Overview

A sharply observed YA novel about friendship, family, and self-discovery, amid a backdrop of a Filipino debut. Lucia Cruz may be turning eighteen this year, but she is not the debutante type. Everything about a traditional Filipino debut feels all wrong for her. Besides, custom dictates that eighteen friends attend her for a special ceremony on her birthday, and Lucia only has one friend--Esmé Mares. They've stuck to each other's side all throughout high school, content to be friends with only each other. At least, Lucia thought they were content. As it turns out, Esmé wants something different out of her senior year. And, on top of that, Lucia's mom has planned a debutante ball for her birthday behind her back. She'll be forced to cobble together a court of eighteen ""friends"" before her beloved lola arrives from the Philippines for this blessed occasion. How far will Lucia stray from her comfort zone in order to play the role of dutiful daughter and granddaughter? Will she do the unthinkable--participating in a school sponsored activity? Will she discover that her sense of humor can be a way to connect with people, not just push them away?

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Shannon C.F. Rogers is a multiracial American writer of Filipinx and European descent. Her debut novel, I'd Rather Burn than Bloom, won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Youth Literature in 2024. She is also the author of Eighteen Roses. Shannon's writing has appeared in Bodega magazine, Newfound Journal, and on stage with Tricklock Company, Lady Luck Productions, and the UNM Festival of New Plays. She earned her BA in creative writing from the University of New Mexico and her MFA in writing for young people at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has served school communities in Albuquerque, Chicago, and New York City, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Jensen Olaya was born in Bataan, Philippines. The city is known for the Bataan Death March during WWII, but she knows it as the land of lush rice fields and friendly people. Her family emigrated when she was four, during much political upheaval. Corazon Aquino, the first female president of the Philippines, was dealing with a divided country after the twenty-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. It was a significant moment for a young girl to witness, but fortunately, her dad's military service took them out of the turmoil. As a US military brat Jensen's lived in Bataan, Yokohama, San Diego, and New York. She will never forget the smell of jet fuel, walking along the tarmac as a kid, next to fighter planes parked on top of the USS Midway. Fun fact: Jensen grew up in the same military base and went to the same high school that Mark Hamill did in Japan. To this day, her dream role is to command a fleet of rebel intergalactic space rangers, like an unlikely hero version of a Top Gun Maverick, in a galaxy far away. Jensen studied classical singing (she's a Mezzo) and world theater at San Diego State University. Her early twenties were pivotal; her mom lost her decade-long battle with cancer right after Jensen graduated. In Jensen's last semester, she was shuffling between performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, shuttling her mom to her doctor's appointments, and managing her medications. During this chapter, acting was the only thing Jensen had to preserve her spirit. And that's when she decided to go all in. If she had to live in a world without her mother, then she would live with the tenacity to fill her life with purpose. In 2009, she sought out a scholarship to attend Columbia University's MFA in acting program and moved to NYC. She has been a proud New York actor ever since. As a stage-trained actor, Jensen is at home working in theater as well as commercials, animated TV, and voice-over more broadly. She is proud to be helping redefine Asian American representation for audiences across young adult, sci-fi, self-development, women's fiction, and children's content. Over the last twenty years, she's played a range of characters, from sprightly and sassy to androgynous and mythical, to clumsy and badass. As a mother of two children, she's focused on narratives that prioritize racial and gender equality, antiracism, inclusivity, parent-child relationships, and finding the magic in the everyday. Projects elevating Asian American politics and showcasing the nuances of Asian family dramas are also important to her. When not acting, Jensen is teaching her kids Tagalog, and about their mixed Filipino, Swedish, Scottish, and American heritage.

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