Meet the Editor.

I have been asked to interview the editor. I did not volunteer.

Thanks for doing this, Cat.

Name and profession?

Brandon. I make movies and TV. Love Happens, Love and Gelato, a few others. I also reimagined my father’s Benji for Netflix.

A dog.

A very good dog.

We will move on.

Why are we here?

I love Hollywood, but a movie can take five or more years to reach anybody. I wanted to find a more immediate way to tell stories. Text messages felt about as immediate as it gets.

Tuna or mackerel?

Um, tuna. And there’s an intimacy to texting. It’s the most personal thing on your phone. It’s where the people you love interact with you.

I show love by leaving dead mice in your shoes.

I also love the idea of stories arriving in real time, like they’re happening to you and the protagonist in the very same instant.

Now getting back to me…

Right. My grandmother found Letters from a Cat in a used bookshop in Mississippi. It was written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1879. It stayed with me my whole life.

As it should.

In the original, you wrote letters. I figured today you’d text.

I would. Often. I have much to say. For example, might we talk about the litter box?

Let’s not.

Another time. Who else writes for Next Message?

A team of working writers from film, TV and books. People who care if humans are still reading.

Good luck with that. What comes after me?

We have over a dozen stories in development.

They will not be as good as mine.

Never.

What else are you working on?

I have a series at Netflix, a couple of projects at Sony, a new feature fi—

Nobody has nine lives to hear all this. Interview over.

Thank you, Cat.

I will text you. Or not.