Rosemary and Juliet

Opening Note

Please read this before the rest of the book.

Thanks.

Hello, my name is Liz (though some days, I prefer Cecil), and before you start reading this book, I have a very important few things to share, just to get you in the right mindset.

As you can already tell from the title, the story line does follow the Romeo and Juliet type of plot, but not in the way that it's usually portrayed. I took a classic piece, added a true story and modern setting, and then took creative liberties so as to make it what it is.

Originally, I wanted to write this just for fun, but as I worked on it, it became about so much more. I realized that I wanted to put out a story of how I, and others who I know, worked through a lot of the pressures put on LGBT teens. I think the air of the story began to change when I was trying to work out the whole "tragic deaths" that happen in Romeo and Juliet. It turned from this sort of lighthearted version of the story, to something that meant something.

That is to say, rather than just developing this story for 63 chapters and giving Rosemary and Juliet the ending that their inspirations never got, it became about showing some of the ugly truths about what it's like to be gay in high school, and then kicking the drama up a notch to the extremes to get people to notice what the pain is. Even if here it isn't as bad as it's going to be in the end of the book, the level that it gets to is meant to inspire thought, and get you to understand something that you may have never had very much perspective on before.

This is a book that, in its first stage of being, I worked on about as long as a woman would be pregnant, and so this is sort of my baby that I'm giving to the world. I've touched up as much as I could, and even though I was scared, I pushed it out there. The reason I hold it so dear is because a lot of it is actually my personal story.

Most of this was written this past summer, as I intended to enter it in the Watty Awards. I didn't get to do the revisions I wanted to in enough time, so now as I return to it, I face all the work that is to be done. The reason I've put it out there, though, is to get across the struggles of LGBT youth, and how difficult it can be to not only be accepted by others, but by themselves.

Rosemary and Juliet was an idea that came to me while reading Romeo and Juliet in my ninth grade English class, and I decided to take the idea and run with it. Now, even after not winning in the Watty's, the story continues on, and I was using it as the subject of a tenth grade English assignment on a multimedia piece that challenges social norms.

I would like to give a few special thanks: to Abby, for always being my biggest fan; to my tenth grade English teacher, whose very act of reading this pushed me to make it better; to my eighth grade English teacher, who showed an astronomical level of faith in my abilities as an author; to Jess, for never being afraid to criticize me; to Ethan, for being there always and reading this even when it was kinda crappy; and to Dane, for listening to all of my weird brainstorming even though you were probably thinking, "Liz, what the hell?"

One thing about how I've structured the story is rooted pretty deeply in the songs that are in the headers before a chapter starts. I feel like music expresses things in a way that normal words can't always, so I thought it could add a layer to the plot line and make it a more enjoyable experience. Basically, there is a song at the start of every few chapters, and that sets the mood for the next few chapters until there's another and it starts over. This doesn't apply to any music in the actual paragraphs, though, those just would be context for if it's mentioned.

What you get from this book is totally your personal experience, but I hope that whatever you take from it has substance and meaning, the way I intended it to. I hope that in some way, it inspires you, however you take that. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you stick with me all the way through. The most important thing to note, though, is that in making this story what it is, it only is inspired by pieces of reality, not reality itself. No one is who their inspired character is, and no event is perfectly portrayed here. As is with the art of story telling.

All my love to all my faithful readers,

Liz.