🚂 hello, I'm on a train
an email from the liminal space we call "Connecticut"
I write this on the fancy Amtrak from NYC to Boston. We’re currently trundling through Connecticut, my first time in the state, and I notice that everybody seems to have a big, circular above-ground pool in their back gardens, still filled despite the fact that it’s about 9 degrees celsius outside and there was snow on the ground and dusted over rooftops as we passed through Old Greenwich.
It sounds like train hum and gentle typing in here, and it smells like cough syrup. I keep catching glimpses of perfect clapboard houses by rivers with huge, sloping lawns carpeted in fallen leaves. It looks like a postcard for visiting the east coast in the autumn. We’re a little late for the best of the foliage but everything left on the trees is still yellow and red in all the right places. I’ll always be a bit of a romantic about America, despite … literally everything!
On Wednesday I had my first ever US event at Strand, interviewed by the inimitable Casey McQuiston, and having pushed for it to happen I was absolutely terrified in the run-up that I’d make a huge mistake and a) nobody would come, and b) the handful of people who did come would find my jokes deathly unfunny and boo me out of the city.
This did not happen! We filled out the rare books room and I met so many lovely readers at the end of the night, and everybody pretended my cloak was cool and was so kind. Thank you if you were one of those people. I think I’ll remember that night forever. I walked around Manhattan the next day feeling the full impact of a big dream realised, weeping at the drop of a hat (in the gift shop of the New York Public Library; under the beautiful ceilings of the Morgan Library; in libraries, basically).
It's very rare that I get to feel like I’ve Made It, not because my career doesn’t offer those moments, but because I’m bad at celebrating them with my whole heart even when I try. This time, it hit. Feels good!
NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART is already trickling into bookstores over here, but it officially comes out on November 26th, so if you’re on this side of the pond I hope you’ll preorder or consider picking it up in that crucial first week it’s on sale. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it in Boston, but we actually head back home on publication day, a strange bit of scheduling I hadn’t taken into account, so we’ll only share airspace briefly before I flee.
Strand was my last event of the year. I have a lot of writing and editing to do for projects both announced and unannounced, and I like the idea that I’m heading into hibernation mode for a while to get it done. I’ll probably mostly be staring at our new kittens Remy and Cricket, who seem to triple in size every hour. That’s really the biggest news to share—kittens!— along with the fact that THE UNMAGICAL LIFE OF BRIAR JONES, my dark academia horrible magic school book, has moved house and will now be published by Voyager in early 2026.
I’m going to switch off my laptop and get back to reading an early copy of Alix E. Harrow’s new ladyknight book (brag) in between gazing at the foliage (brag brag) but I hope the dark seasons treat you gently. Here’s another kitten pic for the road, just in case.
