Mud Angels, the Florence novel, is copy-editing bound

Sometimes the books come easy. Sometimes the books come hard. It is necessary, in the end, to believe in them.

After 18 months of work on a novel called Mud Angels, I believe. I'm one final read away from relinquishing the book to copy editing. Tamra Tuller, my Chronicle Books editor, had to read this book many times. She had to find ways to tell me to return to the pages, had to wait, had to (I'm sure) hold her breath.

We're breathing now, both of us. Nadia Cara, my heroine, is finally fully alive and real. Her story—of battling a rare neurological disorder while living in a borrowed apartment off of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy—echoes through time, as stories must. Her secrets are rooted.

We don't give up because we can't give up. Because if we do, we will not learn all the lessons challenges set down for us. We will not know if we are big enough. We will not know if we are patient enough. We will not know what might have been. I learned the importance of persevering, again, with Mud Angels.

Chronicle Books will be releasing this novel in the spring of 2015.

I'm about to begin the writing of something new.