When you go on a long journey, in my case a seven-book one, and for some of the trip you’re not sure if you’ll even get to the final destination, when you do arrive you find you want to send a bit more than a postcard …
Dear Reader
I’m writing to you from a long-wished-for destination, with a mixture of feelings.
I remember the excitement I felt when I first met Felix in my imagination, and also the anxiety.
Excitement because finding this brave and loving ten-year-old at last made possible the story I hoped to write. Anxiety because I still wasn’t sure if I knew how to write it.
We set off on the journey anyway, hoping we’d discover the way. Thanks to Felix, we did.
Sixteen years later, as Felix and I come to what feels like the end of our work together, I’m a little tearful, a little weary in a happy way, and immensely grateful for our seven-book friendship.
It’s been quite a journey, dear Felix. Thank you for taking me with you.
And thank you, dear reader, for coming along too. Without you, no journey is possible, and no destination. Because as every writer knows, stories don’t fully exist until a reader’s heart pulses life into them.
When Once was first published, some people found the thought of Felix’s struggles a bit daunting. So a special thank you to those who paved the way. Felix’s early readers, who took a chance with him and then introduced him to their friends. Thank you as well to all the parents, rellies, teachers, librarians, booksellers and reviewers who did the same.
As the later books followed, the order I wrote them in went a little awry.
I had started out with a single book in mind, then three, and by the time Felix steered me towards seven, I was all over the place. I am deeply sorry.
Little consolation to those of you who’ve already struggled through, but the actual order of Felix’s life story is:
Once, Then, After, Soon, Maybe, Now, Always.
A geographical note about Always. The story takes place partly in a country in Eastern Europe. I decided not to pick a particular country because my feeling is it doesn’t really matter.
Events like some of those that happen in Always sadly also happen in many other parts of the world. Eastern Europe is important to this story because it allows us to say goodbye to Felix in the same part of the world where we first met him.
When writers start out, we’re helpfully told that we need a lot of discipline because books don’t write themselves.
Neither, it turns out, do they edit themselves, design themselves, publicise or market themselves, print, warehouse, distribute, sell, digitise, audio record or translate themselves. Large numbers of talented and dedicated people make that happen.
To the angels at Penguin Random House in Australia, and at all the other publishing houses who keep Felix safe and healthy in their own various countries, my undying gratitude.
Felix’s stories come from my imagination, but also from a period of history that was all too real.
I couldn’t have written any of these stories without first reading many books about the Holocaust and what came after and what still exists today.
Books that are full of the real voices of the people who lived and struggled and loved and faced death in that terrible time.
You can find details of this research listed on the Once page. I hope you get to delve into some of those books and help keep alive the memory of those people.
Their stories are the real stories.
June 2021