Sorry, once again, for the silence. There was some time when I just couldn’t find the words—personal things are going on with someone I love and it’s really all I can think about. There isn’t a moment in the day when that’s not on my mind. No… it’s more like the moments come and go and each time I am in one it’s new all over again. Sometimes I’ll be doing something, like setting the alarm clock or working on a freelance project or buying milk at the grocery store, and then it will fall on me, the knowledge, and I crumple.

But, also, there is something to be said for being positive. For standing up in the face of shit and being hopeful, defiantly hopeful. So hopeful you will make the hope turn true. And I am hopeful. I have so much hope in me, you’d never stomp it all out.

So I’ve been here, but quiet, consumed with what life is handing us. Life, also, has handed me this book, and I want to tell you that I finished it.

Imaginary Girls went through a summer, and part of fall, of great drama. I worked so freaking hard for so freaking long, and if I didn’t come out of my writing and revising and re-revising hole, this is why, so I hope you’ll be understanding. I didn’t talk about it here because, you know, I think there are some things best kept to yourself when you’re in them. Just know that Imaginary Girls got some work done, serious work. And now I am here to say that I am so thrilled with what that manuscript has become.

I love it.

One day—believe me, I will let you know when!—there will be pages to show and the ARC and the glorious cover, and though it’s hard to be cheerful now with everything else that’s going on, this book is the best thing happening in my life right now, so I’m clutching on to it to lift me up. Not to mention that, in coincidence, this book was written for someone very important. One day, I’ll get to give her this book and she’ll know.

I can’t wait.