Clara Marie

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Canada
Hamilton, ON
Clara Marie

Author & podcast host. Former foster kid. I write and speak about life during and after care, rooted in lived experience.

05/14/2026

Today is Children and Youth in Care Day here in Ontario, which means both of my ebooks are free on Amazon today and tomorrow !

I’ve made this a yearly tradition because growing up in foster care can feel incredibly isolating sometimes, especially when you carry experiences, grief, survival skills, or questions that are hard to explain to people who haven’t lived it. A huge part of why I started writing so openly was because I never wanted people to feel as alone in those things as I once did.

These books aren't polished “everything turned out perfect” stories. They’re honest, raw, funny, complicated, hopeful, painful, healing, chaotic, and human. Kind of like life honestly.

I think a lot of former foster kids are out here quietly building lives from scratch, figuring things out as we go, and celebrating little wins that other people might not even realize are huge to us.

If you do end up reading them, reviews genuinely help indie authors more than people probably realize ! 🤙🏻 Thank you!

And yes, you can just download the free Kindle app on your phone if you don’t have a Kindle device.

Stay Frosty Friends!

Clara aka Ashley

05/12/2026

I think one of the biggest reasons I started writing so openly was because growing up, I spent a lot of time feeling like I was the only person experiencing certain thoughts, feelings, grief, fears, and contradictions.

Turns out a whole lot of humans are quietly carrying things they don’t always have words for.

If my books have done anything, I hope it’s helped people feel a little more understood, a little less isolated, and maybe even a little less weird for being human.

Also yes, both books are available on Amazon or locally through me if you’re more of a support-local-book-human kind of person!

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms, stepmoms, foster moms, adoptive moms, grandmas, MILs, and the people out there loving kids hard through the chaos, the overstimulation, the exhaustion, the sports practices, the endless snack requests, and the full blown holy-hot-tamale energy that comes with raising tiny humans.

Mother’s Day can also be a really complicated day depending on your story. Some people celebrate it. Some people survive it. Some people somehow feel both at the exact same time and probably need a nap by noon.

If you’re like me and grew up without a real mother/daughter relationship but always wished you had one anyway, those hugs are doubled today. There’s a specific kind of grief that comes with never really experiencing your own mother in the way you needed to, and I think some of us quietly carry that for a lifetime. It's a craving that doesn't disappear.

At the same time, I also know how unbelievably lucky I am to be a mama to my pretty rad kid for so many reasons, some I don’t even fully talk about on here. I can genuinely say I’m living my dream every single day because of him.

And a huge shoutout to my amazing MILs for showing me a version of motherhood and family that I honestly didn’t grow up believing really existed. You ladies are the real deal.

05/04/2026

Got my Around the Bay 5K medal today. Totally not flexing lol. The race was last month but they ran out of medals at the race, so it showed up late. Which honestly feels on brand.

Did it with a few of my Trailblazers from UO, which made it even better.

This one was a big deal for me. I’ve always been super active, running, hiking, working out, all of it, and then a few years ago my endo flares hit hard and everything just stopped real quick.

I've gained about 80lbs in the last few years even though my diet stayed pretty clean, but I couldn’t do the things I was used to doing anymore, which was not ideal lol. Also cortisol while dealing with CPTSD episodes/stress and having pcos was not a good combo 🤣🤣.

I’ve done quite a few marathon events in my lifetime, so finally doing Around the Bay feels like a bit of a game changer. A very proud moment tbh.

I’m nowhere near where I was, not even close, but the last 6 months I’ve been slowly getting back into it and becoming that consistently annoying active person again.

This race felt like one of those okay we might actually be getting somewhere moments. Lol. Woohoo!

Next year I’m aiming to actually run the full 5K, and then hopefully work my way up to the 10K race. Kind of wild to think I used to run 15K daily back in my 20s ahahaha. Again totally not flexing!

Up next, the yearly Mud Girl Run. I volunteer every year so I can run for free at the end because I’m frugal like that hahaha.

🤙🏻Party on, Wayne!

05/02/2026

It’s Foster Care Month, and this felt like the place to start.

I’ve seen what it looks like when people show up for kids in care, and I’ve seen what happens when they don’t.

It’s very different.

🤙🏻Party on, Wayne!

04/29/2026

It absolutely sucks to realize we have to give up on somebody loving us who we REALLY want to love us— who might even be "supposed" to love us, given their relationship to us— but who just...doesn't.

Getting past the "denial," "anger," & "bargaining" phases can be a b*tch.

04/22/2026

Reviews really do matter (for authors & businesses in general). They’re a big part of how books, etc get seen, shared, and found by people who might actually need them.

The whole PR side of things has never really been my strong suit lol clearly.

So if you’ve read my books and have a minute, I’d appreciate you heading over to Goodreads and/or Amazon and dropping a review.

And seriously, thank you for reading them in the first place and being here with me.

Party on, Wayne 🤘

Address

Hamilton, ON
L0R, L8E TO L8W, L9A TO L9C, L9G TO L9H, L9K

Website

https://linktr.ee/claramariewrites

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