When my godson found out I wrote Broken Toys, he wanted to read it. That wasn't happening — the book isn't exactly age-appropriate for a nine-year-old, or most adults I know. But the fact that I'd written a book at all lit something up in him. He became mildly obsessed with becoming an author himself. He brought it up every time I saw him. I bought him a typewriter — a proper old-school one, from a shop in the UK. He hammered the keys for a while and felt like a writer.

Then at Christmas 2022, he told me he'd figured out what he wanted to write. He just needed my help.

I asked him what the book was about.

"A wrench that wants to be a hammer."

We went back and forth from there. I asked questions. He had answers. Does the wrench know the hammer? Why does he want to be a hammer? What changes his mind? The more I pushed, the more the story revealed itself. By the time we were done talking, the whole thing was there — I just had to write it down.

As kids do, he moved on. Other interests. Other obsessions. The typewriter is somewhere collecting dust, I'm sure. It's been over three years. A lot has changed.

But I never forgot about his idea.

I finally finished the story. And because his idea deserves the best version of itself possible, I brought Brian Garber back to illustrate it — the same artist behind Lost & Malone, whose work got a response I didn't expect and still haven't gotten over.

From the beginning, my goal was to give my godson a co-author credit. The words are mine — but they only exist because of him. He dreamed up the idea at nine years old and then went off to do nine-year-old things. I carried it the rest of the way. That feels about right.

I hope it's something worth carrying.

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