Mina came to me fully formed. Yep, I know how that sounds, but it’s true. And those first few lines she says:

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Shoes are an odd thing. There’s a lot to be said for having the world under your feet rather than a piece of old leather. It was a long time before I could decide whether shoes were help or hindrance. Maybe I came to them too late.  

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Well they haven’t changed since that first scratchy draft, written at 2am on a rainy Tuesday night. Mina suddenly appeared; I knew what she looked like. What she cared about, that she liked blackberries, that she was brave and humble and just lovely.

     

I loved her. Immediately. And more and more as I spent time with her. There will always be a piece of Mina living rent-free in my heart. No matter how many times I went over the manuscript editing and tweaking, there are places that still (and probably always will) make me cry all over my keyboard. You know the places.

     

Later came Evie, Alden, Harry and the rest of the gang, but Mina. Man, she got to me. So what’s been amazing. Honestly the thrill of my life, is how much other people love Mina too.

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In an echo of Mina’s journey with the mill’s brown ledger, it’s been a journey that TMofB and I have travelled together. I wrote it in an attic surrounded by plants and the books I love. Then for a year, I sent it out to agents. Some never got back to me. Some said they wanted just Mina, no Evie. Some said they wanted just Evie, no Mina. There were close calls, but mostly the problem was that my book was unusual. There wasn’t a book like this one, the agents said. How would we market this?

     

I didn’t know what to do. I’d never written a book before. Maybe this was just a bunch of wordrubbish. I’d wanted to write about love and family and adventure and how the air crackles when someone unlikely finds their voice. How sometimes it is the softest voices who roar the loudest. Sometimes it’s the people no one can imagine who do the brightest things. I’d wanted strong female POVs. I’d wanted to honour our history.

     

I printed out TMofB, tied it up with string and put it under my bed. Like Mina does with her mama’s shoes. Time passed. 

     

Then someone asked to see it. After all the rejection, I was shy, but they read the whole manuscript in a day. Then more people asked to read it. Everyone raced through it. They felt things reading it. This was unusual they said, they hadn’t read a story like this. 

   

It started to feel like Mina and Evie deserved to be out in the world. They deserved better than dust bunnies.

     

And so here we are, I’m writing this and you’re reading it. And that’s the best magic in the world. Honestly it’s the most beautiful thing. Words blow my mind. Like Mina says, these little symbols can take us to places all over the world. They can make us feel things.

     

That I get to put these words on a page and you, wherever you are, can feel what I was feeling when I wrote them? That’s an incredible connection shining, zinging, between us. That’s magic.

     

So thank you. Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how lovely it is that Mina’s out in the world now and in your hands.

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