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The latest news about POPPY!

Pop­py was first pub­lished in 1995. If you would like to read the sto­ry about how the book came to be, see my June 13, 2017 blog post.

Over the years, the first book was expand­ed into a series. Writ­ing for­ward and back­wards, the books, in chrono­log­i­cal fash­ion, pro­vide the arc for Poppy’s life, along with oth­er major char­ac­ters, in par­tic­u­lar her com­pan­ion mouse, Rag­weed, along with Ereth, the porcupine.

As many read­ers gath­ered around to read or hear the sto­ries, I began to hear one ques­tion over and over again: “How did Rag­weed and Pop­py meet?”

Harper­Collins, pub­lish­er of the series, asked the same question.

That is to say, there was a gap in the sto­ry. Oh, dear.

I final­ly decid­ed to tell that story—or I should say, dis­cov­er the sto­ry. Rag­weed and Pop­py, to reveal the new book’s title, has been writ­ten, and will be pub­lished in 2020. The pub­li­ca­tion will cel­e­brate, if you will, twen­ty-five years of the series. Bri­an Flo­ca will do the illus­tra­tions. How could it be otherwise?

Writ­ing the book posed one, par­tic­u­lar prob­lem. In Pop­py, my epony­mous hero­ine emerges as a brave and resource­ful crea­ture. If she became that in Pop­py, she could not be that way in Rag­weed and Pop­py. At the same time, I had absolute­ly no desire to por­tray a weak, timid crea­ture. I won’t tell you how (I think) I solved that nar­ra­tive prob­lem. To reveal that is to reveal the plot of the book. I’d rather you just read it when it is com­plete. I hope you will let me know what you think.

I real­ly can’t say more—not now.

I promise to keep you updat­ed as to the book’s pub­lish­ing progress. Or, should I say, Poppy’s Progress.