And in doing so, in understanding that there was ample room to tell more of her story without touching the original book in any significant way, I realized, completely, that any follow-up to Bird Box couldn’t be about another man or woman who had dealt with the creatures in their own way, couldn’t be about the world at large, but had to center on Malorie herself; Bird Box wasn’t an apocalyptic story as much as it was the tale of one woman’s reaction to the world gone dark.

Bird Box, in any form, will always be Malorie’s story.

Del Rey Books gave me the chance to write about her again.

The conversations I had with editor Tricia Narwani were immeasurable; fuel enough to carry me through the “out to sea” weeks that occur during every rewrite, when you’re not convinced you’re gonna reach the other end of things, but you always do.

To all those at Del Rey who worked on Malorie, thank you so:

Tricia Narwani

Scott Shannon

Keith Clayton

Alex Larned

Julie Leung

Ashleigh Heaton

David Moench

Mary Moates

David Stevenson

Aaron Blank

Nancy Delia

Erich Schoeneweiss

Edwin Vazquez

Rebecca Maines

There were other factors, other moments along the way, outside the realm of notes: For this I thank Allison Laakko and Kristin Nelson. Allison is the one who brought up how, due to the tracks, a train might be the safest mode of travel in a world gone dark. We talked about how one might work, so long as the tracks were clear and nobody nefarious was on board….

And Kristin gave me key direction when she reminded me that, despite having the spirit of a Prolific, and therefore the natural inclination to never return to the scene of the magic, it was not only okay for Malorie to resemble Bird Box in spirit but that maybe it should.

To Allison, to Kristin, to all, thank you.

To Dave Simmer, always, thank you.

And so you see, the power of a rough draft is not only in having outlined what you wish to do, it’s not only about the potential therein: The first draft can be magic, no matter how “right” or “wrong” it felt while writing it, if you choose to look at it this way, a snapshot of who you were when you wrote it, whether you were inspired or not, and how you can later look at that photo and say:

Ah, yes, that was me just prior to meeting all these people to thank, all these incredible people, both real and imagined.

JOSH MALERMAN

MICHIGAN, 2020

BY JOSH MALERMAN

Bird Box

Black Mad Wheel

Goblin

Unbury Carol

Inspection

Malorie

ABOUT THE AUTHOR