Olivia Newton-John's 'Magic,' and What Comes After Realizing Your Life's Dream

A publishing pep talk.

To listen to me read from this week’s newsletter, click play.

This newsletter exists because of the pandemic. Four years ago, I began collecting moments of joy as a way to cheer myself up. And that led me to want to share them with other people to boost their spirits too.

During that time, I also experienced a major milestone that astonished me then and only becomes more meaningful as time goes on.

Not only was it magical—but it was literally magic. As in “Magic,” Olivia Newton-John’s hit song from the movie Xanadu.

My lifelong dream was to be an author. After several years of working on a novel, I went on submission in February 2020. And I had managed to get an agent and the interest of an editor in March just after we entered lockdown.

Even though the world was careening into chaos, my publishing dreams were on the verge of coming true.

I clung to this development as a life preserver while everything else went sideways. I was on a frantic cycle of clicking refresh on news sites and my inbox. Despair and hope were running parallel in the most surreal way.

On April 1, 2020, my agent called and told me the editor had made an offer. It was official: I had a book deal. After we spoke, still dazed, I began reading the latest installment of Stereogum’s Number Ones column, a series about every song that has hit No. 1. on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

As I read about the story behind “Magic” and listened to Newton-John’s performance, I learned that it was sung from the point of view of an artist’s muse.

And I stopped short upon hearing the chorus.

You have to believe we are magic

Nothin’ can stand in our way

You have to believe we are magic

Don't let your aim ever stray

And if all your hopes survive

Destiny will arrive

I’ll bring all your dreams alive

For you

At these final few words, I began to cry. My tears turned into incredulous sobs.

It’s one thing to want something all your life—in fact, it’s the thing you wanted above all else. But to actually get it? And during a global pandemic? I was stunned at my good fortune, and how perfectly this song encapsulated my good news.

Never had a song soundtracked a moment in my life so serendipitously, before or since. To have “Magic” tied to my first book deal has given it an enduring power beyond that one memory. It is a touchstone I return to constantly, maybe more now with two books published and hopefully more in the future.

Since that day in April, the disappointments have been plentiful. Rejections are the one constant of realizing your life’s dream. Like many authors I had the post-debut blues, the blips of jealousy and “why not me,” bouts of self-doubt and a lot more tears. Besides a lovely community of author friends, often what keeps me going is “Magic.”

If I had read about my literal “Magic” moment in a story, maybe I’d think it was too saccharine. But to live it, to remember the awe and the gratitude I felt when the stars aligned and the song synced with my accomplishment, always reminds me of something crucial.

Destiny didn’t arrive by happenstance. Or by hope.

The end result—the book deal, the accompanying fireworks—was wonderful. But the path that got me there in the first place, when I stared at a blank screen, wrote two books that never left my hard drive, before writing the third that did, is the most wondrous aspect of the entire journey. This all could have easily remained a dream.

But I took a chance on myself. I had believed in myself. I tried.

When I hear “Magic,” I remember the exhilaration of The Call as well as the work that had led there, a road paved with all the words typed and erased as I aimed to see if an ambition could be made real.

And if that book never got published—if no book ever got published—it didn’t make the effort any less valuable. Thinking of myself four years ago, staring slack jawed at my computer screen as I listened to Olivia Newton-John and absorbed my agent’s news, I hope that version of myself would have known that if the call never came, the fact I had written a whole book was still worthwhile.

And this is the most important part for me. Now that I’ve been published, the writing is always worthwhile because it doesn’t belong to P&L statements or book trends or algorithms or anything else out of my control. It belongs to me. When nothing else is going to plan, I can be my own muse. I can always have pride in my work, and the joy I take in creating it.

No matter where you are in your career, dreaming or writing or querying or pre-publication or a published author, don’t let your aim ever stray. Destiny will arrive.

Since we’re talking about books and publishing...

April 11 marks the one year since the publication of Advika and the Hollywood Wives!

Publishing a book is always a bit of a miracle, but especially when you write one that allows you to explore a myriad of interests—friendship, ambition, romantic comedies, Asian and Asian American representation in Hollywood, reality television—all in one book.

To celebrate the occasion, I’ll send a signed copy to the first two subscribers who share this post on Notes.¹

Also, I appeared on the Mummy Dearest podcast and lived out my dream of discussing one of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, AND my opinions on Bravo/Real Housewives. (I even found a way to connect the movie to the Bravo universe.)

Advika-inspired pop culture recs:

• Be Kind Rewind. This YouTube channel features smart and insightful video essays about Hollywood history and women in film. These videos were often on my mind as I wrote my novel. (My current favorites are this one and this one.)

• The films of Alice Wu. While working on my book, I watched Wu’s films Saving Face (2004) and The Half of It (2020). I adored them so much I made sure to reference Saving Face in my novel. I particularly love The Half of It, which you can find on Netflix. To me, it is a perfect romcom, but not in the ways you’d expect.

• Christine Baranski. I also wrote this book while having The Good Wife and its spinoff The Good Fight² on in the background. Which is why I named one of my titular ex-wives after the formidable Diane Lockhart. (You can never go wrong watching Baranski in anything, as you’ll see if you click her name above.)

• Advika book club kit. It’s chock full of recommendations for books, TV shows, movies and more, and also includes a look at my writing process for this novel.

This week’s fun fact

I try to keep my newsletters short and punchy, but this was one definitely an exception. Which means I’ll keep this week’s fun fact super short.

No number before 1,000 contains the letter A.

If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you! And I hope you have a magical week.

My books | My Instagram | My new trivia game obsession (thanks to the Fug Girls!)

1. To be honest, even though I’ve been on Substack for a while, I still get nervous about using Notes. I think it stems from my insecurities back from when I was on Twitter/Not-X—I never quite felt comfortable jumping in and joining the conversation. The giveaway is my way of trying to entice myself to be more active on Notes. We’ll see how it goes!

2. I could just write a newsletter detailing every single TV series I’ve had on in the background while writing. There have been a lot. Sometimes, as in the case of Diane Lockhart, small details from my background binges will filter into my books. I actually wrote about one of them, the sweetest and most relaxing reality series ever, for LitHub.