afterword, pt. 1

i'll begin by saying that hours after i finished writing this story back in february, i wrote a long ass author's note that i have now decided to rewrite and break down into segments, which is why this part will contain:

1. a note

2. fun facts

3. acknowledgments

4. extras

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

0 1

N O T E

it's may 31st 2020, and unless you live under a rock, you would know that it is a very heavy time to be alive: a global pandemic, the american president threatening to shoot at citizens, poc protesting for basic human entitlements, celebrities getting cancelled, and on and on.

whether or not we have the range for them, important conversations are being had and i think most of us are very different people from who we were before the quarantine. i wonder what the history books will say. if thirty years from now people will still talk of george floyd, and tamir rice, and all the other black deaths that go as far back as emmet till. but i digress. after all, you're here to listen to me talk about my story.

after finishing this story i laughed until it somehow morphed into crying, and here i try to explain why.

STILL POINT is a story i gave my blood, sweat and tears to at the beginning of this year. a book whose tune i danced to, smelled, touched, tasted when writing.

it was eureka after eureka: that as a black queer man in a country where lgbtq+ existence is criminalized, i could write a story outside and within the confines of my experiences, to create something truly beautiful.

i entered into the writing process of this (which took close to three weeks) thinking about a lot of things, the most dominant being that love wasn't necessarily everything i'd been led to believe it was as a thirteen year old reading teenfics with generic white bad boys and timid nerdy girls. in all honesty it is so much more than even i would have you believe, though i do know one thing: real love has no place for abuse of any kind, and romanticizing toxic qualities will only lead to more harm than good in the long run, which is something i tried to embody in this story.

more than that though, this was a love letter to boys (people) like wyatt and wes, who would mess up their own happiness over percieved deficiencies, true or not.

tomorrow marks the start of pride month, and if you notice, my profile says i joined wattpad in june last year.

i promised myself that i would have something up by that time this year, so yes guys, i succeeded. and at the point of writing this, STILL POINT has over 800+ views and 100+ votes. so thank you, really. it means a lot.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

0 2

F U N F A C T S

i. this book was never supposed to happen:

of the five or so stories i set out to write, it was the last idea to come to me. i'd lost inspiration for the wip i was working on at that time and i saw a tweet that made me think it would be cool to write a back story detailing events that occured before that time period.

ii. the title comes from a line in t. s. eliot's poem, burnt norton:

in case you didn't already notice it in the epigraph, the title of this story came from a poem.

it's kind of funny considering how i'm not exactly a die hard t. s. eliot fan, but immediately saw those two words and thought: this is what i'm calling my book.

what's even funnier is that at the time i didn't know just how perfect it fit. you see, the second part of burnt norton focuses on the concept of time, especially the still point of the turning world: how to live in the present even with it constantly moving, and the present already becoming past.

you see, in telling this story i tried to capture the feeling of those moments where the world seems to come to a stand still, whatever the reason may be.

iii. it was supposed to be three thousand words:

i remember telling oomf's on a phone call that if i hit 5k i would riot, but then i got to eight thousand, twelve, until i hit seventeen thousand. lmao, clown shit.

iv. still point is the first in a series of loosely connected stories that occur within the same universe:

hepburnettes take on universes where her stories occur is something i have always admired (everything about her entire approach to writing screams innovation tbh). it is something i will try to incorporate into my writing.

v. my current wip has one of the mc's here as its main lead:

yes, there will be a second book―the novel i began working on before i started SP that currently spans about 89k words even though i'm only half way through writing the first draft.

no it is not a sequel, and i won't say any more lol. feel free to guess who it's about though, and explain why you think so.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

0 3

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

firstly, i would like to begin by thanking God for the grace to write this story. two years ago i was reading all the wattpad bxb's but said i would never write any for fear of hell. but here we are now.

my irl friends for listening to me talk about how excited i was for this story: i may be basic half the time, with a growing addiction to dating apps and two functioning brain cells, but i'm smart enough to know you all have my heart.

my wattpad heroes: hepburnettes and simonesaidwhat for the phenomenal stories they continue to create. you may never read this, but your words got me through some really hard times.

the og's of my lgbtq+ lit obsession on wattpad: SkeneKidz, HecDaevis, Avylinn, PrinceKenzie, TheoryKierei, rotXinXpieces, and Robokitt. you set the ground work for a realization that despite what everyone had to say, i wasn't a sin or mistake. i was different, and that didn't have to be a bad thing.

new gen lgbtq writers: YORUBOY, foreworded, ccreator and a host of others i cannot possibly hope to mention, because this is our time, and i hope the universe stays kind to us.

maggie stiefvatar for the raven cycle books, and creating ronan lynch, whose character was the template for wesley chao.

adam silvera, ocean vuong, mark oshiro, romeo origun, saeed jones and all the other queer men of color who write to break chains that society has placed in them. whose words scream, i exist, see me.

and finally you, dear reader. to everyone who comments, votes, shares and reads, thank you so, so much.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

0 4

E X T R A S

if you've enjoyed this story then follow me if you're interested in seeing where the things kick-off in a longer, more detailed spin-off novel that occurs about a year after the events of still point, give or take. there is no set release date yet, but i'm looking at sometime in early 2021 as i'm (hopefully) almost finished with drafting.

in other words: please do not remove this book from your library as i'll put up an update announcing the release date of the second book here.

remember to share, vote, comment and add this book to your reading list as many times as you can! i love you.