Author right to lift hearts as an aside (13)
I believe the answer is:
parenthetical
'as an aside' is the definition.
(something in parentheses is presented as an aside)
'author right to lift hearts' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'author' could be 'parent' (I've seen this before) and 'parent' is located in the answer.
'hearts' could be 'h' (abbreviation used in card games e.g. bridge) and 'h' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parenthetical that I've seen before include "(Word or phrase) in brackets" , "Intervening" , "(as this writing is)" , "Using brackets" , "Qualifying" .)