A Very Patient Rat 🐀

I have a confession to make. I have been sitting on a bench for quite a long time.

Not literally — though there has been a lot of sitting, and rather a lot of staring out windows, and more cups of tea than I care to count.

What I mean is this: for months now, I’ve been sharing a bench with a small, rather extraordinary rat. He’s been telling me his story, patiently and in great detail, pausing now and then to make sure I’m keeping up.

That rat is Twix. And today — at last! — I can tell you that his story is finished!

The manuscript for Twix (full title TBD) left my desk a few days ago and landed safely with my wonderful editor, Kristin Rens at HarperCollins.

Part One of Twix’s journey is written, revised, agonized over, and (mostly) let go of. HarperCollins will publish it in 2027, and I will have so much more to share in the weeks and months ahead!

Here’s an image that says everything I can’t quite put into words about what this process has been like. It’s an illustration by Donna Diamond, from Walter: The Story of a Rat by Barbara Wersba — a book I love and recommend wholeheartedly (buy it from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org). In it, a figure sits on a bench, turned away from us, lost in thought. Beside her, a rat looks on — patient, watchful, maybe just the tiniest bit worried that he isn’t quite getting through.

That’s us: Twix and me. That’s been us for the better part of two years.

My characters have always come to me this way — they don’t wait for me to invent them. They arrive with their own histories, their own voices, their own stubborn ideas about how things should go. My job is to listen, and question, and slowly find the threads that tie all their fragments into something whole. It’s hard work. It’s often draining in ways that are difficult to explain to people who love you and would very much like you to come to dinner.

But I cherish these conversations. They’re why I get to do what I do.

So thank you, Twix — for your patience, your loyalty, and your very eventful life. Thank you, Fiona, Mattie, Nick, Andi, Serafina, India, and so many more, for sharing your stories with me.

And thank you, dear readers, for taking them into your hearts.

xo,