Thank you so much for picking up Recommendations for Bad Children, Vol. 2.
This is a new writer’s debut work, and I have to admit, it leaves a bit of a bad aftertaste. Appreciating a story like that enough to pick up a sequel makes you a person of refined sensibility, and I respect that with all my heart.
What’s your favorite song? What was the hardest thing you’ve been through? Forgive me for hoping you value those sentiments.
Let me introduce myself. I am Setsuka Narumi. My favorite season is summer.
When I finished writing the first volume, I spent some time crying alone in my room. These were neither tears of triumph nor tears of joy, but tears of absence and loss.
I heard back about the price in January. After several revisions, it was published in December.
For almost a year—more than that, considering the time spent on the submission draft—I went about my life thinking only of Ren and Kurumi. And when I was finally done, it felt like I alone was left behind in the real world. And I missed them more than my heart could bear.
There are many reasons why people write—or read—but I have only one: This world is filled with hardship, and I just don’t want to be in it. Ideally, I’d love to live inside a story, thinking only of it. That’s all. No, more accurately, that was all.
If you, reading this, have moments when you wish to escape reality, then open my books and let yourself breathe. Make use of the place I created so that I might live.
Unlike the tortoise at the zoo, we’ve got no shells to hide within, no nice zookeepers around to pick us up when we fall. This is the only way we can survive.
Don’t worry. My stories and I are always on your side.
Now, on to formalities.
To my editor, thank you so much for your patience revising this manuscript. I was allowed a lot of leeway on both volumes of Recommendations for Bad Children, but if it came together as a proper novel, that was entirely down to the efforts of my editor.
To ALmic, the illustrator: Thank you so much for bringing these characters to life. I’m sure many people picked this work up due to the siren call of your art, and I am extremely glad I asked you to illustrate the series.
Finally, for all of you who up picked up Volume 2—I hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
Setsuka Narumi