We chat with author Clare Osongco about Unfinished Business, which is a funny, warmly chaotic novel and follows a floundering office worker who discovers her mother’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack server, and must free her by resolving her own troubled love life.
Hi, Clare! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hey there! I’m a mixed Filipino American author based in Los Angeles who likes to write about falling in love, messy family relationships, and ghosts—in other words, I like to write happy endings for haunted people.
My new novel, Unfinished Business, is about a lost young woman who takes a job at the megacorporation her late mother worked at for decades and realizes her mom’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack server—and the only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis is the guy who broke her heart ten years ago (who also happens to work at the same company). It’s perfect for fans of Ashley Poston and Kirsty Greenwood.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve wanted to be an author since I was four years old; my dad had just passed away, and someone told me he’d always wanted to be an author but never got the chance to. That’s what first put the idea in my mind, but it really stuck—writing stories quickly became my favorite thing, and stayed that way up through college.
Even though I loved it, I had a hard time getting all the way through writing a novel. I’d start projects but get too in my head, revise the beginning a million times, and not finish. After college, I put writing fiction aside for a while and built a career in something more stable, but during COVID lockdown in 2020, I was like “Shit, I’m going to die one day, I’d better do that thing I’ve always wanted to do!” And that’s when I finished the first draft of my first novel, Midnights With You, a young adult romance about two teens with generational trauma keeping them up at night who fall in love over a series of secret late-night driving lessons, which came out in 2024.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Ella Enchanted, definitely formative on the romance front!
- The one that made you want to become an author: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before made me want to try writing a novel again.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams—it’s so funny and layered and emotional, an all-timer that I’ll revisit again and again.
Your latest novel, Unfinished Business, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Chaotic haunted Slack workplace romance
What can readers expect?
Based on the last phone conversation they had before she passed away, Ruby becomes convinced that in order to resolve her mother’s unfinished business and free her from the company Slack, she needs to become a less disappointing daughter. She creates a list of ways she can live more like her mom would have wanted, from getting a promotion to dating someone in a higher tax bracket.
The only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis is her first love and estranged childhood best friend, Greg, who she’s barely spoken to in years. Ruby’s mom never approved of him growing up, but now as an adult, he’s working at the same company, and he comes running the moment Ruby reaches out for help. He’s helping her work down her list, and all the while, they’re getting closer. But item #5 on the list is “date someone in a higher tax bracket,” and the hot but vaguely sinister new junior executive at work—who’s the kind of guy Ruby’s mom always wanted her to date—has been paying her a lot of attention recently.
My favorite reviews have basically said that it’s a hilarious romp with unexpected depth, so I hope that’s what readers will find when they pick it up!
Where did the inspiration for Unfinished Business come from?
The idea came to me because: 1) I’m fascinated with ghosts, 2) I’ve been staring at Slack at my various jobs for at least a decade, and 3) I have chronic mommy issues.
I was actually writing some dialogue for my debut, Midnights With You, when one of the characters said there should be more stories about haunted computers—and I was like…wait, I should write that? So I took it out and filed the idea away.
As the idea bounced around in my head, I thought: but what’s the relationship between the main character and the ghost haunting their Slack DMs? What would be juicy enough to sustain a story for 80,000 words of a novel? And the answer came to me: of course, it has to be her mom! Lots to dig into.
The themes unspooled for me from there—it would let me write a workplace story that allowed me to take on inherited ideas about work and success and family expectations that might hurt you sometimes, even though they’re meant to guide you toward living a better life.
And the romance thread grew out from there, too. When I was growing up, economic pressure always shaped discussions about love and relationships and the kind of person you should end up with, so I wanted those ideas about work and success to also be very tied up with the main character’s love life. Over the course of the story, she finds herself torn between two love interests in a way that forces her to make some choices about what matters to her and who she wants to be.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
There’s a ridiculous chase sequence I had so much fun writing! Overall, I loved being able to let my sense of humor stretch its legs in this book; I had so much fun writing this story. Some people have said they laughed out loud while reading it, and to me that’s the highest compliment.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I’ve written four books for traditional publication at this point—two of them are scheduled to come out next year—and looking back, I think the process of writing Unfinished Business was one of the most joyful and smooth drafting processes I’ve had. (This isn’t to make writing sound easy; I rewrote Midnights With You from top to bottom three times before it was published!)
What’s next for you?
My next book for young adults, a ghost-hunting road trip romance called Suddenly I Miss Everyone, is coming out on March 9, 2027 from Hyperion. And I have a second adult romance coming out from Dell in summer 2027! We haven’t officially announced it, but I’ll just say for now: it’s a spooky rom com, the love interest is a bookseller with a wild supernatural secret, and I think it will appeal to fans of Widow’s Bay.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
Continuing with the theme of romances between coworkers where things get a weird or supernatural: I loved Lauren Okie’s Tropesick, and Mackenzie Reed’s I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell, which I had the pleasure of reading early!
And there are so many other new and upcoming releases I’m exciting for, but I particularly can’t wait to read Danica Nava’s Sunflower Season, Naina Kumar’s Just a Highland Fling, and Natalie Sue’s You’ll Love It Here.
