The Stone Road is releasing in the US next Tuesday. I've been waiting for this moment for over two years, never quite believing that this weird book was ever going to come out. It was nearly two years ago when I saw the cover art for the book by Qistina Khalidah, and fell in love with it. I'm so excited that it's finally out there (I know it exists, I've seen photos of the book IRL).
Once it and it's companion Day Boy are released, I'm looking forward to getting back to the big, unwieldy draft I've been working on for the past two years. It's been a very fractured process, the state of the world was and continues to be incredibly unfocussing. I've been living with the Stone Road in the rear-view mirror and up ahead for maybe a bit too long.
I don't think anyone expected it take this long, certainly not the wonderful crew at Erewhon Books (the nicest bunch of publishing people you could ever hope to be involved with), certainly not my fantastic agent Alex Adsett, nor my family, it was just the way it turned out.
Since this book was drafted I have had two children - one is asleep next to me at the moment, we both have colds. My life has changed with all the joys and turbulence that kids bring, and it's changed for the better.
Books are an act of faith, and hope. You write them with everything you have, and then you've just gotta see how it plays out, and move onto the next thing. Still plenty of words in me, and things clamouring to be finished.
So here's a tiny sliver of that book. Nan talking to Jean about the March family's challenges, and Nan's in particular.
“At the time, it didn’t feel that easy, but it was a simple challenge. I think, at the heart of me, I’m a simple person. You, my love, are not. Neither is your mother, and that’s what terrifies me the most. Your challenge won’t be crude and wild, nor rushing like the tide. It will be a web spun around you, and it’s been that way since the moment you were born.” “How do I survive that?” Nan held my hand. “We do the best we can, then do better, and hope that is enough.”
