CL Montblanc: Community Is a Crucial Part of Being a Writer

CL Montblanc is a writer, producer, and escape room enthusiast. Despite hailing from Texas, CL is intimidated by both horses and very large hats. If you have any leads on where to acquire buried treasure, or a decent bagel, you can find CL on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

In this interview, CL discusses writing for angry, goofy, and hopeful teens with their debut YA novel, Pride or Die, their advice for other writers, and more.

Name: CL Montblanc
Literary agent: Natalie Lakosil
Book title: Pride or Die
Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan)
Release date: April 15, 2025
Genre/category: Young Adult Mystery
Elevator pitch: In this delightful dark comedy debut, when the members of an LGBTQ+ club find themselves accidentally framed for attempted murder, it's up to them to clear their names before it's too late.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

The world can be isolating—especially when you’re young, and especially when you’re marginalized—so I mainly wanted readers to feel “seen” on the page and know that they’re not alone. I myself grew up quite lonely, which was not helped by how scarcely I related to the media available to me. Since I was (am) angry, goofy, and hopeful all at once, I decided to write a coming-of-age story for teens who are those things as well.

The idea for Pride or Die came in September 2021. I found my agent about a year later, sold the book five months after that, and then two more years before publication. So, three and a half years in total!

A lot changed along the way; at first, the book was completely lighthearted. Nothing bad happened to any of the characters, really, and the stakes were low, because I had intended to write something that was purely fun and silly. Unfortunately, it turned out that I actually had to adhere to genre conventions and couldn’t get away with “no plot, just goofs,” which led to major edits including chopped characters and a change of culprit. There was also the fact that a huge wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation crashed in during my revisions. Things have been dark for queer people lately, particularly for children in the south, and it felt remiss not to reflect more of that in the book as I went.

I’ve learned that it’s a unique challenge to position a genre blend (mystery-comedy in this case), especially when it comes to books. Some markers that you have with other media are missing—for instance, movies have trailers, which give you a detailed preview of what to expect going in. Covers are likely the best shot at conveying genre for readers, so it’s been interesting to see what the team did with mine: There’s scary, thrilling imagery, but it’s also pink and adorably bright. You can definitely find traits from both parents in there.

Surprises were actually an important part of my process! My outline was pretty sparse because I wanted to get to know the characters while writing the book and let them dictate where the story went to some extent. My characters don’t follow the rules, so why should my rules be the exception? That’s a silly way of putting it, but I do find that character-driven stories work more organically that way for me.

While I cover some important themes and topics in Pride or Die, the primary goal was always just to make a fun book for teens. As I mentioned, I hope some readers feel “seen” by the book, and I’ll be stoked if it makes any other kind of positive impact on people, but if I can even just entertain y’all for a couple of hours that’ll be sweet.

It’s OK if you struggle with things like networking, asking for help, and promoting yourself. I do, too. But still, it’s important to at least put yourself out there enough to find your people. Community is such a crucial part of being a writer. Finding others whose work you genuinely vibe with is so valuable, and I promise you, those people will probably end up being the best part of this entire experience.