can’t get around that. Writing this book was an exercise in time and effort and patience. And I was lucky in a lot of aspects: one spontaneous decision led to a whole domino effect of requests, which led to a whole lot of disappointing ‘no’s, which ultimately led to one ‘yes’. And while you can’t game luck, it’s still intertwined with hard work. My friend Annie told me once: You have to work hard, so that when the rare lightning strikes, you’re ready to take advantage of it.
Annie is very wise. Much wiser than I am.
The third thing, friendship and community—that’s the variable that I found myself really leaning on and building out in 2023. Writing, I’ve always known, can be a lonely journey, and the querying/submission process is equally isolating. For many months, I sat in my room/bookstore/library/Hobbit hole staring at a screen, and there were some days where it all felt so quiet and lonely.
There were many points in 2023 where I felt like it was all going to pieces. If you’ll allow me the privilege of vulnerability, I cried a lot last year, much more than my government quota* allowed me to. Fellow artists, back me up here: it sure is something, putting your heart into something and handing it to someone, only for them to very gently say, “It’s very pretty but it’s not for me, thanks.” (I totally understand why it happens and have never held it against anyone, but it still stings!) I cried in so many places, I should have tracked it on a map: In Vietnam! In New York! On the subway! On Discord! In front of my window, scaring my next-door neighbor who unbeknownst to me until later, just wanted to enjoy a cup of tea by their own window! (I’m very sorry, neighbor!)
But I have the advantage of hindsight, so looking back now, I see all the times those tears were met with warmth and friendship. Querying and submission would have been so much worse without the friends I made: other prospective authors, agented authors, published authors, seasoned authors, people who weren’t even authors but were the kindest humans alive—you name it, I met them. They offered advice, soothed, encouraged, offered me hard truths, and shared their own experiences.
Writing, I have learned, can be an isolating process, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s infinitely more fun, and easier, with other people to bounce ideas off of, people who you can build trust with, people who will sit with you when you’re in the valleys and cheer when you reach your peaks. And it’s so much more fun when you get to do it for others, too.
This is really what I want to say: Today’s newsletter started with an announcement about my book, but it’s never been a solitary effort. I owe a great deal to the friends who read drafts, edited queries, rubber ducked a problem with me, keyboard smashed their excitement, or checked in on me and the process. More to the point: I owe a great deal to people who were willing to share something of themselves—time, expertise, love—to offer me support via the knowledge they’d gleaned. If you are reading this, chances are you are one of those people. Thank you, so so so so much.
Alright. That’s the bonus newsletter! Now we get to embark on a new chapter of this journey together. I’m very grateful to have you all here with me as I tiptoe onto this new path—and I am so excited to see where we’ll go together. See you on March 15th for the next newsletter, and stay tuned for more info on what comes next for this little book! I am going to go travel back in time and grab little Sam and tell her: KID YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW YOUR DREAM IS COMING TRUE.
Best,
Sam
ahhhhhh congratulations!!! so excited for this! 🥳🥳🥳