Granted, the past two weeks as a debut have been tough, I won't mince words.

Three years of my life, one book, a difficult climate to debut in, to say the least.

But during this tumultuous time, I've had veritable author angels who, unasked, offered to help spread the word about this promo, or have organically tweeted about this book.

Aside from the magnificent authors who blurbed for my book (and seriously, thank you again on this blog), I've had Jodi Picoult tweet about my book, Chuck Wendig host me on his blog/newsletter, fellow Malaysians Yangsze Choo and Hanna Alkaf tweet about my book, and David Nicholls offer to tweet about me this week.

And reviewers who loved the book tag me on IG. It is especially heartwarming when they are from a similar cultural background and they tell me they feel seen.

Seen.

As BIPOC author who grew up mostly in Asia, who'd faced othering and racial discrimination in my own birth country, I understand the importance that fiction plays in humanizing a marginalized group. I understand the need to be seen. Seeing comments like that make my day.

Reader I want you to be seen, and I will commit to providing a platform for our voice, our #ownvoices, to be heard.

I thank you for reading this book, and for supporting my debut journey.