Clare Edge is an author (and witch) who was raised in the Rocky Mountains. Her books include Accidental Demons, Mixing Magics, and Natural Selection. She has too many degrees, too few cats, and often too much or too little blood sugar. She holds masters degrees from University of Limerick (MA) and University of Montana (MFA). Clare can be found on most socials as @clarewonders and online at clareedge.com.
We spoke to Clare about diabetes representation in media, advice for authors writing about diabetes and practicing healthy boundaries as an author.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Firstly, what got you into writing for middle grade audiences? Do you have advice for writers that want to appeal to middle grade audiences?
I sort of tripped and fell into writing middle grade! Accidental Demons was the second novel I’d ever written, and from the moment I started writing, the protagonist Ber was thirteen. There was no question in my mind. So that’s what made the story middle grade, it was sort of just a happy accident (thematically appropriate! ha!)
I think my best writing advice for middle grade is to not think too much about it being middle grade. Yes, the sentence structure and vocabulary needs to stay age appropriate, but middle grade readers also like to be stretched and absolutely despise being talked down to. I think writing middle grade also requires a particular kind of creative honesty. There’s not much to hide behind.
Your protagonist, Bernadette, is a young witch with diabetes. Since blood can be used to summon demons, she accidentally starts summoning demons when she tests her blood sugar. That is such a clever play on the blood magic trope, so I have to ask how you came up with that idea.
Thank you so much! I’m really so proud of the idea and it came from … a joke! I was reading Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and early in the book there’s a mention of blood magic being too powerful and I had a fleeting laugh at that, wondering what a diabetic witch would do in that scenario. And then I posted a poll on Instagram with a book idea about a diabetic witch who can’t stop conjuring “creepy ass spirits” when she tests her blood sugar and asked if people would read it. Twelve percent said NO! Which meant I had to write it. Spite is a powerful motivator and I’m a contrarian. But also, the idea just wouldn’t let me go. I wrote the first draft in under six weeks, and got my agent about six months later!
In terms of diabetes representation in media (movies, TV shows, and books), do you have recommendations?
Unfortunately, very few. There just aren’t many diabetics writing from lived experience getting published. But I highly recommend the excellent YA horror The Girls are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh and the forthcoming adult romantasy by Melody Robinette, These Vile Hearts. Emily Charlotte’s upcoming YA hockey romance Heart Check also has a supporting character with diabetes! And if you’re into graphic novels, Sarah Winifred Searle’s The Sweetness Between Us is a very clever vampire x diabetic romance.
That said, I do have some recommendations for people including diabetic characters in their stories.
My biggest recommendation is: ask a diabetic. No, we aren’t a monolith, we have extremely varied experiences, opinions, and styles of managing our diabetes. But if you don’t know someone with diabetes well enough to ask them a few questions, maybe reconsider whether you should be writing the rep.
Outside of that litmus test, please at least have a basic understanding of how insulin works and how dangerous it is. I really can’t count the number of times I see insulin used incorrectly in books and other media. It LOWERS blood sugar! So if someone’s blood sugar is already low and you give them insulin, that would be attempted murder, not a dramatic and valiant rescue.
But ultimately, I have very little interest in being an authority on diabetes representation. (I say after voluntarily giving advice!) I’d love to see a ton more of it, but I’d like it to first and foremost be coming from diabetic authors. There are so many of us! But a lot of us have had our books with diabetes representation die on submission or in the query trenches because publishing is most used to seeing a diabetic on page if their insulin is going to be used to murder someone or if they are going to die tragically for the main character’s story.
The rep I’d most like to see from non-diabetic authors would be diabetics casually existing and being hot in books. Chatham Greenfield has an amazing diabetic character in Time and Time Again that they asked me a few questions about pre-publication. More hot diabetics being hot and not dying tragically, please!
It looks like you have a lot more coming out! A sequel to “Accidental Demons” this November, a YA thriller in summer 2026, and possibly adult books? Can you share what you’re most excited for in these upcoming titles?
YES! So many more Clare Edge books hitting the shelves in the next few years and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The sequel to Accidental Demons is titled Mixing Magics and publishes November 11, 2025. I’m so excited for readers to get to go on more adventures with Ber and the sequel serves as the conclusion to the story.
Most of my titles for the next few years will be for older readers. Natural Selection is a speculative young adult thriller about three girls who are all named Meg(h)an who bond in unsettling ways when a grizzly starts picking off abusive men in their tiny rural town. I truly can’t wait for readers to dive into this dark and twisty story. And I love that whenever I tell people about it they say something along the lines of “oh! Like the whole ‘I choose the bear thing!’” YES! Exactly! Though I had the idea for the book before that, if you can believe it. Alas, I think we all want to choose the bear even more now than ever. So I’m looking forward to the catharsis readers hopefully find in that book.
Beyond Natural Selection, I have other YA thrillers in the works and more that I can’t talk about publicly, yet! But adult books are on the not-so-distant horizon.
How do you practice self-care and boundaries when writing about topics that are personal?
This is such an amazing question and I wish I had a better answer, but so far it has been a lot of trial and error. I’ve found people are very curious about my diabetes and how I handle it when they learn about the book. Which is great! It’s exciting to find out someone has a shared lived experience as you and as diabetics we often talk about our pumps and CGMs and such pretty casually. But I’ve found that as far as promoting a book, that sometimes means I don’t get asked about other things that are of far more interest to me. So part of my self-care is writing some books without diabetes rep. My YA and adult debuts don’t have diabetes rep in them. I will write diabetic characters again (maybe I already am…), but for me, taking a break from writing that particular rep has allowed me to think less about something that consumes SO much of my mind all the time.
I’m also trying to learn from disabled author friends who are further along in this process than I am. It’s okay to not answer a question. It’s okay to ask for accommodations. It’s okay to miss a deadline (or on the flip side, turn in something early because you know a bad week is coming).
The biggest piece of “advice” I have for fellow disabled authors is to try to release the shame about your own capacity or lack thereof. You don’t have the same hours in the day an able-bodied writer might have. The acceptance of that and real honesty with myself about my capacity opened me up a lot more than when I was judging myself for it. This is way easier said than done, and I’m not good at it, and it intersects in complicated ways with lack of accommodations and the demands of a very difficult industry. But I was being REAL hard on myself for a very long time, and starting to let that go has been a huge gift I’ve given myself.
Anything else you would like to add?
I was going to say “read disabled books all year!” But anyone reading this is already doing that. So, instead: thank you for reading and loving and sharing disabled books!
Also, please, if you are living in a disabled body, be kind to yourself now more than ever. It feels like the world (and especially the US) is doubling down on dismissal of disabled existence and dignity. Our lives have value. Our art has value. We are an essential part of this collective story. Please remember how worthy you are of a full, vibrant life.
